Menu Close

Articles on Cults

Displaying 21 - 27 of 27 articles

Edward Jenner, who pioneered vaccination, and two colleagues (right) seeing off three anti-vaccination opponents, with the dead lying at their feet (1808). I Cruikshank/Wellcome Images/Wikimedia Commons

A short history of vaccine objection, vaccine cults and conspiracy theories

Some people have objected to childhood vaccination since it was introduced in the late 1700s. And their reasons sound remarkably familiar to those of anti-vaxxers today.
Gurneys to remove bodies from the Heaven’s Gate cult house in San Diego, California, March 27, 1997. AP Photo

What the Heaven’s Gate suicides say about American culture

Twenty years ago, the paranoia that consumed cults like Heaven’s Gate existed on the margins of American society. Now it’s moved toward the center of the nation’s political life.

Top contributors

More