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Ignorance Through 'Divine Inspiration'
THE BIZARRE SAINT JIM JONES of The People's Temple was a man who had been touched by the holy spirit. Unfortunately, that spirit happened to be 100-proof Wild Turkey bourbon. The Peoples Temple was initially structured as an inter-racial mission for the sick, homeless and jobless. He assembled a large following of over 900 members in Indianapolis during the 1950's. "He preached a 'social gospel' of human freedom, equality, and love, which required helping the least and the lowliest of society's members. Later on, however, this gospel became explicitly socialistic, or communistic in Jones' own view, and the hypocrisy of white Christianity was ridiculed while 'apostolic socialism' was preached." It was an interracial congregation -- almost unheard of in Indiana at the time. He preached the imminent end of the world in a nuclear war; They later moved to San Francisco and Los Angeles. After an expose during the mid 1970's in the magazine New West raised suspicions of illegal activities within the Temple, he moved some of the Temple membership to Jonestown, Guyana. The Temple had leased almost 4,000 acres of dense jungle from the government. They established an agricultural cooperative there, called the "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project." They raised animals for food, and assorted tropical fruits and vegetables for consumption and sale. Jones developed a belief called Translation in which he and his followers would all die together, and would move to another planet for a life of bliss. Mass suicides were practiced in which his followers pretended to drink poison and fell to the ground. During the late 1970's, Jones had been abusing prescription drugs and appears to have become increasingly paranoid. Rumors of human rights abuses circulated. As in most high-intensity religious groups, there was a considerable flow of people joining and leaving the group. Tim Stoen, the Temple attorney and former right-hand man to Jones, claimed that Jonestown was being run like a concentration camp, and that people were being held there against their will. Members were routinely scolded by Jones before the assembled community and then whipped or beaten with paddles for such infractions as smoking or failing to pay attention during a Jones "sermon." A woman accused of having a romance with a male cult member was forced to have intercourse with a man she disliked, while the entire colony watched. These concerns motivated Leo Ryan, a Congressman, to visit Jonestown in November of 1978 for a personal inspection. At first, the visit went well. Later, about sixteen Temple members decided that they wanted to leave Jonestown with the visitors. This came as quite a blow to both Jones and the rest of the project. While Ryan and the others were waiting at Port Kiatuma airfield, the local airstrip, some heavily armed members of the Temple's security guards arrived and started shooting. Congressman Ryan and four others were killed; three were members of the press; the other was a person from Jonestown who wanted to leave. Eleven were wounded.
The truck drove up to the pavilion. The people in the truck rushed up to Jones, and announced that Congressman Ryan was dead and we had to do what we had to do. Fearing retribution, the project members discuss their options. They reach a consensus to commit group suicide. Jones told the nurses to hurry with the potion. He told them to take care of the babies. The nurses started taking the babies from the mothers. Many mothers voluntarily gave the cyanide to their children, then swallowed the poison themselves. Seated on the high wicker chair that served as his throne, a drooling, slobbering Jones kept urging the crowd on, holding out the vision that all would "meet in another place." The scene quickly turned chaotic. Said one survivor: “Babies were screaming, children were screaming, and there was mass confusion." Nevertheless, the lethal drinking continued. Cultists filled their cups from a metal vat on a table at the center of the pavilion, then wandered off to die, often in family groups, their arms wrapped around one another. It took about five minutes for them to die.
In all, 914 died: 638 adults and 276 children. Their bodies were in a state of extensive decay when the authorities arrived. There was no time to conduct a thorough investigation. TV station KTVU in San Francisco CA has a collection of photographs of the "People’s Temple Agricultural Project." Some are quite disturbing. Most of the dead appear to have committed suicide by drinking Kool-Aid laced with cyanide. Other victims appear to have been murdered by poison injection. Still other victims were shot. A very few fled into the jungle and survived. No known survivor had witnessed the entire ritual of death, so just how Jones died remained uncertain. He was found at the foot of his pavilion chair with a bullet wound in his head, an apparent suicide. A pistol lay near by. The Peoples Temple organization did not survive the mass suicide/murder in Guyana. Their former headquarters building in San Francisco was demolished by the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989.
Jones is rumored to have ascended to heaven, and is said to frequently pal around with Elijah. The two are often seen at some of heaven’s classier topless bars; Jones recently emceed the wet t-shirt contest at Spring Break: Heaven.
CONSPIRACY THEORIES
As with many major political assassinations or mass murders, Jonestown has spawned a number of conspiracy theories which attempt to explain this remarkable occurrence: Some people believe that the People's Temple was an experimental laboratory operated for or by the CIA in order to perfect mind-control techniques. Some have suggested that Jones worked closely with the communist governments of Cuba and the USSR in the hopes of eventually moving the Temple to the USSR. Mind-control techniques by Jim Jones and his officials were cited as the cause of the disaster. Some surviving members claim that they were exposed to mind-control methods. However, others claim that living there was the best experience of their life. There are religious organizations in the U.S. right now that fit this mold perfectly. Some claim that Jonestown was a spectacularly successful grass-roots demonstration of what people could accomplish if they break free of capitalism and join in a common cause. They speculate that the U.S. government assassinated the people at Jonestown because they could not tolerate its success. The same people also speculate that the CIA has single-handedly kept the San Francisco Giants from winning the World Series. 4 comments from 4 users
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posted by
conficiendo
on Nov 18, 2007 at 09:48 PM
Again the Dangers of Religion when will humans learn
posted by
myxlnt1
on Nov 18, 2007 at 11:22 PM
Forgive me when I say, I form my opinions from true life history. You may say, that could never happen to me. He was just a better preacher than you have. Plus he was nuts. Let us pray.
posted by
sojourner7
on Nov 19, 2007 at 06:15 AM
This would be another of Your Heroes since you both out of your sickness are trying to lead others to share your destruction. He seems to be better at it than the local garden variety haters though and I pray that Hot never gets good at it.
posted by
robbwillis
on Nov 19, 2007 at 07:26 AM
Yeah buffojournerwafer7, haters like those that say "homosexuality is a disease" and Jehovah's Witnesses are "an unhealthy sect." How's that Orthodox "schism" in Russia doing today?
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