like the Jonestown incident that had happened in Guyana, South America, in 1978.
B LURRED H ISTORY
The problem is that there is not enough known on the people involved in the group or the years running up to the tragedy. So many actions and events went unnoticed for so long that a factual account and the truth will probably get further and further away the more years that pass.
It has already become something of an urban legend for the new millennium. People make up their own account of what actually happened depending on their political and religious standpoint. Easy answers come from stating that the leaders were evil beings possessed with greed for money, or that they were a sect brainwashed with twisted religious ideas. Either may be the case but there is definitely a lot more to it. Due to the location of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God and the lack of inside information it is difficult to paint a completely true and factual picture of what went on within this group. Reporters and local citizens of the area are so culturally different that any facts will be interpreted a thousand ways, and anti-cult groups have also forced their own beliefs about the tragedy into print, that it is hard to filter out what is the truth from what is just hearsay and whisper.
All this text can do is lay everything out for individual interpretations to be made but there are definitely no answers as to how or why such a massive tragedy took place whether it be murder or suicide.
Reverend Jim Jones
The People’s Temple
At first it was believed that the deaths of 913 people in the Guyanese Jungle were a mass suicide. As the gruesome details of the last few days in what had become known as ‘Jonestown’ came to light however, the horrendous truth emerged that the deaths may not all have been voluntary, and that one man may have been responsible instead for mass murder. The deceased all belonged to a group known as ‘The People’s Temple’, led by the Reverend Jim Jones.
Jim Jones was born in Lyn, Indiana, on May 13, 1931. Lyn was a farming town, and Jones did not have many friends as a child. Home life was difficult for the family as, due to a severe lung disease, his father was unable to work and therefore relied upon only a minimal pension to maintain his family. In order to bring in some extra money for the family, Jim Jones’s mother worked in a factory. Embittered by this hardship, Jones’s father, a veteran of the First World War, began to sympathise with the racist activities of the Ku Klux Klan. This leaning always seemed strange to the young boy though, as Jones’s mother was of Cherokee Indian descent. He did not understand how his racist father could support such a relationship, and therefore saw flaws in his father’s beliefs and values.
He did not want to be a follower of this hypocritical ideology. Perhaps because he had not been shown a clear religious path by either of his parents, Jim Jones took an exceptional interest in Bible Studies at school. In all other classes he was an average student. Inspired by what he learnt and the more he came to believe in the Christian faith, the more active he became in it. When the other children would leave school together and play, Jim Jones returned home, took up his position on his parents’ front porch, and preached to the people who passed by the house.
At the age of 18, Jim decided to enrol on a religious studies course at Indiana University, and took a job as a porter at a Richmond hospital to fund this education. One year later, Jim became a pastor and also married Marceline Badwin, a nurse at the hospital. Now directly involved in the running of the church, Jim decided to introduce black worshippers into the congregation. One of his main pursuits was the running of the racially integrated church youth centre.
R ESISTANCE AND D ISAPPROVAL
In a segregated society such as that of Indianapolis, this was a
B LURRED H ISTORY
The problem is that there is not enough known on the people involved in the group or the years running up to the tragedy. So many actions and events went unnoticed for so long that a factual account and the truth will probably get further and further away the more years that pass.
It has already become something of an urban legend for the new millennium. People make up their own account of what actually happened depending on their political and religious standpoint. Easy answers come from stating that the leaders were evil beings possessed with greed for money, or that they were a sect brainwashed with twisted religious ideas. Either may be the case but there is definitely a lot more to it. Due to the location of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God and the lack of inside information it is difficult to paint a completely true and factual picture of what went on within this group. Reporters and local citizens of the area are so culturally different that any facts will be interpreted a thousand ways, and anti-cult groups have also forced their own beliefs about the tragedy into print, that it is hard to filter out what is the truth from what is just hearsay and whisper.
All this text can do is lay everything out for individual interpretations to be made but there are definitely no answers as to how or why such a massive tragedy took place whether it be murder or suicide.
Reverend Jim Jones
The People’s Temple
At first it was believed that the deaths of 913 people in the Guyanese Jungle were a mass suicide. As the gruesome details of the last few days in what had become known as ‘Jonestown’ came to light however, the horrendous truth emerged that the deaths may not all have been voluntary, and that one man may have been responsible instead for mass murder. The deceased all belonged to a group known as ‘The People’s Temple’, led by the Reverend Jim Jones.
Jim Jones was born in Lyn, Indiana, on May 13, 1931. Lyn was a farming town, and Jones did not have many friends as a child. Home life was difficult for the family as, due to a severe lung disease, his father was unable to work and therefore relied upon only a minimal pension to maintain his family. In order to bring in some extra money for the family, Jim Jones’s mother worked in a factory. Embittered by this hardship, Jones’s father, a veteran of the First World War, began to sympathise with the racist activities of the Ku Klux Klan. This leaning always seemed strange to the young boy though, as Jones’s mother was of Cherokee Indian descent. He did not understand how his racist father could support such a relationship, and therefore saw flaws in his father’s beliefs and values.
He did not want to be a follower of this hypocritical ideology. Perhaps because he had not been shown a clear religious path by either of his parents, Jim Jones took an exceptional interest in Bible Studies at school. In all other classes he was an average student. Inspired by what he learnt and the more he came to believe in the Christian faith, the more active he became in it. When the other children would leave school together and play, Jim Jones returned home, took up his position on his parents’ front porch, and preached to the people who passed by the house.
At the age of 18, Jim decided to enrol on a religious studies course at Indiana University, and took a job as a porter at a Richmond hospital to fund this education. One year later, Jim became a pastor and also married Marceline Badwin, a nurse at the hospital. Now directly involved in the running of the church, Jim decided to introduce black worshippers into the congregation. One of his main pursuits was the running of the racially integrated church youth centre.
R ESISTANCE AND D ISAPPROVAL
In a segregated society such as that of Indianapolis, this was a
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