Overview
On November 18, 1978, over 900 people perished in the compound of the Peoples Temple in Guyana, South America. Many of the dead had apparently willingly drunk a poisoned fruit-punch at the command of the Rev. Jim Jones, the group’s leader. However, many of the dead were children convinced (or perhaps tricked or forced) to drink by their parents or other adults, and a few people appear to have been forced to drink at gunpoint (a handful died by gunshot). This remains one of modern history’s largest murder-suicide events, and religion was one of its central components.
The Peoples Temple emerged in the 1950s in Indianapolis, Indiana, as a fairly routine Protestant Christian sect. Perhaps its distinguishing feature, especially in its early years, was its strong pursuit of racial integration, a pointed departure from the prevailing racist segregationism of the day. To the very end, the Peoples Temple membership consisted of a thorough mix of white and black followers who worshipped, worked, and lived side-by-side.
Over time, Jim Jones added to the group’s basic evangelical and mildly Pentecostal Protestantism with an increasingly idiosyncratic set of teachings including apocalyptic expectations of a nuclear holocaust. In 1965 Jones moved the group to northern California, where for a time they were welcomed, even celebrated for their anti-racist ways. However, eventually the group was suspected of abusive behaviors toward its members, as well as of committing financial fraud. Amid growing suspicion, Jones decamped the group to the northern region of Guyana where they built up a sizeable compound with extensive agricultural holdings, dormitories, and large meeting halls. The dual goals of the group at this point were to show the world an example of a socialist utopia and survive the expected arrival of Armageddon.
Jones grew increasingly erratic and authoritarian, subjecting followers to harsh punishments and public humiliations for infraction of a growing list of rules, especially for any hints of disloyalty. It appears that some members may have been restrained from leaving, and rumors started to trickle out of tensions and abuses in the community. These reports prompted a visit from Leo Ryan, a U.S. Congressman from the Peoples Temple’s old home of California. Ryan and his entourage arrived on November 17, 1978, and toured the compound. While there seem to have been some tensions between Jones and Ryan, overall the visit largely passed without major incident, until some of Jones’ followers ambushed Ryan’s group as they prepared to depart from a nearby air field. Ryan and four others were shot dead.
Expecting that this assault would prompt intervention and retaliation from U.S. authorities, Jones activated a previously-rehearsed plan for mass suicide. A chilling tape recording of his final, 45-minute speech includes his admonishments to remain calm and his command to drink the poison (the recording is linked below). The resources below help fill in many details of this complicated case, from Jones’ difficult childhood, to his developing religious teachings, to life in the Jonestown compound, and specifics of the group’s final, tumultuous day. The list of resources is followed by suggestions for employing ideas from the book in making sense of this case.
Resources
A good start
- A brief overview from the History Channel, with embedded links for more information:
- A good overview documentary video,“Great Crimes and Trials: The Jonestown Massacre” (25 min., semi-graphic):
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mass-suicide-at-jonestown
Digging deeper
The Peoples Temple/Jonestown have been studied extensively. Here is a sampling of some of the better research and reflection available:
- The (in)famous recording of the last speech by Jim Jones, including his orders to the group to kill themselves. Officially known as “FBI Q 042,” it is often called “the Jonestown Death Tape” (45 min.):
- First of a multi-part documentary video from ABC News from 20 years after the events (the remaining segments can also be found on YouTube):
- A thoughtful scholarly study by one of the leading experts on the group:
- An updated version of a classic book presenting religious studies analysis of the Peoples Temple:
- A book-length study form the same author as the above article:
- A classic essay from a giant of religious studies, seeking to interpret the Jonestown events in light of other episodes of religious violence:
- A welcome collection of studies of the role of race in the Peoples Temple:
- The Peoples Temple and Jonestown considered in the context of apocalyptic “cults” and “new religious movements”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr9WnQxZu64
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0B1sMfxWYw
Moore, Rebecca. “Rhetoric, Revolution, and Resistance in Jonestown, Guyana.” Journal of Religion and Violence 1, no. 3 (2013): 303–21. Available at: https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=67381
Chidester, David. Salvation and Suicide: Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and Jonestown. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2003 [1991].
Moore, Rebecca. Understanding Jonestown and Peoples Temple. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2009.
Smith, Jonathan Z. “The Devil in Mr. Jones,” in Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 102–20.
Moore, Rebecca, Anthony B. Pinn, and Mary R. Sawyer, eds. Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004.
Wessinger, Catherine Lowman. How the Millennium Comes Violently: From
Jonestown to Heaven’s Gate. New York: Seven Bridges, 2000.
Applying the book to this case
- Ch. 3 considers the thought of Marx in relation to religious violence. The Peoples Temple’s commitment to racial equality might show some affinities with Marxist critiques of social and material injustice. Do these kinds of critiques illuminate the Peoples Temple case, including its violent end? Does the Peoples Temple add any complexity to thinking about critiques of injustice and the ways they may participate in violence?
- Victor Turner (ch. 5) focuses attention on “liminal” states outside of established social structures. The Peoples Temple appears to have sought to generate a strong sense of “communitas” among its members, and the group’s move to Guyana and the establishing of Jonestown could be seen as deliberately entering a “liminal” state. How specifically did they pursue these states, and how might those efforts have contributed to the violence of the Jonestown murder-suicide?
- The Peoples Temple is often described as a “cult” (or a “new religious movement”). Ch. 8 explores the meaning of this term in the wider context of the sociology of religion and the ways social formation of religious communities and organizations can affect religious violence (see esp. pp. 163–69). What light is shed on this case by consideration of these social dynamics?
- For instance, the Peoples Temple seems to share some features of both a “sect” and a “cult,” including in its relationship to the wider society: a sect tends to offer a doctrinal and/or moral critique of the status quo, as the Peoples Temple seems to have done regarding race. However, the group may have shifted in the direction of a “cult” as Jim Jones developed more idiosyncratic teachings and a more self-centered leadership style. How might any of these factors have contributed to the group’s violent end?
- Ch. 9 presents a set of “building blocks” of religious traditions that can readily contribute to religious violence. Apocalyptic expectations appear to have been a significant aspect of the Peoples Temple teachings; how might these contribute to violence (see pp. 192–3). What other categories discussed in the chapter (listed on p. 175) might be elements of the Jonestown case?
- Review the typology of violence discussed in ch. 1 and the appendix, and consider whish specific forms of violence have occurred as part of the Peoples Temple murder-suicide. Self-directed harm, such as suicide, raises complex questions, since the perpetrator and target of violence might be one and the same, and the harm might be intended and desired by the target. Also, how might the prevalent issues of self-defense and vengeance play out in this case? What other specific forms of violence appear in this case?