Халық ғибадатханасы: АҚШ діни қозғалысының трагедиясы

American religious movement (1953–1978)
the 1954–1978 American religious movement

The Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ, originally Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church and commonly shortened to Peoples Temple, was an American new religious organization which existed between 1954 and 1978 and was affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Founded by Jim Jones in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Peoples Temple spread a message that combined elements of Christianity with communist and socialist ideology, with an emphasis on racial equality. After Jones moved the group to California in the 1960s and established several locations throughout the state, including its headquarters in San Francisco, the Temple forged ties with many left wing political figures and claimed to have 20,000 members (though 3,000–5,000 is more likely). The Temple is best known for the events of November 18, 1978, in Guyana, when 909 people died in a mass suicide and mass murder at its remote settlement, named "Jonestown", as well as the murders of U. S. Congressman Leo Ryan and members of his visiting delegation at the nearby Port Kaituma airstrip. The incident at Jonestown resulted in the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Because of the killings in Guyana, the Temple is regarded by scholars and by popular view as a destructive cult.

Before he founded his church, Jim Jones had become enamored with communism and he was also frustrated by the harassment which communists were being subjected to in the U. S. during the Red Scare. This, among other things, provided a clerical inspiration for Jones; as he himself described it in a biographical recording: In 1952, Jones became a student pastor in Sommerset Southside Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, but left that church because it barred him from integrating African Americans into his congregation. Jones and the Temple's members knowingly faked healings because they found that the healings increased people's faith and generated financial resources which they could use to help the poor and finance the church. In 1955, Jones bought his first church building, located in a racially mixed Indianapolis neighborhood. He first named his church Wings of Deliverance, and later that year, he renamed it the Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church, the first time he used the phrase "Peoples Temple". According to a newspaper report, regular attendance at Peoples Temple swelled to 1,000 thanks to the publicity Branham provided to Jones and Peoples Temple. Following the convention, Jones renamed his church the "Peoples Temple Christian Church Full Gospel" to associate it with Full Gospel Pentecostalism; the name was later shortened to the Peoples Temple. Jones participated in a series of multi state revival campaigns with Branham and Mattsson Boze in the second half of the 1950s, making multiple joint appearances with them. Jones claimed to be a follower and promoter of Branham's "Message" during the period. Peoples Temple hosted a second international Pentecostal convention in 1957 which was again headlined by Branham. Through the conventions and with the support of Branham and Mattsson Boze, Jones secured connections throughout the Latter Rain movement. The Temple stressed egalitarian ideals, asking members to attend in casual clothes so poor members would not feel out of place, and providing shelter for the needy. While the Temple had increased its African American membership from 15% to nearly 50%, in order to attempt further gains the Temple hired African American preacher Archie Ijames (who had earlier given up organized religion).

Jones had read extensively about Father Divine, the founder of the International Peace Mission movement. Jones and members of the Temple visited Divine several times, while Jones studied his writings and tape recordings of his sermons. The Temple printed Divine's texts for its members and began to preach that members should abstain from sex and only adopt children. His speech captivated members with lulls and crescendos, as Jones challenged individual members in front of the group. He did so knowing that his Christian audience would recognize the similarities with text from the Acts of the Apostles (4:34–35) which stated: "distribution was made to each as any had need." Admiring the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Jones traveled to the island nation in 1960 in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade poor black Cubans to move to his congregation in Indiana. While Temple aides complained privately, Jones said that the new message was needed to foster members' dedication to the Temple's larger goals. convincing aides that the Temple needed to look for a new location. A 1962 Esquire magazine article listed the nine safest places to be in a nuclear war, with Belo Horizonte, Brazil, topping the list because of its location and atmospheric conditions. Jones traveled through Brazil from 1962 through early 1963. He requested money from the Temple while in Rio de Janeiro, but the Temple lacked adequate funds for such a request because of shrinking finances in Jones's absence. Jones returned to Indiana in 1963. During 1964 Jones made multiple trips to California to locate a suitable location to relocate. In July 1965, Jones and his followers began moving to their new location in Redwood Valley, California, near the city of Ukiah. Jones's assistant pastor, Russell Winberg, strongly resisted Jones's efforts to move the congregation and warned members of Peoples Temple that Jones was abandoning Christianity. Winberg took over leadership of the Indianapolis church when Jones departed. About 140 of Jones's most loyal followers made the move to California, while the rest remained behind with Winberg. In California, Jones was able to use his education degree from Butler University to secure a job as a history and government teacher at an adult education school in Ukiah. Jones used his position to recruit for Peoples Temple, teaching his students the benefits of Marxism and lecturing on religion. Jones planted loyal members of Peoples Temple in the classes to help him with recruitment. His efforts were successful, and Jones recruited 50 new members to Peoples Temple in the first few months. In 1967, Jones's followers coaxed another 75 members of the Indianapolis congregation to move to California. In 1968, the Peoples Temple's California location was admitted to the Disciples of Christ. Jones began to use the denominational connection to promote Peoples Temple as part of the 1.5 million member denomination. He played up famous members of the Disciples, including Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover, and misrepresented the nature of his position in the denomination. By 1969, Jones increased the membership in Peoples Temple in California to 300.

