#uncat 

The **Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ** (originally Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church) was an American [[Cult|cult]] which existed between 1954 and 1978.

>[!Logo]
>![[Pasted image 20250119002501.png]]


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.
Best known for the events of November 18, 1978, in Guyana, when 918 people died in a mass suicide and mass murder at its remote settlement, named "**Jonestown**"

## Indiana
Jim Jones, founder, was a communist and the movement was originally his way of promoting Marxist ideas without being shunned as a leftist. Sought support of black communities
Formed in Indianapolis, later grew to the point where Jim Jones was seen as a god-like figure sent by God to establish socialism. Unknown whether he actually believed this or if that was just a façade. 
In 1961, Jones claimed he had had a vision in which Indianapolis and Chicago were destroyed in a nuclear attack, so Jones went to Brazil to look for a place to set up, however, the Temple lacked the funds do so. Jones returned to Indiana in 1963

## California
After reterning from Brazil in December 1963, he briefly reuinted the Temple from internal strife, and told his congregation that the world would be engulfed by nuclear war on July 15, 1967, leading to a new socialist Eden on Earth, and that the Temple must move to Northern California for safety.

In July 1965, Jones and his followers began moving to their new location in Redwood Valley, California, near the city of Ukiah. Jones' assistant pastor, Russell Winberg, strongly resisted Jones' efforts and warned members of the Temple that Jones was abandoning Christianity.
Winberg took over leadership of the Indianapolish church when Jones departed. About 140 of Jones' most loyal followers made the move to California, while the rest remained behind with Winberg.

In Cali, Jones was able to use his education degree to secure a job as a history and government teacher at an adult education school in Ukiah, which he used to recruit for Peoples Temple.
In 1968, the Peoples Temple's California location was admitted to the [[Disciples of Christ]]¸ which Jones began to use to promote the Temple as part of the 1.5 million member denomination.

By the early 1970s, Jones began deriding traditional Christianity as "fly away religion", rejecting the Bible as beign a tool to oppress women and non-whites.
Jones frequently warned his followers of an imminent apocalyptic genocidal race war and nuclear war.

Jones began using illicit drugs, which further heightened his paranoia. THrough his tactics, he successfully implemented a communal lifestyle among his followers that was directed by him and his lieutenants who were part of a committee called the Planning Commission. 
Members who rebelled against Jones' control were punished variously. Eventually Jones created a security group to ensure order among his followers and to ensure his own personal safety.

Structure:
at the top, Temple's staff, a select group of predominantly college-educated white women that undertook the Temple's most sensitive missions.
The Temple's Planning Commission was its governing board, responsible for the Temple's day-to-day operations. The Commission sat over various other committees, such as the Diversions Committee, which carried out tasks such as writing huge numbers of letters to politicans from fictional people, and the Mertles Committee, which undertook activites against defectors like 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.

The Temple used several buses to transport members up and down California freeways for recruitement and fundraising, as well as to cruise across the US to recruit and promote the Temple.

In 1973, the Temple also formed Brotherhood Records, a subsidiary record label that produced music from the Temple's youth choir and orchestra.

In 1972, a few newspapers ran a story on the Temple by Lester Kinsolving, its first public exposè. The newspapers were harassed into submission.

### Defections
Some defections occurred, most especially in 1973, when eight young members - known as the "Gang of Eight".
Jeannie Mils later wrote that Jones called 30 members to his home and forebodingly declared that they should all kill themselves in her memoir [[Six Years with God]]

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The Temple's voter mobilization efforts proved instrumental in electing George Moscone for mayor of San Francisco in 1975, who later appointed Jones as Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission. Jones and Moscone met privately with Jimmy Carter's then-running mate, Walter Mondale, days before the 1976 election. Jones also met Rosalynn Carter and corresponded with her in letters.

The Temple also had a beef with [[Nation of Islam]] but they reconciled later.

In SF increased media scrutiny occured, with Harvey Milk having to back the Temple
## Jonestown
In 1974, the Peoples Temple signed a lease to rent land in Guyana. The community was established on this piece of property was named the Peoples Temple Agricultural roject, informally dubbed "Jonestown". 
The population grew to about a 1000 people by late 1978

On November 17, 1978, Representative Leo Ryan, who was investigating claims of abuse with the Temple, visited Jonestown. During his visit, a number of Temple members wished to defect with him, and, on November 18, some acompanied Ryan to the local airstrip at Port Kaituma, but were intercepted by Temple security guards who opened fire on the group, killing Ryan, 3 journalists, and one of the defectors as well as injuring nine others.

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. 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 aide, died of 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.

>[!Entrance to Jonestown]
>![[Pasted image 20250119032802.png]]

>[!Bodies]
>![[Pasted image 20250119032820.png]]

By December 4, 1978, the Temple was declared bankrupt.

In 1980, Al and Jeannie Mills were murdered execution-style inside their home. The Mills murders remain unsolved.