Modern Day Cults Research Paper

Whenever a person hears the word cult, they will either be frightened or not think much about it. The word cult, is nowadays often used to describe a group of people that believes or does something out of the ordinary. Its original definition however, is a “ritual observance involved in worship of the supernatural or its symbolic representations” (Cult). While most cults have died out, many are still active today or have influenced modern cults. People may know these cults by name but they may not know what it is that they do or believe in that sets them apart from the major religions of the world (A Listing of Cults in America). There are many different types of cults today, some are religious like the Peoples Temple and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, others are based on hatred like The …show more content…
One of the many cults that was founded in the twentieth century, the Peoples Temple is an example of a cult that started out for good reasons and then ended in disaster. Jim Jones established the Peoples Temple in 1955. It was a period in which Americans were afraid of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Jones was able to provide his people with a sense of security. At first it was like a normal Christian based religion. The church provided for those in need. The Peoples Temple church “opened a soup kitchen, an orphanage, and provided services for the disabled” (The Psychological Massacre: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple: An Investigation). These acts are overlooked now, because Jones led his followers in the wrong direction. He had always had this idea of a Utopia society where everyone was equal no matter your background. To those