Jones developed a theology that was significantly influenced by the teachings of the Latter Rain movement, William Branham, Father Divine, and infused with Jones's personal communist worldview. Jones referred to his belief as "Apostolic Socialism". Following the relocation of Peoples Temple to California, Jones began to gradually introduce the concepts to his followers. According to religious studies professor Catherine Wessinger, Jones always spoke of the Social Gospel's virtues, but chose to conceal that his gospel was actually communism until he began to do so in sermons at the Temple in the late 1960s. Jones taught that "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment", which he defined as socialism. Jones asserted that traditional Christianity had an incorrect view of God. By the early 1970s, Jones began deriding traditional Christianity as "fly away religion", rejecting the Bible as being a tool to oppress women and non whites. Jones referred to traditional Christianity's view of God as a "Sky God" who was "no God at all". Instead, Jones claimed to be following the true God who created all things. Jones taught that ultimate reality was called the "Divine Principle", and this principle was the true God. Jones equated the principle with love, and he equated love with socialism. Jones asserted he was a savior sent by the true God, to rescue humanity from their sufferings. Jones insisted that accepting the "Divine Principle" was equivalent to being "crucified with Christ". Jones increasingly promoted the idea of his own divinity, going so far as to tell his congregation that "I am come as God Socialist." Jones carefully avoided claiming divinity outside of Peoples Temple, but he expected to be acknowledged as god like among his followers. Former Temple member Hue Fortson Jr. quoted him as saying:

What you need to believe in is what you can see If you see me as your friend, I'll be your friend. As you see me as your father, I'll be your father, for those of you that don't have a father If you see me as your savior, I'll be your savior. If you see me as your God, I'll be your God. Further attacking traditional Christianity, Jones authored and circulated a tract entitled "The Letter Killeth", criticizing the King James Bible, and dismissing King James as a slave owner and a capitalist who was responsible for the corrupt translation of scripture. Jones claimed he was sent to share the true meaning of the gospel which had been hidden by corrupt leaders. Jones rejected even the few required tenets of the Disciples of Christ denomination. Instead of implementing the sacraments as prescribed by the Disciples, Jones followed Father Divine's holy communion practices. Jones created his own baptismal formula, baptizing his converts "in the holy name of Socialism". While in the United States, Jones remained fearful of the public discovering the full extent of his communist views. He believed that if the true nature of his views became widely known, he would quickly lose the support of political leaders and even face the possibility of Peoples Temple being ejected from the Disciples of Christ. Jones also feared losing the church's tax exempt status and having to report his financial dealings to the Internal Revenue Service. Jones took care to always couch his socialist views in religious terms, such as "apostolic social justice". "Living the Acts of the Apostles" was his euphemism for living a communal lifestyle. Jones frequently warned his followers of an imminent apocalyptic genocidal race war and nuclear war. He claimed that Nazi fascists and white supremacists would put people of color into concentration camps. Jones said he was a messiah sent to save people by giving them a place of refuge in his church. Drawing on a prophecy in the Book of Revelation, he taught that American capitalist culture was irredeemable "Babylon". Explaining the nature of sin, Jones stated, "If you're born in capitalist America, racist America, fascist America, then you're born in sin. But if you're born in socialism, you're not born in sin." He taught his followers the only way to escape the supposed imminent catastrophe was to accept his teachings, and that after the apocalypse was over, they would emerge to establish a perfect communist society. Historians are divided over whether Jones actually believed his own teachings, or was just using them to manipulate people. Jeff Guinn said, "It is impossible to know whether Jones gradually came to think he was God's earthly vessel, or whether he came to that convenient conclusion" to enhance his authority over his followers. In a 1976 phone conversation with John Maher, Jones admitted to be an agnostic and an atheist. Marceline admitted in a 1977 New York Times interview that Jones was trying to promote Marxism in the U. S. by mobilizing people through religion, citing Mao Zedong as his inspiration: "Jim used religion to try to get some people out of the opiate of religion." It established permanent facilities in those cities in 1971 and 1972, respectively. In San Francisco, the Temple occupied a former Scottish Rite temple at 1859 Geary Boulevard in the Fillmore District. At the time, the Fillmore district was a majority Black neighborhood and a stronghold of Black culture on the West Coast. In Los Angeles, the Temple occupied the former building of the First Church of Christ, Scientist at 1366 S. Alvarado Street. By 1972, the Temple called Redwood Valley the "mother church" of a "statewide political movement". Later, when the Temple's headquarters shifted from Redwood Valley to San Francisco, the Temple convinced many Los Angeles members to move north to its new headquarters. The Temple tightly defined psychological boundaries that "enemies", such as "traitors" to the Temple, crossed at their own peril. At the top were the Temple's staff, a select group of predominantly college educated white women that undertook the Temple's most sensitive missions. Membership quickly ballooned from 50 to over 100. The Commission sat over various other committees, such as the Diversions Committee, which carried out tasks such as writing huge numbers of letters to politicians from fictional people mailed from various locations around the U. S., and the Mertles Committee, which undertook activities against defectors Al and Jeannie Mills. A group of rank and file members, whom outsiders called the "troops", consisted of working class members who were 70–80% black. They set up chairs for meetings, filled offering boxes, and did other tasks. Jones always rode in bus number seven, which contained armed guards and a special section lined with protective metal plates. Donations were mailed in from all over the continental U. S., Hawaii, South America, and Europe.

