THE PEOPLE'S TEMPLE (JIM JONES) Doomsday cult committed mass suicide in 1978.Category Society Death suicide Cult The peoples temple organization did not survive the mass suicide/murder with manymajor political assassinations or mass murders, jonestown has spawned http://www.religioustolerance.org/dc_jones.htm
Extractions: THE PEOPLE'S TEMPLE, LED BY JAMES WARREN (JIM) JONES Click Here to Visit our Sponsors. This was a Christian destructive, doomsday cult founded and led by James Warren Jones (1931-1978). Jim Jones held degrees from Indiana University and Butler University. He was not a Fundamentalist pastor as many reports in the media and the anti-cult movement claim. He belonged to a mainline Christian denomination, having been ordained in the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ . (At the time of his ordination, the DoC allowed a local congregation to select and ordain a minister on their own. However, ordinations conducted without denominational endorsement were not considered valid within the rest of the church.) 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 IN 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. "
"Thoughts On Jonestown And Peoples Temple" "Thoughts On jonestown and peoples temple" by Kevin J. Hozak May 4, 1998 Kevin Hozak graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Religion from the University of North Dakota in May, 1998. jonestown and peoples temple, I have come to realize that there is much more to consider beyond the mass suicide of http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~remoore/jonestown/articles/thoughts.html
Extractions: May 4, 1998 Kevin Hozak graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Religion from the University of North Dakota in May, 1998. He is the designer of the website "Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple," and continues to help with site maintenance. These are his reflections after putting together the site and after reading a number of sources about Peoples Temple. You can reach Mr. Hozak at khozak@hotmail.com Upon first learning about Peoples Temple and Jonestown this semester, I was rather surprised that I had not heard of them sooner. The events surrounding the group have become a rather significant part of our recent history. Actually, now that I know about the mass suicide at Jonestown, I find references to it every so often in news articles or personal conversations. Yet it seems that in practically all instances the usage is quite limited in scope. People remember Jonestown simply as that place where that cult of those religious fanatics all killed themselves. That is about the extent of the understanding people seem to have of the whole affair. As I have worked on the "Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple" web site and have read about Jonestown and Peoples Temple, I have come to realize that there is much more to consider beyond the mass suicide of a cult.
Religious Movements Homepage: People's Temple (Jonestown) of this page by John R. Hall has proven to be an excellent source not only for thehistory of the peoples temple and the jonestown mass suicide, but also for http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/Jonestwn.html
Extractions: On November 18, 1978 over 900 persons died in Jonestown, Guyana. For twenty years a small group of people have attempted to make the name Jonestown synonymous with Auschwitz. The tragedy of Jonestown is not diminished in the slightest by declaring this to be an inappropriate analogy. Indeed, this linking of one of the most horrible events of the 20ththe systematic annihiliation of Jewswith the tragedy in Guyana presumes that all there is to know about Jonestown is already known. The model of psychopathology and criminality that informs this perspective is most likely wrong and, further, it discourages inquiry that might advance our understanding of this terrible event. It also invites bigotry of the highest order against all new religious movements. On the occasion of this 20th anniversary, three new documents of considerable significance have been added to this page: A petition to the Congressional House Committee on International Relations asking for the declassification of important Jonestown documents. The Petition is important because it calls attention to the unfinished business of seeking a clearer understanding of what really happened in Jonestown. The failure of the government to declassify materials thwarts these efforts and also feeds fuel to conspiracy theories. New Information on Jonestown is found on an important new web site that presents over a hundred original source documents previously unavailable. Using the Freedom of Information Act, Brian Csuk obtained more than 6,000 pages of declassified materials. Over 100 of these documents are now available on his web page and additional documents are being added; and
