“I decided, ‘How can I demonstrate my Marxism?’ The thought was, ‘Infiltrate the church.’ So I consciously made a decision to look into … that prospect.”
~Jim Jones
Early Christmas morning, I walked into
Here are some of the things that went on:
Members worked long hours. Some would go to work and say, “I only got 2 hours sleep last night.” “We were made to feel guilty for indulging in sleep,” another ex-member said.
When they went to their various jobs in
Jim Jones controlled his people through fear. He told them people were out to get them, hated them and were against the work they were doing.
The people were afraid to talk to one another about the possibility of their leader being wrong. If they did, they were confronted in front of the whole gathering and made to feel stupid or unsure of their statement. In the latter days of the group, Jim Jones became more and more paranoid and anxious about his reputation. Children were to report on their parents and parents on children.
Jim Jones was emotionally dependent on what people thought of him. If you knew things were not right but you acted like every thing was fine, he was good with that. When he was exposed, he sent threats and searchers after those who left the group.
The People’s
Jim Jones advocated an unbiblical marriage relationship. The husband and wife were not to have relations, though he made bedroom appointments with many women and later sodomy with the men.
James “Jim” Warren Jones born May 13, 1931 started out as a young child in a dysfunctional family. Jim spent a lot of time alone. The children who grew up with him said he was a strange boy. “He was infatuated with death and dying.” Once he killed his own cat with a knife and then performed a funeral for it. Jones was a voracious reader as a child and studied Josef Stalin, Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi and Adolf Hitler carefully noting their strengths and weaknesses. In 1951, Jones became a member of the Communist Party USA at the age of 20 yrs. When he was a young man he attended a
Jim Jones was surprised when a Methodist superintendent helped him get started in the church even though he knew Jones to be a communist.[14] In 1952, Jones became a student pastor in
He learned the ropes and became a pastor. He was appealing to the black community. There would be no difference between black person and white person. They would take care of their poor and “have every thing in common just as the Bible says!”
Jones called everyone to give all they had to the group and the church would provide for them.
Jim Jones did have some good teaching:
It was not good to send old people to rest homes but rather to care for ones own.
Viewing people of different skin color as equally human and to be treated as such.
The “church” grew five fold in five years when Jones bought big buses and traveled around the
Once Jim Jones held up a Bible during the service, “Do you see this leather book?” This has held people enslaved for generations!” Jones took the bible and threw it in the air toward the back of the “church.” When it hit the cement he said “You see! No bolt of lightning came down and hit me! ....If you want a father I’ll be your father. If you want a savior I’ll be your savior; if you want a god I’ll be your god!”
Jones conducted “healings” that were later proved to be false. He started using drugs. He required that members spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with their
Jones held a hypnotic effect over his people. They did what he said. Jim Jones carefully studied how to manipulate people without them knowing it.
One survivor said, “We were working so hard we just let him do our thinking for us.”
Jones became more worried about a nuclear attack in the
“He was constantly seeking adulation,” Jones needed new people [in the group] because he had to have people who did not really know him, as his son said Stephan Jones revealed in an interview.
After verbal abuse, tremendous pressure and humiliation the people would decide that they did not want to REALLY go back home to see their family in the states.
“At the top was the
The group started in
Sometime later, family members began contacting a congressman, Leo Ryan, saying they thought their family members were being held against their will.
Congressman Ryan flew to
When the congressman and the former members arrived in
But when they arrived, it was awe inspiring. Amazing! They had actually carved out a living in the jungle. They had beautiful stone trails, flowers, home grown food, daycare etc.
After the congressman had been there for a few days he was sure that the many worries and concerns in
The Congressman spoke in one of their meetings:
“You guys really like it here!”
People enthusiastically started clapping. The clapping went on and on.
A man there wrote a note to the congressman saying, “Get me out of here!”
He put it into the congressman’s arm. But it fell when the congressman moved his arm.
“You dropped something!” he said handing it to the congressman.
A young boy shouted, “He passed a note! He passed a note!” [All were taught to tattle on each other.]
The congressman read it and told the camera crew to question everyone. Meanwhile he went and showed the note to Jim Jones. Many privately said they wanted to go back to the
The bell rang, and an assembly meeting was called. Everybody was pretty shook up. Jim Jones said certain groups of people are out to kill us, take out children brainwash them and make them fascist. We should all die together. He had a punch made with cyanide-laced grape flavor along with a sedative. Suddenly the men with machine guns surrounded the building. Jones said that those who did not drink it would be shot. Children were taken from their mothers arms others just died in their mothers laps as poison was injected into their mouths. Mothers drank; fathers drank.
“Die with dignity, don’t die this way!” he said, “This is not the way for Socialists and Communists to die.” A hand full slipped through the guards and escaped into the jungle. They were very afraid the gunmen would pursue them. They ran and ran. One lady heard about five shots and that was it. But they were lost and had no pure water or food. They got fever and chills but finally got to safety.
In all, 918 people died, including over 270 children.
Jones wife’s body was found outside the pavilion with a will deeding all that was in the banks to the Communist Party of the
One of the guys, Michael Prokes, who knew Jones was instructed to take a suitcase of money to the Communist Party in the
The sad story of the Jim Jones sect is history. We study the past because history is His-story, God’s story. We study it that we may put our trust in God and not forget the works of God but would remember His commandments to do them. Psalm 78:5-7
The people who followed Jones in the beginning were charismatic, Antinomian [anti-God’s law] sensational, feeling driven, “Christians.” Worship services were not centered on the whole council and word of God [Scripture]. But, rather on music which got them all psyched up. He had an attractive rhetoric of all races accepting each other and living together.
But, when people are not as those in
No matter who someone is they must follow God first, not their husband, nor wife, nor parent, nor boss, nor civil government official. All authority is under Christ and subject to his word. A man or woman’s authority is only that which God allows it to have. An unbiblical command is no command at all. The King is not law. The law of God is king.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peoples_Temple
Jim’s son, Stephan Jones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJURAVi6wpA&feature=related
Stephan identified with his father stating that, like his father, he knows how to get people to like him. He said the apple does not fall far from the tree.
Stephan still believes in what his father was trying to do, but says that it got out of hand and went too far. Stephan was shocked that his father would actually conduct this suicide considering the fact that his father was full of fear. Jim had ordered his son home to meet the congressman, but Stephan was in town playing basketball and just said, "No."
Although I have not read the book, many of the things I used in this article are referenced in the book Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People published in 1982
People lost in the jungle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze8hcbGXXkU&feature=related
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