Despite exaggerated claims by the Temple of 20,000 or more members, one source claims its greatest actual registered membership was around 3,000. However, 5,000 individual membership card photos were located in Temple records after its dissolution. Regardless of its official membership, the Temple also regularly drew 3,000 people to its San Francisco services alone. Of particular interest to politicians was the Temple's ability to produce 2,000 people for campaign work or attendance in San Francisco on only six hours' notice. The Temple also maintained a branch, college tuition program, and dormitory at Santa Rosa Junior College. At the same time, Jones and his church earned a reputation for aiding the cities' poorest citizens, especially racial minorities, drug addicts, and the homeless. The Temple made strong connections to the California state welfare system. During the 1970s, the church owned and ran at least nine residential care homes for the elderly, six homes for foster children, and a state licensed ranch for developmentally disabled persons. The Temple elite handled members' insurance claims and legal problems, effectively acting as a client advocacy group. For these reasons, sociologist John Hall described the Temple as a "charismatic bureaucracy", oriented toward Jones as a charismatic leader, but functioning as a bureaucratic social service organization.

In 1972, the San Francisco Examiner and the Indianapolis Star ran the first four parts of a seven part story on the Temple by Lester Kinsolving, its first public exposé. Kinsolving reported on several aspects of church dealings, its claims of healings, and Jones's ritual of throwing Bibles down in church, yelling, "This black book has held down you people for 2,000 years. It has no power." Temple members picketed the Examiner, harassed the paper's editor, and threatened both the Examiner and the Star with libel suits.

Some defections occurred, most especially in 1973, when eight young members known as the "Gang of Eight" defected together. Because the Gang of Eight were aware of threats to potential defectors, they suspected Jones would send a search party to look for them. The Gang of Eight drove three trucks loaded with firearms toward Canada, avoiding U. S. Highway 101. While the Temple did not execute the suicide plan Jones described, it did conduct fake suicide rituals in the years that followed.

