Special Topics in Religion Midterm Pt 1

Rajneesh movement: chandra mohan jain

- 1931-1990 - many religions, meditation - critizized socialism - spiritual and political figure

Mo letters

- 1st letter show beginnings of truths to show how end of days will happen - urged sexual promiscuity free sex and partner swapping - sexually explicit, sex children and adults

Heavens Gate cult suicide

- 39 die near san diego - dressed the same

Nation of islam teachings

- NOI instructed followers that islam was authentic black faith - promoted blacks as the original people of earth and whites as the devil - war of antichrist - "showdown to who will live on earth"

Heavens Gate Marshall H Applewhite

- believed he was directly related to jesus - claimed marshall and bonnie were the endtime witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11

charles manson

- born 1934 in Cincinnati - raised in nazareth church - went to prison released in 1967 moved to san fran - believed god required complete obedience and that submission to the holy spirit can create a christ like transformation

Children of God: David Berg

- born in oakland CA - parents expelled from disciples of christ - 1930 assistant to mother - 1965 mother has a warning prophecy

church of scientology

- clung to celebrities - started as a psychological cure all - healing mental stress - illegal org bc of take down psychiatric theory, very anticult, kidnapping, some even say murder

Unification church recruitment

- college campuses - demand separation from family and friends

unification church: theology of original sin

- eve had sexual relations with satan, moral failing, physiologically tanks humanity - santanic bloodline that must be cleansed - regulate and enforce proper sexual habits to reproduce holiness

Scientology bridge to total freedom

- give clear stages to becoming a full operating thetan - each level costs $ - ability to blackmail - scrape away evidence of bad memories

unification church divine principle 1945/1957/1960s

- gods purpose in creating human beings - fall of man redeem humanity - redemption- where god moved through history

unification church: NY yankee stadium

- held rallies on make america great again type thing - immorality risen must reverse trend - alliance with right wing and GOP politics close political relashionship with nixon and bucsh

Rajneesh movement ranch

- highly educated - philosophy rooted in sexuality, materialism, enlightment - pushed away thought of children said it would distract from enlightment - work the farm 12 hours a day - live in small houses - media manipulation

Reverend Moon

- him and his seconnd wife names "true parents" - she had redeemed eve of her original sin - preached how there was the old test, new test, then end of days

unification church

- leader Sun Myung Moon born in north korea - notion that jesus appeared to moon on easter day 1963 and told him to finish the unfinished work after his cruxification

David koresh

- leader of branch of davidians - born 1959 to an unwed teen - 20s tried to be a rockstar in LA (didnt work) - had an affair with a widowed leader, louis roder, and left community returned in 1987 and shot her son

Jim jones

- leader of peoples temple - death of 900 followers most children with cyandide laced drink - part of a "oneness" pentecostal congregation - held racially integrated services - had a "rainbow family" first to adopt other race children

manson family cult

- majority were young women - used LSD and magic mushrooms - followers believed manson was jesus and his prophesies about a race war - beetles white album as reasons for race war

church of scientology: Hubbard's dianetics

- modern science of mental health book - claimed the brain records every experience and event in a persons life

unification church: sexual habits

- no marital sex - must be approved - blessing ceromonies= many ppl married at once - instructions on how to have sex= 1st 3 nights next 40 days non after

church of scientology: L Ron Hubbard 1911-1986

- only childn naval officer WWII and prolific writer - 1952 lost rightd to his book Dianetics where he declared bankrupcy

Children of God: huntington beach light club Pentecostal evangelical ministry coffeehouse

- preach end of days - appeal to counterculture - he claimes to be a reverend for jesus - intensive bible studies, memorization - dedication for work - training to evangelize - 1969 kicked out of hunntington beach

Children of God: David Berg getting followers

- preform musicals and songs that convey their theology - handouts - flirty fishing--> ordered to have sex with men who could be potential followers

unification church anti communist stance

- pro capitalist - communism=the great satan - world missionary expansion

Nation of islam leader Malcolm X

- rise as minister in 1952 to 1959 - described combinations of final war - attracted national attention but also received criticism for supporting black supremacy - used political and economical strategies

trouble at jones town

- scared ppl would plot against him - they would conduct suicide drills where they would wake up at a random time and be forced to drink something that sid would kill them as a test but when they didnt die they were told it was a drill

peoples temple

- used faith healing terms - talked for hours about sex (how good he was)

unification church missionn

- world theocracy - redeem goodness by forging a new world order - "perfect adam" - "divine universe" - improve jesuss failures

jim jones apostolic socialism

-lured into ministry as a goal to achieve social change through marxism

jim jones 1960s

-moved group to northern cali - found a small towns ukai and redtown valley - started preaching in san fran