Religious Movements Homepage: People's Temple (Jonestown) not only for the history of the peoples temple and the jonestown mass suicide, but also for the sociological impact of http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/SAVED/Jonestwn.html
Extractions: On November 18, 1978 over 900 persons died in Jonestown, Guyana. For twenty years a small group of people have attempted to make the name Jonestown synonymous with Auschwitz. The tragedy of Jonestown is not diminished in the slightest by declaring this to be an inappropriate analogy. Indeed, this linking of one of the most horrible events of the 20ththe systematic annihiliation of Jewswith the tragedy in Guyana presumes that all there is to know about Jonestown is already known. The model of psychopathology and criminality that informs this perspective is most likely wrong and, further, it discourages inquiry that might advance our understanding of this terrible event. It also invites bigotry of the highest order against all new religious movements. On the occasion of this 20th anniversary, three new documents of considerable significance have been added to this page: A petition to the Congressional House Committee on International Relations asking for the declassification of important Jonestown documents. The Petition is important because it calls attention to the unfinished business of seeking a clearer understanding of what really happened in Jonestown. The failure of the government to declassify materials thwarts these efforts and also feeds fuel to conspiracy theories. New Information on Jonestown is found on an important new web site that presents over a hundred original source documents previously unavailable. Using the Freedom of Information Act, Brian Csuk obtained more than 6,000 pages of declassified materials. Over 100 of these documents are now available on his web page and additional documents are being added; and
Resources On Peoples Temple jonestown Literature A Review Essay " pp 113134. In New Religious Movements, mass suicide, and peoples temple http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/articles/resources.html
Extractions: 415-357-1848, website: http://www.calhist.org . Hours the library is open: Wednesday through Saturday, 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. The North Baker Research Library of the California Historical Society maintains the Peoples Temple Archives. The archives comprise five collections of documents that are referenced by box and file number: MS 3800 Peoples Temple Archive : 130 boxes, descriptive guide
Extractions: What happened in Jonestown? How could sensible people follow the rantings of a crazed lunatic? The questions and the simplified answers that are provided by the media coverage of Jonestown and Heavens Gate perhaps contributed to their downfall. The feeling of public persecution is a central theme of many new religious movements, and the negative publicity of suicide cults only fuels the fear of other like-minded religious groups. The misleading definitions the media provided for the how, what and why of these new religious movements were symptomatic of the media bias against all such movements. Through examination of the print media response immediately following both mass suicides, I will expose the hollow definitions and explanations provided for tragedies that were much more complex. Moreover, although the Jonestown Suicide occurred twenty years before the Heavens Gate suicides in March of 1997, coverage remained ignorant and simplistic of the critical differences between movements, and perhaps exacerbated their cultural alienation. My research of the media response to the Jonestown suicides concentrates on the coverage of the tragedy in the New York Times because the newspaper is one of the most widely read American newspapers, replete with religion experts. Through the coverage in the
PEOPLES TEMPLE peoples temple ". Jim Jones " Guayana , jonestown" " Guayana " was the scene of the jonestown mass suicide in 1978 http://www.whatischristianity.org.uk/CULTS_of_Christianity/PEOPLES_TEMPLE.htm
Extractions: " PEOPLES TEMPLE " Jim Jones... " Guayana , Jonestown": " Guayana " was the scene of the Jonestown mass suicide in 1978 and still the most infamous locale in cult history, where 913 members of the "People's Temple " died after drinking cyanide-laced Kool Aid. Some, according to survivors, were shot down trying to escape. "Jim Jones", was the leader and "god" of the cult. They had practiced the ceremonial suicide on previous occasions in preparation for their deliverance from corruption. They had cut all links with the outside world and their belief in the imminent apocalypse was fuel by rumors within the commune that earthquakes had destroyed Los Angeles , and that San Francisco had been overrun by the Ku Klux Klan. 85 members of the Cult survived the massacre, including Jones's three sons. Some had not been at the commune on 18 November 1978 ; some had stayed in California rather than move to Guayana , and others managed to escape into the jungle.