The move to San Francisco permitted Jones to be more open with his true political and theological leanings. By spring 1976, Jones openly admitted even to outsiders that he was an atheist. Despite the Temple's fear that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was investigating its religious tax exemption, Marceline admitted to The New York Times in 1977 that her husband, taking inspiration from Mao Zedong, was trying to achieve social change by mobilizing people through religion. It stressed physical discipline of children first, and then adults. The San Francisco Temple also carefully vetted newcomers through an extensive observation process. It combined those genuine political sympathies with the perception that it could help turn out large numbers of votes to gain the support of a number of prominent politicians. Jones made it known after he moved to San Francisco that he was interested in politics, and legal changes in the way San Francisco elections were held strengthened the power of neighborhood groups and civic organizations such as the Temple. After the Temple's voter mobilization efforts proved instrumental in state Senate President George Moscone's run for mayor of San Francisco in 1975, he appointed Jones as Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission. Jones and the Temple received the support of California political figures such as Moscone, Governor Jerry Brown, Congressman Mervyn Dymally, state Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, Assemblyman Art Agnos, and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Willie Brown visited the Temple numerous times and spoke publicly in support of Jones, even after investigations and suspicions of cult activity. Jones also met First Lady Rosalynn Carter on multiple occasions, including a private dinner, and corresponded with her in letters. Jones used his position at the Housing Authority to lead the fight against the eviction of tenants from San Francisco's International Hotel. The Temple further forged an alliance with San Francisco's Black community newspaper, the Sun Reporter publisher Dr. Carlton Goodlett and it received frequent favorable mentions in that paper. It also received frequent favorable coverage from San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen and other local newspaper and television reporters. However, the Temple aroused police suspicion after Jones praised the Symbionese Liberation Army, a radical Bay Area group, and the SLA's leaders attended San Francisco Temple meetings. Further suspicions were raised after the defection of Joyce Shaw and the mysterious death soon after of her husband, Bob Houston. In 1974 a fire broke out at Peoples Temple's San Francisco location. Without evidence Jones speculated that members of the Nation of Islam may have started the fire. Jones sent several of his followers to a nearby mosque to issue a warning to their group. This began a period of heightened tensions between Peoples Temple and the Nation of Islam. Gradually, Jones worked to improve relations with the Nation of Islam, culminating a joint "Spiritual Jubilee" rally held at the Los Angeles Convention Center in May 1976. He used the event to garner positive publicity, and the joint rally was attended by many of his closest political acquaintances. At the rally, Jones called for peace and unity saying, "if the Peoples Temple and the Nation of Islam can get together, anyone can." Jones ended by pledging support to the Muslim community and declared his desire for Wallace Muhammad to run for President of the United States. While the Temple forged media alliances, the move to San Francisco also opened the group to media scrutiny. When Jones and hundreds of Temple members moved to the Temple's Guyana settlement following media investigations, Mayor Moscone issued a press release stating that his office would not investigate the Temple. During this time, Milk spoke at Temple political rallies and wrote a letter to President Jimmy Carter after the investigations began, in which he accused Timothy Stoen, who by that point had defected from the Temple and was attempting to extricate relatives from Guyana, of telling "bold faced lies".

In 1974, the Peoples Temple signed a lease to rent land in Guyana. The community which was established on this piece of property was named the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, informally dubbed "Jonestown". The settlement had as few as fifty residents in early 1977. Jones saw Jonestown as both a "socialist paradise" and a "sanctuary" from media scrutiny that had started with the Kinsolving articles. Former Temple member Tim Carter said the Temple moved to Jonestown because "in '74, what we saw in the United States was creeping fascism." Carter explained, "It was apparent that corporations, or the multinationals, were getting much larger, their influence was growing within the government, and the United States is a racist place." Wright explained that she was only doing so before publication because of "all the support letters we received on your behalf, from the Governor of California [Jerry Brown]" and others. While still on the phone listening to the allegations contained in the article, Jones wrote a note to Temple members in the room with him that said, "We leave tonight. Notify Georgetown (Guyana)." Those who moved there were promised a tropical paradise free from the supposed wickedness of the outside world. On November 17, 1978, Representative Leo Ryan, who was investigating claims of abuse within the Temple, visited Jonestown. During his visit, a number of Temple members expressed a desire to leave with him, and, on November 18, some accompanied Ryan to the local airstrip at Port Kaituma. There they were intercepted by Temple security guards who opened fire on the group, killing Ryan, three journalists, and one of the defectors as well as injuring nine others, including Ryan's aide, Jackie Speier. A few seconds of gunfire from the incident were captured on video by NBC cameraman Bob Brown, one of the journalists killed in the attack. That evening, in Jonestown, Jones ordered his congregation to drink a concoction of cyanide laced, grape flavored Flavor Aid. In all, 918 people died, including 276 children. This includes four that died at the Temple headquarters that night in the Guyanese capital of Georgetown. Some members resisted committing "revolutionary suicide," and were injected with fatal doses of cyanide, as were infants, and others survived by fleeing through the jungle. Jones himself, as well as his personal aide Annie Moore, died of (likely) self inflicted gunshot wounds. It was the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act until the events of September 11, 2001.

At the end of 1978, the Temple declared bankruptcy, and its assets went into receivership. In light of lawsuits, on December 4, 1978, Charles Garry, the corporation's attorney, petitioned to dissolve the Temple. The petition was granted in San Francisco Superior Court in January 1979. A few Temple members remained in Guyana through May 1979 in order to wrap up the movement's affairs, then they returned to the United States. The Temple's former San Francisco headquarters, located at 1859 Geary Boulevard, was destroyed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake; the site is now occupied by a Post Office branch.