The Abuse of Rights in Radical Religion
It is difficult to understand how same people can be driven to commit insane acts because of the powerful influence radical religion has on them. In cases such as the Manson family, Charles Manson convinced a group of young adults to murder several people in the act of preventing a race war. In reality, there was no race war. This was an idea implanted in their conscious by Charles Manson. But how did he do that? In my project, I am examining how cult leaders, or religious leaders, have used, or abused, their first amendment rights to convince people to commit horrible acts.
Civics
For the civics portion of my project, I explored several cases involving the First Amendment within the past few years. Through exploring the definition of the first amendment, I can effectively determine when parties have abused or exercised their first amendment rights. The purpose of examining previous rulings on the First Amendment regarding religion and free speech is to help me understand the modern meaning of the First Amendment and how I can effectively use that in my everyday life and understand the perspective of religious leaders. For example, Heaven's Gate leader, Marshall Applewhite, encouraged his followers to commit mass-suicide to ascend to heaven via alien spaceships. Was it solicitation to commit a crime or freedom of speech when he announced this? By examining when people their rights were violated and how their beliefs played a role in the case, I was able to create a product coinciding with my English portion: I created a cult in my English product called the Disfigured Divine, and I created advertisements and a speech to encourage followers to join this cult. In my history product, I analyzed first amendment cases and how this cult should advertise the event according to the rulings of these first amendment cases. Below, you'll see an annotated version of the cases and a letter written from the perspective of a firm encouraging the cult to adhere to the law.
English
Unlike my history or art Product, my english project is an insight into how persuasive speakers, especially cult or religious speakers, have persuaded people into believing things that are not of reality. The purpose of creating a flyer and a speech is to examine how these leaders have effectively brainwashed people into believing certain convictions that are not mainstream. By researching different rhetoric used to create an effective and persuasive argument, I effectively learned what makes a speaker truly persuade an audience. For example, I listened to speeches made by Shakespeare, MLK Jr., Donald Trump, and Hitler to see how they persuaded completely different audiences using the same rhetoric.
Art
For art, I created a meal representing the end of someone's freedom. In multiple instances, cults have engaged in mass suicide, dangerous activities, and violence through food. For example, the Jonestown settlement was a religious cult that committed mass suicide through a distribution of a poisoned grape Kool-Aid. In another instance, another cult known as Heaven's Gate committed mass suicide, but they had a last supper, if you will, at a Marie Callender's to give themselves one last nice thing before ascending to Heaven through a UFO based on their beliefs. Food was and still remains a symbol of freedom in religion. And I applied biblical metaphors and references to my project that relate to the First Amendment, but also provide a parallel between religious texts and activities cults have participated in. The purpose of exploring the connection between food and individual freedoms is to explain the intertwining of the two. At Roman Catholic churches, Catholics consume wine and bread as an act of consuming the blood and Body of Christ. Most people define that as a social norm. Every course represented a different aspect of cults. Although the product didn't turn out the way I expected it to (from the unfixable pie crust to the lack of lighting in the photo because of a broken light) this project was still successful in reflecting the lack of freedom in a cult through food.