Resources On Peoples Temple The Second Wave of jonestown Literature A Review Essay, pp 113134 In New ReligiousMovements, mass suicide, and peoples temple Scholarly Perspectives on a http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~remoore/jonestown/articles/resources.html
Extractions: 415-357-1848, website: http://www.calhist.org . Hours the library is open: Wednesday through Saturday, 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. The North Baker Research Library of the California Historical Society maintains the Peoples Temple Archives. The archives comprise five collections of documents that are referenced by box and file number: MS 3800 Peoples Temple Archive : 130 boxes, descriptive guide
The Jonestown Massacre took some members of the peoples temple with him. Jim Jones, gunmen from Jonestownambushed Congressman This carefully rehearsed mass suicide now finally took http://www.culteducation.com/jonestown.html
Extractions: By Rick Ross On November 18, 1978 912 followers of American cult leader Jim Jones ("Peoples Temple") died in a remote South American jungle compound called "Jonestown" in British Guyana. Some members were shot, others were forced to drink poison, but most willingly participated in what Jones said was an act of "revolutionary suicide." Jim Jones began his ministry in 1953 as an independent minister in Indianapolis, but was later ordained in 1964 by the Disciples of Christ. By the end of 1971 he had moved his congregation to California eventually establishing two churches there. His main church remained in San Francisco, but a second was also opened in Los Angeles. The Peoples Temple peaked during the 70s to include perhaps as many as 8,000 members. Though racially diverse, most of Jones followers were African Americans. Jim Jones was once a popular community activist in San Francisco who contributed cash and coordinated volunteers to support both causes and political leaders. He could turn out thousands for almost any event or effort. During the 70s he appeared with many prominent politicians including then State Assemblyman Willie Brown. In 1976 Mayor George Moscone gave Jones a seat on the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission. Governor Jerry Brown was even seen attending services at the Peoples Temple. But after the tragic deaths at Jonestown Willie Brown said, "If we knew then he was mad, clearly we wouldn't have appeared with him. But it's not fair to say what you would have done if you knew the kind of madness that would take place years later.''
Ask Jeeves: Search Results For "Jonestown Guyana" Jim Jones The cyanidelaced Cool-Aid Victims of the mass suicide. Alternative Considerationsof jonestown peoples temple Billy Graham, on Satan and jonestown http://webster.directhit.com/webster/search.aspx?qry=Jonestown Guyana
! children followers of cult leader Jim Jones died during a mass suicide and murder .Alternative Considerations of jonestown peoples temple, November 18 http://www.landofsixpeoples.com/gyr12.htm
Extractions: Presented here are links designed to help the scholar and/or student carry out efficient research on Guyana. Showcased are the most informative and educational sites and articles on Guyana. There are 16 categories: arts and cultural border dispute constitution contacts ... publications , and travel and tourism A synopsis of the individual sites is given below. As more sites become available they will be added. Or you can notify by e-mail at landofsixpeoples@hotmail.com Just as Mozart rewards the careful listener, these links will reward the fastidious surfer (please visit the web sites from which these specific pages were chosen. Thank you). Over 180 Links
! suicide in jonestown, Guyana, of 914 members of the peoples temple, the Rev. `Anotherjonestown.''. are too quick to see the potential for mass suicide in the http://www.landofsixpeoples.com/news/nsc81113.htm
Extractions: When 50 members of a doomsday cult vanished last month in Colorado, Hal Mansfield knew exactly how to get the world's attention. ``This is Jonestown waiting to happen,'' said Mansfield, director of the Religious Movement Resource Center in Fort Collins, Colo. Twenty years after the murder- suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, of 914 members of the Peoples Temple, the Rev. Jim Jones remains the personification of cultic evil. Two words are all it takes to demonize a new religious movement whether it deserves the label or not: ``Another Jonestown.'' Those who study cults, sects and new religious movements are bitterly divided into two camps factions of experts branding their adversaries as ``apologists'' or ``alarmists.'' J. Gordon Melton, founder of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara, said ``professional cult hunters'' like Mansfield are too quick to see the potential for mass suicide in the latest Christian sect or new religious movement. ``They believe that all these groups are bad and brainwash their members,'' he said.
