Peoples Temple
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The Peoples Temple was a religious organization founded in 1953 by Reverend James Warren Jones (Jim Jones). The Temple was affiliated with the protestant Disciples of Christ denomination, but many considered it a “cult.” People Temple is best known for the mass murder/suicide that occurred in Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978.
Origin
Jones established the Peoples Temple in Indianapolis during the 1950s. Beginning in 1965, Jones and his congregation moved to the town of Ukiah in an area of northern California known as Redwood Valley. The Redwood Valley church officially opened in 1969. After Jones began a series of recruiting drives in San Francisco and Los Angeles the membership in the People Temple increased from about 700 in 1970 to 2,200 in 1972. The highest actual membership of the Peoples Temple was around 3,000 members, in spite of exaggerated claims by the Temple. [1] Jones and his church earned a reputation for aiding the cities' poorest citizens, especially racial minorities, drug addicts, and the homeless. Soup kitchens, daycare centers, and medical clinics for elderly people were set up, along with counseling programs for prostitutes and drug addicts who wanted to change their lives. The Peoples Temple made strong connections to the California state welfare system. During the 1970s, the Peoples Temple owned and ran at least nine residential care homes for the elderly, six homes for foster children, and a state-licensed 40-acre ranch for developmentally disabled persons. They had a college tuition and dormitory program at Santa Rosa Community College. The Temple elites handled members' insurance claims and legal problems, effectively acting as a client-advocacy group. For these reasons, sociologist John Hall described Peoples Temple as a “charismatic bureaucracy,” oriented toward Jones as a charismatic leader, but functioning as a bureaucratic social service organization.
Although some depictions of Peoples Temple emphasize Jones’ autocratic control over his followers, in actuality it had a complex leadership structure with decision-making power unevenly dispersed among its members. At its core, Peoples Temple was ruled by Jones and his inner circle, but members of the Planning Commission also had a lot of power. The Planning Commission (including approximately 100 members) were responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Temple.
Controversy
Several disturbing accounts began to surface as a small number of members began to leave the cult. It was reported that Jones stole from his followers, faked miracle healings, punished members severely, practiced sodomy, and considered himself the new Messiah.
By now, journalists, law enforcement officials, and politicians were showing interest in Jones' group. Jim Jones reacted with frequent long and angry speeches, where he claimed that the defectors lied, and the outside world was trying to destroy them. At the time, more former members told of beatings and abuse within the Peoples Temple, and relatives of members insisted that members were being forced to remain there against their will.
Move to Guyana
Jones reacted by moving his sized church, over 900 followers, to Guyana. The followers were promised a tropical paradise, free from the wickedness of the outside world, but when they arrived, they were forced to work by Jones' orders, and together they built Jonestown.
Visit by Congressman Ryan
In November 1978, the cult was visited by Leo Ryan, a United States Congressman from San Francisco, California, who was investigating claims of abuse. A number of Temple members expressed a desire to leave along with the Congressman, and the entire group went to the local airstrip. Temple security guards fired on the group, killing Congressman Ryan, three journalists, and a Temple member who wanted to leave. The shootings were captured on film by one of the journalists who died in the attack.
Jonestown Massacre
Later that day, Jones ordered his congregation to drink cyanide-laced Flavor Aid in what has become known as the Jonestown mass suicide. Those who resisted were shot, strangled, or injected with cyanide. Jones was found with a gunshot wound in his head. Upon investigation his body contained high doses of drugs. In all, 913 people died, including 276 children (some say 911 died; see Jonestown for details).
Aftermath
Shortly after the mass suicide, the building housing the Peoples Temple in San Francisco — located at 1859 Geary Boulevard in the city's Western Addition neighborhood — was demolished, and the property remained undeveloped until the United States Postal Service opened a post office at the site more than two decades later. The temple's telephone number — WAlnut 1-9654 — has never been re-assigned to another customer.
Similar names
The Peoples Temple is not to be confused with The Temple of the People, a theosophically-oriented religious organization headquartered at Halcyon, California, or the Peoples Church, an independent church affiliated with the Assemblies of God in Fresno, California.
In addition, it should be noted that the church's official documents generally omitted the apostrophe in the name, thus this is considered 'correct'.
References and footnotes
Quote
- "When you meet the friendliest people you have ever known, who introduce you to the most loving group of people you've ever encountered, and you find the leader to be the most inspired, caring, compassionate and understanding person you've ever met, and then you learn the cause of the group is something you never dared hope could be accomplished, and all of this sounds too good to be true-it probably is too good to be true! Don't give up your education, your hopes and ambitions to follow a rainbow." by Jeannie Mills — aka Deanna Mertle — who was an early defector from the Peoples Temple, author of the book "Six years with God," and co-founder of the Concerned Relatives and the Human Freedom Center. Jeannie Mills was murdered in 1980, along with her husband and daughter.
See also
External links
- San Diego State University: Extensive site with source documents, list of dead, pictures
- Audio Recording of Jonestown Suicide
- Dickerson, Tobin Peoples Temple (Jonestown) on the website of University of Virginia (note: the articles on this UVa website are sometimes written by students with the quality of the articles highly dependent on the student)
- film, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple