CHRIS ROPER: Of religion, cults and the roots of irrational ideas
The death of scores of cult members in Kenya is reminiscent of the 1978 mass suicide of the Peoples Temple cult led by Jim Jones. Why are people susceptible to such mystical blandishments?
On November 18 1978, more than 900 people died in Jonestown, a jungle settlement in Guyana, a small South American country that borders Brazil, Venezuela, Suriname and the Atlantic Ocean. They were members of the Peoples Temple, a religious cult founded in the US state of Indiana and led by the Reverend Jim Jones.
There is some discussion as to whether this was suicide, mass murder or a combination thereof — but they all died after drinking poison at Jones’s urging. If you watch video footage of the discovery of the dead, filmed from a helicopter, it’s a terrible sight. Bodies everywhere, hundreds of them, including children, lying in the grass like discarded pick-up sticks. The commentator’s voice-over says: “These were pictures that shocked the world. Views of one man’s dream, that he turned into a nightmare. A place of paradise, that became a hell for hundreds of people who put their faith in him.”..
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