Abstract
This article commemorates the 30th anniversary of mass murder and suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. In the beginning, it summarizes the most important events that contributed to the tragic end of Peoples Temple, one of new religious movements operating in the United States in 1960s and 1970s.
Using the famous book “Salvation and Suicide” by David Chidester, the second part of the article deals with the fact that American society in general applied strategies of psychological, political and religious distancing from the people involved in those violent acts. Finally, the third part of the article suggests that those violent acts can be percieved as meaningful deeds of commited people striving to achieve their religious goal.