Jonestown
On November 18, 1978, "events in an isolated village in South America gave the world a sudden shock" (Galanter 119). On this date, 913 followers of Jim Jones and the Peoples' Temple committed a mass suicide in Northern Guyana, at a site called Jonestown. The casualties included almost the entire membership of the People's Temple. Based upon this, my opinion is that the People's Temple was full of problems from beginning to end. The chaos began with a man named Jim Jones, continued with the organization of People's Temple, and ended with the events on November 18, 1978.Born on May 13, 1931 near Lynn, Indianapolis, Jim Jones became known as one of the most destructive charismatic cult leaders of this century. Jones held bachelor degrees from Indiana University and Butler University and belonged to a mainline Christian denomination, ordained in the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ. According to Professor J.M. Weightsman, author of Making Sense of the Jonestown Suicides, "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' o
Frequently during these crises, we would be told the jungle was swarming with mercenaries and that death could be expected at any minute [. . .] we were given a small glass of red liquid to drink. We were told that the liquid contained poison and that we would die within 45 minutes. We all did as we were told. When the time came that we should have dropped dead, Reverend Jones explained that the poison was not real and that we had just been through a loyalty test (Galanter 123). In 1956, Jim Jones founded The Peoples' Temple in Indianapolis as an integrated church combining evangelical and communistic religion with loosely socialist politics. After thirteen years of meeting in rented buildings, The People's Temple decided to build a church of their own in Redwood Valley, which the group named Happy Acres. This helped the church gain a few more members, but the real change came once People's Temple expanded its ministry to the urban blacks of San Francisco and Los Angeles by opening churches in 1970 and 1972 (Maaga 3). After being accused of defrauding church members, he led his group to Guyana in 1974 and set up the agricultural commune of Georgetown, using threats and manipulation to control his followers. A small group of People's Temple members rented a house in Georgetown, (later renamed "Jonestown"), Guyana. As Weightsman explains it, "Jonestown was a tract of 3,852 acres leased to People's Temple [. . .] located in the western part of the country in the Orinoco River Basin" (Weightsman 19). On November 17, Congressman Ryan, along with his assistant Jackie Speier, eight news representatives, and four members of Concerned Relatives left for Jonestown. Upon landing at 4:30 p.m. They were given a tour, entertainment, and a meal. At 11:00 p.m. that night a note was handed to Don Harris, the NBC correspondent, reading: "Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby. Please help us get out of Jonestown" (Weightsman 58). On the next day, after Ryan finished some interviews, Harris told Jones that some people wanted to leave. Hearing this, another fourteen people asked to leave with the Ryan delegation. In conclusion, the People
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Approximate Word count = 1450
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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