JonesTown.com Includes documentation from the peoples temple archives retrieved in in the missingpieces in jonestown research, as mass suicide THE FINAL TABOO For all the http://www.jonestown.com/
Extractions: WHAT IS WWW.JONESTOWN.COM? WWW.JONESTOWN.COM offers a provocative, one-of-a-kind investigation into one of the most devastating events of the 20 th century, The Jonestown Tragedy, including both the assassination of Congressman Leo Ryan and the suicides at Jonestown. It includes materials available nowhere else. This site is designed by a survivor from Peoples Temple who rescued the entire archives from the Peoples Temple headquarters in San Francisco immediately following the tragedy in November, 1978. The information is based upon personal knowledge, investigative work, exclusive documentation, and records that have never been explored or placed in context. The site will be periodically revised. The exposé of evidence relating to the assassination is ongoing. This evidence has never been aired in any public hearing or legal proceeding. Most contradicts the public mythologies on key points. WWW.JONESTOWN.COM
Jonestown, Jim Jones, People's Temple In The News four other people were killed in jonestown, Guyana, by members of the peoples temple;the killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide by 912 http://www.cultsoncampus.com/jonjimjonpeo.html
Extractions: (OAKLAND ...almost half of the victims of cult leader Jim Jones rest anonymously, 409 former members of the Peoples Temple buried together in a single grave that lists no names... ...The existing stone, which was purchased by funds from the Jones estate, reads simply, "In Memory of the Victims of the Jonestown Tragedy."...) November 25, 2002 'Revolutionary suicide' revisited, By Julia Cooper, The Skyline View, Skyline College, San Bruno California (Jim Jones Jr.... ...Jones, the adopted son of religious cult leader Jim Jones... ...Jones also said that his father was a "great manipulator," who used brainwashing techniques that included long days of hard work, food and sleep deprivation, and late-night sessions of rhetoric to help control followers of the Temple...) (Photo of Jim Jones Jr. included.) November 23, 2002 What was the lure?, Twenty-four years later, religious scholars are re-examining the hold Jim Jones had on his followers by Jennifer Garza, The Sacramento Bee (...On Nov. 18, 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan and others arrived in Jonestown to investigate complaints about the group. Ryan and four others were killed upon returning to the airport in Port Kaituma. Later that night, Jones ordered his followers to drink cyanide-laced punch...)
Evidence Of Expert Witness Attacked when interviewed by an American newspaper in 1988, had defended groups such asthe peoples temple which was involved in the jonestown mass suicide in 1978. http://www.rickross.com/reference/apologist/apologist5.html
Extractions: Defense lawyers referred to the mass suicide of 912 followers of cult leader Reverend Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana, to attack the evidence of the expert witness of the Central Christian Church Lawyer Daniel John noted that Dr. J. Gordon Melton when interviewed by an American newspaper in 1988, had defended groups such as the Peoples Temple which was involved in the Jonestown mass suicide in 1978. In the Milwaukee Journal report at the time, Dr Melton had said that the mass suicide had been transformed into a "definitive cult horror story" by the media and anti-cult groups. He was quoted as having said of the Peoples Temple: "This wasn't a cult. This was a respectable, mainline Christian group." When questioned in court yesterday, he said that he had been quoted correctly. He also replied that another US-based group, Children of God, was not a cult, although he found the group's teachings of encouraging sexual intercourse and masturbation as forms of worshipping God to be "immoral and distasteful". He was also reported by the US paper as describing the Peoples Temple as "a congregation in a Christian denomination recognized by the National Council of Churches".
Jonestown's Horror Fades But Mystery Remain few defectors from cult leader Jim Jones' peoples temple had been more than 900 peopleat the jonestown site had in a ritual of murder and mass suicide with a http://www.rickross.com/reference/jonestown/jonestown9.html
Extractions: By Jeff Brazil The accounts from the jungles of Guyana were anguishing. Rep. Leo Ryan had become the first and only congressman ever assassinated in the line of duty. He, his aides, some journalists and a few defectors from cult leader Jim Jones' Peoples Temple had been ambushed by gunmen on an airstrip near Jonestown, the primitive enclave where Jones had brought hundreds of his followers. Ryan and his group had gone to the Jonestown compound in Guyana to explore allegations that Jones was keeping followers there against their wishes. They had met with Jones and his disciples that day and were preparing to fly home when they were attacked. Besides Ryan, three journalists and one defector were killed, and several others in Ryan's party were wounded. Before it was over, more than 900 people at the Jonestown site had perished in a ritual of murder and mass suicide with a cyanide-laced fruit punch. Later, it would be revealed that the children were given the poison firstit was sprayed into the mouths of infants with hypodermic needlesthen the adults. A Temple leader in a Guyanese city was found with her three children, their throats slit. Jones was found shot in the head at Jonestown. In haunting admonitions, Jones had assured his followers that by killing themselves, they would be remembered as committing an act of "revolutionary suicide," a defiant statement against the racist cruelty of an ill society.
