The Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints is a radical sect that branched off from the Mormon church after the church renounced polygamy (ABC News). Roughly 10,000 people are part of the FLDS base located on the Arizona-Utah border (ABC News) The members of FLDS view Warren Jeffs their "prophet" and God even though he is currently serving a life sentence in prison for the sexual assault of two girls, one of whom was a 12-year-old he considered his wife (Farberov, Snejana). FLDS members constantly pray for Jeffs to break out of prison; they stop whatever they are doing every hour of every day to pray for his escape (ABC News). Jeffs believes that he has not escaped yet because the members do not have enough faith (ABC News). Jeffs decides
Before the founding and organizing of the LDS church and introduction of polygamy, Joseph Smith received bitter persecution. He was tarred and feathered by a mob, but this was nothing compared to the treatment the saints received when their practice of polygamy became well known (Arrington JS 26-7). In order to escape the torture, Joseph Smith led one hundred and fifty or more saints from New York to Kirtland, Ohio in 1831 (Arrington JS 21). After living in harmony with the native Gentiles for several years, the town of Kirtland be...
"The Persecution of the Mormons." Constitutional Rights Foundation . Constitutional Rights Foundation USA, 2014. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. .
Some say that cults are all religious and work together, in fact the definition of a cult is “a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object”, yet this can vary. Cults are not all religious or trying to reach a spiritual goal and in a lot of cases it is mostly all about one goal that is completely derived off his followers. Most cult leaders are so infatuated with their goals that they truly believe the psychological damage they are causing is good for the world (Cults). As seen in Jonestown and Heaven’s Gate, cults tend to use psychological skills to torment, manipulate and brainwash their members to grow stronger and reach the leader’s ultimate goal.
A cult society is an organization that basically disguises itself as a religion. In a cult, they normally perform rituals. There are usually many people in these societies. In Jim Jones’s cult, there were at least one thousand people in this community.
The formation of Southern Utah is one of fascination. The Virgin River Anasazi were St. George’s earliest residents, occupying the area for over twelve hundred years. They left behind rock art and ruins of their dwellings. There vanishing from the area and leaving behind their dwellings and art is still a mystery to this day. The Paiute people arrived shortly after and have lived there ever since, utilizing the area as a hunting ground for deer, rabbits and other animals. The Paiutes also grew crops along the riverbeds, including corn, wheat and melons. In 1776, the Dominguez-Escalante Party became the first recorded European-Americans to visit the area. Fur trappers and government survey parties followed.
Cults are rare. Due to this rarity they may be considered fascinating to the population. Which could explain why, when cults are mentioned interests peak. This interest is overwhelmingly negative, because the view individuals have of cults is negative in general (Olson, 2006). Although many people may not even be aware of what the word “cult” means. Definitions of cults vary, but overall they are defined as groups, either religious or non-religious, which have distinctive philosophies (Woody, 2009; Young & Griffith, 1992). Instead of understanding what cults actually are, people apply negative connotations to the word. These negative connotations may therefore overshadow the perception of cults. It is therefore essential to look at cults as a whole, including leaders, members, and behaviors, in order to understand them better.
One of the things he writes is that the person doesn’t know that they are going into a cult. “The first rule of recruitment, […] is that...
Throughout the last couple of decades more and more stories of illegal cult activity or murders by satanic cults appear on the news each night. This surge of reported cult activity has caused a spark in public interest. There has been a large increase in the fear that surrounds cults over the past couple of years. A cult is “a therapeutic or unconventional religious movement (McBride, 1985, 22),” and the more cults that fall beneath the public eye, the more serious the fear of cults becomes. Much of this fear has been sparked by major cult related incidents such as mass suicide by the People’s Temple or the murder of Sharon Tate. These incidents, and incidents like them, grab the nation’s attention and create widespread panic. But as the nation reads about these stories in the paper, the same questions seem to surface. Questions like “How does this happen?” or “What can we do to stop this from happening again?” are often asked.
