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Research.Pdf (599.7Kb) FATHERS, MOTHERS, MEMBERS, AND OUTSIDERS: ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL POWER AND AUTHORITY RELATIONS IN THE PEOPLES TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL AND TRIUMPHANT A Thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School University of Missouri In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts By JACOB LEE JONES Dr. Richard Callahan, Thesis Advisor MAY 2008 The undersigned, appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School, have examined the thesis entitled FATHERS, MOTHERS, MEMBERS, AND OUTSIDERS: ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL POWER AND AUTHORITY RELATIONS IN THE PEOPLES TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL AND TRIUMPHANT Presented by Jacob Lee Jones A candidate for the degree of Master of Arts And hereby certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance. _______________________________________________ Dr. Richard Callahan _______________________________________________ Dr. Nate DesRosiers _______________________________________________ Dr. Larry Brown For my wife, Dawn, thank you for the love and support. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Richard Callahan, my thesis advisor, for all of his help and guidance during this project. Also, thank you to Dr. Nate DesRosiers and Dr. Larry Brown, my committee members, for their thoughtful and relevant suggestions and commentary. I would also like to thank Dr. Sharon Welch for her guidance in my explorations of Michel Foucault and post-colonialism. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................... ii LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. v Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................... 1 Methodology................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2: The Peoples Temple & White Night............................................................... 20 Kinship terms................................................................................................................ 28 Socialism, Communalism and membership.................................................................. 32 Worldview and External Pressures and Threats ........................................................... 37 White night as preservation of the community............................................................. 45 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 50 Chapter 3: The Church Universal and Triumphant........................................................... 52 Kinship terms................................................................................................................ 56 Members and Membership Levels................................................................................ 59 Worldview and External Pressures and Threats ........................................................... 65 Shelter Night and its aftermath ..................................................................................... 68 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 74 Chapter 4: Discussion and Conclusion ............................................................................. 77 Kinship terms................................................................................................................ 81 Insider/outsider issues................................................................................................... 83 Pressures & Threats ...................................................................................................... 85 White Night/Shelter Night ............................................................................................ 86 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 90 iii Appendix and Tables ........................................................................................................ 92 Appendix 1…………………………………………………………………………….92 Appendix 2.................................................................................................................... 93 Appendix 3…………………………………………………………………………….94 Works Cited ...................................................................................................................... 96 iv LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Ages at the Time of death………………………………………………………91 2. Work Experience and Professional Training at Jonestown…………………….91 3. Citizenship……………………………………………………………………...93 4. Race…………………………………………………………………………….93 5. Education……………………………………………………………………….93 6. Income………………………………………………………………………….94 7. Membership Levels…………………………………………………………….94 v Chapter 1: Introduction The members of the Peoples Temple, a new religious movement that began in Indianapolis, Indiana in the mid 1950s, created Jonestown, an agricultural commune in Guyana. On November 18th, 1978, over 900 of the residents committed suicide. They gathered in the pavilion at the center of town and debated the community’s options after some of their members attacked and murdered a delegation of visitors earlier that day. The people of Jonestown called the plan for their mass suicide-murder “white night.” In Paradise Valley, Montana, the members of Church Universal and Triumphant, another new religious movement that began in the Washington D.C. area in the late 1950s, pooled their resources to create bomb shelters to survive a predicted nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. The Messenger, who is the spiritual and social leader of the movement, received revelations from the Ascended Masters that a nuclear attack was going to occur on March 15 1990. On the predicted date the members of the Church Universal and Triumphant entered their shelters expecting a dramatic change in the world above, but the attack did not occur and the members had to deal with the ramifications of the Messenger’s failed prediction. In this analysis, I refer to the night of March 15, 1990 as “shelter night” and unlike “white night,” which was christened by the Peoples Temple members, “shelter night” is a label applied from outside of the movement. I chose the term “shelter night” to draw out the parallels between these movements and their events, which would facilitate easier comparison of aforementioned events. 1 When I began exploring “white night” and “shelter night” I was very interested in the power and authority relationships of the members during these events. My desire to examine the social power and authority interactions was inspired by the fact that there are many common assumptions about people who are members of new religious movements that subtly, or sometimes not so subtly, strip away the human element of those involved. These common assumptions often deny the autonomy of individuals. This simplistic categorization of the people in these movements denies them their agency, which can be a prominent element of seeing them as people. By seeing the dialectical nature of social power and authority within movements like the Peoples Temple and the Church Universal and Triumphant one can gain a better understanding of these movements and the people within them. Because this examination sees social power and authority as a dynamic and dialectical concept it necessitates the view that all parties engaged are complicit, at least in some manner, in social power and authority relationships and therefore ensures some element of agency for all of the people within these parties. The perspective of social power and authority as a relationship makes the consideration of the members as a community very easy because they are already being seen in relational terms. The focus of this analysis concerns ideas of social power and authority in the Peoples Temple and the Church Universal and Triumphant. The common perception of power and authority in these movements often shows the leaders in absolute control and the members as automatons doing the leaders’ bidding. By using a dialectical understanding of social power and authority this analysis will examine the relationships and interactions of the members of these movements in ways that illustrate how all 2 parties involved are invested in power and authority. This examination is not concerned with the truth and/or veracity of the beliefs systems of the members in these movements. Rather the goal of this analysis, stated very generally, is to examine the social power and authority relationships of the members of the Peoples Temple and the Church Universal and Triumphant. The Peoples Temple was a new religious movement that was associated with Pentecostalism and emphasized communal living, racial integration and socialism. Jim Jones was a co-founder of this movement, which started in Indianapolis, IN during the mid 1950s. The goals the movement during their time in Indianapolis, especially racial integration, were met with resistance from multiple sources in and around Indianapolis. During the late 1960’s the Peoples Temple moved to Redwood, California, a small rural town in northern California, in search of a more accepting environment for their social and religious values. While in California the movement experienced tremendous growth that resulted in the establishment of additional churches in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas.
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