A charismatic leader can be defined as someone who (1) recruits their own following, (2) develops and sustains highly personal relationships with their followers and (3) authors the normative visions that function as the mandates for the group or movement that they lead1. The path of the 'seeker'2 can sometimes lead people to put their faith and trust in a charismatic leader, such as in the case of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, and there are a number of factors which may contribute to making this choice an unwise one.
Problems can arise when adherents express commitment not to the religious or social ideals of the group, but instead show reverence to their charismatic leaders. This devotion has the tendency to become a problem if the leader begins to show any of the following characteristics.
Firstly, the leader begins to expect his followers to make what outsiders see as "inordinate sacrifices for the group"3. Jim Jones expected much of his followers, and perhaps the most obvious sacrifice he asked them to make was to give up their money, their families and their lives in America to join him at his retreat in Guyana, which he called "Jonestown".?
Second, the leader becomes isolated from his followers, appropriating luxuries for themselves that are denied to group members. Perhaps more than appropriating luxuries, Jones appropriated paranormal powers. He isolated himself by claiming to be the one true embodiment of God, and claimed to possess, among other things, psychic powers and the power to raise the dead4.
Third, the leader refuses to listen to or acknowledge negative criticism from group members. Jones harshly criticised defectors from the Peoples Temple, perceiving them as "traitors who threatened the survival of the movement"5.
Fourth, the leader indulges in "crisis-mongering"6. Jones own crisis-mongering was what lead to the mass suicide of over 900 of his followers on November 18th, 1978.
Fifth, the leader produces ethical guidelines which the group members must follow, but from which the leader is exempt. One of the main principles that Jones preached was racial inclusion, however, some of his followers at Jonestown became upset when they confronted him with the fact that despite preaching a type of controlled sexual promiscuity, he would only have sex with whites. He excused this by replying that sex was a hostile act, and that "Blacks and Indians... had already experienced enough hostility by living in a network of discriminatory social relations"7.
Sixth, the leader "dictates (rather than suggests) important personal (as opposed to spiritual) details of followers' lives"8. Jones was extremely controlling concerning the sexual behaviour of his followers. He discredited the idea that sex should be an intimate act of coupledom, instead preaching that sex should be used primarily to "prevent treason and solidify loyalty to the cause"9, and that monogamous partnerships were "capitalist sex"10.
Lastly, the leader begins to preach the necessity of the group to either take the lives of other human beings or themselves. Jim Jones instigated this last step in both ways. He not only successfully encouraged some of his followers to undertake a murderous shooting spree, killing five people, (including US Congressman Leo Ryan), and wounding eleven, but also by convincing over 900 of his followers to commit mass suicide.
Therefore, by considering Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple as an example, we can see that any of the above conditions could constitute a threat to a religious 'seeker' who places their faith and trust in a charismatic leader.
1 Fredrick B. Bird, "Charisma and Leadership in New Religious Movements" in Religion and the Social Order, (Vol 3A 1993), p 77.
2 William Simms Bainbridge defines a seeker as someone who has "a conscious sense that one needs a new religion, causing one to go on a quest." William Simms Bainbridge, The Sociology of Religious Movements (New York: Routledge, 1997), p. 157.
3 Fredrick B. Bird, "Charisma and Leadership in New Religious Movements". p. 77.
4 David Chidester, Salvation and Suicide: An interpretation of Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple and Jonestown (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1991), p. 57.
5 David Chidester. p. 8.
6 Fredrick B. Bird. p. 75.
7 David Chidester. p. 104.
8 James R. Lewis, "Safe Sects?: Early Warning Signs of 'Bad Religions'" Religious Tolerance.org. Undated.
9 David Chidester. p. 103.
10 David Chidester. p. 101.