Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides critical examinations of the essentialist stereotype of "religious suicide". It discusses "Purification, Illumination, and Death: The Murder-Suicides of the Order of the Solar Temple", Henrik Bogdan examines the Solar Temple. The chapter focuses Rebecca Moore's "Suicide, Murder, and Martyrdom: The Deaths in Jonestown, Guyana", examines the first contemporary religious group involved in mass suicide. It demonstrates how such thematics are developed or distorted when Muslim characters are introduced to the screen. The four small case studies in this chapter include analysis of recent examples, including Peter Berg's Hollywood film The Kingdom and Stephen Gaghan's Syriana. The chapter addresses the role that popular culture plays in perpetuating anti-cult ideas and attitudes. In "Rescripting the Past: Suicide Cults on Television", Lynn S. Neal analyzes how fictional American television shows from South Park to CSI depicted the relationship between cults and suicide.