Scientology 1960s-70s

1968 IRS removed tax exempt status 1960s, investigate Hubbard for tax invasion 1979 FBI raid leads to the arrest and conviction of senior ppl in the church 1960s and early 1970s Hubbard flees on a ship as the "Commodore" of the sea organization, an elite parliamentary group of scientologists

Heavens Gate preach

1975 held gatherings in cali that attracted followers, drop out of socieety abd prepare the "transition" to a new life on a spaceship, lead to 39 members commiting mass suicide

Rajneesh movement bio terror attack

4 restaurants, 7000 people fell ill from some concoction inn the food - sheela Silverman, Diane yvanne did it

scientology new leader

David Miscavige tool leadership in 1986 - been more rumors and accusation of violence in the church - fought to regain the tax exempt status by harassing the IRS they then regained status in 1983

scientology technological advances

E-meter: used for auditing to locate engrams, measure electro magnetic energy in brain - 1960 used e - meter for security checking to find traitors - 1963 the FDA raided the church of scientology and seized approx. 100 e-meters as illegal medical devices - 1956- 57 declared e-meter as bonafide religious counseling

Nation of Islam leader (1989-1975)

Elijah Muhammad - taught followers that the vision of the prophet eikiel was a UFO that he called the Mother Wheel or Mother plane (vision of armageddon)

moon 1982

IRS investigate moon and conviction for false tax returns and sentences to 18 months in prison - he purchased the washington times after - 30 million campains to overturn moons conviction for tax invation

Heavens Gate founders

Marshall H Applewhite (1932-1997) and Bonnie Nettles (1972-1985) met in 1972 bonnie= nurse in conservative christian community marshall= sexual confusion go by "Do and Ti"

Nation of Islam founder

Wallace Ford Muhammad - born 1930s - taught a specific part of islam to the black popul - door to door traveling teaching - taught black exceptionalism and self pride during the great northward migration - disapeared in 1934

dianetics what is a theton

a theton is an alien being whose been trapped on earth in a physical body for a millenium, they are immortal and of omnipotent energy Thetans are created in the material universe, they have forgotten all their god like powers, trapped in phyisical bodies

jim jones 1970s

abandoned the pretese of being a christian minister - claimed to be the reincarnation of buddah, ghandi, jesus ect.

Heavens gate beliefs

believed god was an alien traveling in the spaceship in the trail of the Hale Bopp Comet - immediate departure to survive - thought human bodies were useless and only a means to release the extra terrestrial that is occupying a boy vacated by its original soul - alien walk ins would beam up and take them away from earth - to do this they have to remove every marker of being human - suicide to acsend to the "Evolutionary Level Above Human"

david koreesh 1990

changed his name and became the davidians leader he tught his practice of spiritual wedding enabling him to wed god chosen female followers

feb 28 1993 davidians

compound was raided outside of WACO in texas resulting in 51 day siege and many deaths 6 followers and 4 agents dead

jonestown nov 1978

congressman and a delegation visited the town followers attached the men with a knife killing them and others on a plane

jonestown massacre

cyanide and valium were mixed into a batch of grape power drink to make a toxic punch. they would lay down and die. ppl who would not drink were forced

heavens gate suicide

drank lethal mixture of vodka and phenobarbital believing that their souls would be transported to the spaceships trailing the comet

Dianetics what are engrams and auditing

engrams are the bad experiences that can hurt a person if triggered later in life auditing is being asked questions by an auditor who can clear memories from engrams "being clear"= perfectly functional mind

jim jones 1955

founded the wings of deliverance church in indiana which became peoples temple

people temple 1974

jim jones purchased land in Guyana in south america then was pardoned and moved the people temple to Jonestown which was like a prison camp and hard to leave

August 1969

manson sent a group of his most loyal followers to carry out his massacre among hollywood elites sharon tate was pregnant and a victim

Scientology "the hole"

members who dont fall in like go here where they are prisined, treated harshly, look for confession, sleep deprived, food deprived

manson views

thought he was the new messiah and that after a "nuclear attack" he and his followers would be saved by hiding under a desert

goal of scientology

to "rehabilitate" each persons true self "inner thetan" and restore original capacities and powers to become a full "operating thetan" forces of aberration are he engrams carried by immortal thetans for billions of years and are endangering humanity

immigration nationality act

unification church splurged during this time - change in immigrant quotas - diluting white protest popul