I was a teenager during the 70s. I was 15 when Jim Jones decided to mix up his kool-aid concoction for over 900 members of his Peoples Temple Church and it had a great impact on me. I could not understand how someone could be so devoted to an earthly figure, that he or she would follow him into death like that.
From what I’ve read, Jim Jones started out as a charismatic and dynamic minister. He began preaching in the 50s and by 1964, was ordained by the Disciples of Christ. His main reason for wanting to be a part of their church was their exceptional treatment of African Americans. While many churches remained segregated, the Disciples of Christ opened their churches to all races, an attribute that attracted Jones. However, Jones was unhappy about the racism in Indianapolis and moved his church to a more tolerant environment – Northern California. In 1965, he and 80 followers, including his wife and children, left for Redwood Valley. His new church focused on helping the elderly, poor, and mentally challenged. At one point, the church grew to over 2,000 members.
But, all was not well in the church. Jones seemed to abandon God for social injustice. He grew increasingly instable and paranoid, having church members search through garbage of other members and performed fake healings. He began preaching sexual liberation and had affairs with church members. He became addicted to drugs, and even started announcing himself as Christ. The IRS launched an investigation into the church’s income and they were facing having their tax exemption status revoked. A group of former church members was urging government officials to investigate the church for abuse of members. With the threat of these investigations, Jones moved his church and almost one thousand members to Guyana and set up Jonestown.
Eventually, former members and concerned relative of current members caused enough of a stir that Congressman Leo J. Ryan formed a delegation to go to Guyana to see exactly what was going on. This event sent Jones down his final path of destruction. On November 17, 1978 the delegation arrived, but planned to leave the next day, after an attempt to kill Congressman Ryan was made. As they started to board the planes with a dozen or so Temple members wishing to leave, guards from the Temple arrived and opened fire. Congressman Ryan, a reporter and cameraman from NBC, one of the defectors, and a newspaper photographer were killed. Several others in the party were seriously wounded.
Realizing this massacre would certainly bring more officials to Jonestown, Jones set his suicide plan, which he had been practicing for months, into action. He explained to church members that he had a premonition that Ryan would be killed and they would be blamed for it, for their enemies would do anything to ruin their church. Jones had been telling the congregation of “outside” threats for months and told them it would require what he called “revolutionary suicide.” He recorded the actual suicide and few members seemed to protest. Those that did were reportedly found shot in the back, obviously running from the mass suicide site. Jones himself was found shot, either by his own hand or by another church member. Overall, over 900 church members were found dead and of that, 276 were innocent children.
How did Jones get such a hold on these people? Perhaps by offering them what they thought they really wanted out of life. They believed he could heal the sick, bring all of them together as one people, save them, and as the years went on, they even believed him to be God. What started out as a warm environment that accepted all, no matter what their race, creed or status, turned into death for all involved.