In a way, it was destiny for the Colonists to move, as destiny can be defined as events that lead a person or a thing in the future, and that for them was the future, and was the rock that has formed our nation to what it is now. Focusing on whether or whether not it was right for our ancestors to do what they did, it in technical terms was destiny. The term of Manifest Destiny back then was ideal on our part, and nobody ever thought twice about it being ill-willed or wrong. The assumption that the American’s had the right to spread and claim whatever they wanted cannot be justified within our modern moral values. However, back in the mid-1800’s, when Manifest Destiny took place, everyone just assumed that larger nations had the right to parade around and take over smaller nations.
Among the theories of developmental behavior looked upon in this case includes the ideas behind conformity. Conformity basically insists on the manner by which human individuals involve themselves in the point of subjecting to group pressure; for instance, the most basic point of development seen to have followed such pattern of psychological development insists on the manner by which young children are conformed follow the religious beliefs of their parents [at times following the same thinking even when they are already all grown up]. In the same manner, the group of individuals following Jim Jones were not all there for the belief [instead, some were just giving in to the pressure of family, friends and community neighborhood who have convinced them that this was the right religion to trust]. The radical points of beliefs and principles that the sect promoted even made the invitation more effective and believable for most of the
Singular, Stephen. When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His cult of Fear, and the Women Who Fought Back. Macmillan, 2009.
In the early 1700’s the Great Plains was filled abundantly with buffalo. The Sioux Tribe had moved from their homeland, an area near the Missouri River, to the Great Plains, because of the threatening nature of their enemies, the Chippewa. French traders had recently given the Chippewa guns and this put the people of the Sioux Tribe on edge. After the Sioux relocated, they were amazed at the abundance of buffalo, as the land seemed to teem with these animals. The buffalo were a way of life for the Sioux. Bands of men from the tribes would take up their weapons, a first just spears and bows with arrows, but later guns, and set out to hunt the buffalos for survival. Because the Native American people believed that these buffalo were gifts from Wakan Tanka, or the Great Spirit, they did not want to waste any of the animal. (O’Neill). Buffalo hunting was a way of life for these tribes, and a way to ensure that all Indians would be fed and clothed. This, however, would not stick around thanks to the greed of Americans, the Transcontinental Railroad, and the nation’s belief that Manifest Destiny was essential to the growth of the economy. These Americans came in and began
Baptism, one of the most prevalent signs of Christian faith, has, for a long time, been a highly debated topic within the community of the body of believers. There are many different ideas surrounding the different practices and views of baptism, even the reason of why we carry out the act of baptism. Just as the idea of a marriage ceremony is to profess your love and commitment to each other, a baptism ceremony has the same effect, but instead your commitment is to Christ. This essay will take a look at this topic, the philosophical ideas surrounding it, how the Bible address it, and also the historical context in which this theological topic falls into.
When reading your forum I was very pleased and informed by the information given in your forum response. One reason I choose to do a response if because I saw South Carolina in your response. I was born in Savannah, Georgia but moved to Hardeeville South Carolina. Any time I see someone mention South Carolina I’m always interested in learning. The issued that you talked about that happen in Charleston, South Carolina was really melancholy and depressing. Knowing that anytime that could have been one of my family members in that church is nerve wrecking. For someone to do such a crime to innocent people who you don’t know is cruel. I guess while he was growing up and learning is about his own identity and imitating
The boys’ pose appear as competition, “...while boys are seen by older men as competition for the girls”(Vere). As part of the polygamy beliefs, the young boys’ develop the idea that, they themselves are “Satan’s temptations”(Jessop). Many cases, young boys’ are abandoned and rejected from the compound. The FLDS serve as a community called The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a well known polygamous compound. This polygamous community is well known in North America, “Although the practice is widespread across cultures, we know it best in North America as characterized by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS)”(Mack). The FLDS in many cases, will find rather ridiculous offenses to banish the boys’. Clearly, the main goal here is to simply eliminate the competition, “FLDS leader Warren Jeffs 's insistence that parents expel their young male children from the community to eliminate competition for wives”(Billie 127). These youthful boys’ are forced into a society they are unaware of and with no family to guide them, a challenge young boys may