Http://www. jonestown mass suicide. Movements Homepage People's temple (jonestown) This jonestownPage is web based as well as print resources about the peoples temple. http://scribblguy.50megs.com/jonestownwf.htm
Extractions: This Jonestown Page is your gateway to accessing comprehensive web based as well as print resources about the Peoples Temple. As part of the New Religious Movements Homepage, it includes a Profile of the of Jim Jones... CNN - Jonestown massacre memories linger amid rumors of CIA link - November 19, 1998
Why The Peoples Temple? temple cult, and specifically the mass suicide of so eventual selfdestruction ofthe peoples temple should shed The jonestown cult was born of that culture http://www.meta-religion.com/New_religious_groups/Articles/why_the_peoples_templ
Extractions: Back to New Religious... Martin Heidegger theorized that cultural truths are revealed only when specific cultural manifestations cease to work properly. He called this concept "breakdown." The larger meanings of culture itself, according to this understanding, are primarily invisible to those within culture until part of it breaks down. An aberrant occurrence or anomaly, as referred to by Mary Douglas, represents such a breakdown. In turn, the development of new religions and cults exemplify Douglas's idea of anomaly. The Peoples Temple cult, and specifically the mass suicide of so many of its members, represents an anomaly, and therefore a breakdown, in the culture of mid-twentieth century America. An examination of the development and eventual self-destruction of the Peoples Temple should shed light on that culture. The Jonestown cult was born of that culture and in turn reflects back upon it, that is, the Peoples Temple was effected (created) by mainstream American culture of its time and in turn affected that same culture. It is important to conceive, first and foremost, of the cultural climate into which (and out of which) the Jonestown cult arose. Jones and his followers were products of their culture at the same time that they were producers of a reactant culture (namely, the Peoples Temple). That said, let us consider the era and the area out of which and into which Jim Jones and his Temple were born:
[Peoples Temple] What Was The Lure? That morning, she learned that 27 of her relatives including her mother werekilled in the mass murdersuicide at peoples temple in jonestown, Guyana. http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/rnb/archives/00001277.html
Extractions: By Jennifer Garza Bee Staff Writer Jynona Norwood will not let the madman take her faith. He took her mother. He took her nine cousins, and 17 nieces and nephews. But she will not will let Jim Jones take her belief in God. "He took my family, but he will never take away my firm belief in the Lord and his everlasting love," said Norwood, a minister at Family Christian Church in Los Angeles. "Evil will not triumph. It cannot." On Nov. 18, 1978, Norwood woke up to see what evil had done. That morning, she learned that 27 of her relatives including her mother were killed in the mass murder-suicide at
NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS One was New Religious Movements, mass suicide, and peoples for a Second Look at jonestown,is perhaps voices and viewpoints concerning peoples temple and the http://www.und.edu/dept/library/Libpub/nrm's.html
Extractions: OF NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS Twenty years ago, on November 18, more than 900 Americans destroyed their children, their parents, and themselves in a remote agriculture project in the South American country of Guyana. People around the world watched in horror as news about Jonestown trickled out slowly. My family viewed events in particular fascination, since my two sisters, my nephew, and many friends were living in Jonestown as members of a religious group called Peoples Temple. What struck us then, and continues to haunt us today, is how the news media and the government demonized the people who died that day. When the Heaven's Gate deaths occurred last year, the media icon for Jonestown re-appeared: an aerial shot of brightly colored bodies lying out under the jungle sun. Because we had known those bodies as living human beings, my family and I tried to humanize the Jonestown victims in discussions with the news media, with officials, and with strangers. Part of that humanization process resulted in writing and editing five books, published by Edwin Mellen Press, which are currently housed in the Chester Fritz Library's regular holdings and in Special Collections. A wave of instant paperbacks came out after November 18, 1978, purporting to tell "what it was really like" inside the "suicide cult." Most of the accounts came from Peoples Temple apostates, that is, former members who had turned from being extremely pro-Temple to extremely anti-Temple. Needless to say, the accounts focused on the lurid and the sensational, and failed to provide any real explanations for why people might leave America and set up a new life in a new land. They also made the deaths inexplicable, the product of people who must have suffered mass delusion, brainwashing, or both.