Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
May 15, 2008
Jim Jones, the dark cloud.
“I represent divine principle, total equality, a society where people own all things in common, where there’s no rich or poor, where there are no races. Wherever there are people struggling for justice and righteousness, there I am.” - Jim Jones, founder, Peoples Temple
The Rev. Jim Jones began his small church service in Indiana, as his congregation grew, he moved to Ukiah California. It seems as if in California his madness and paranoia began to show itself, yet his followers gave little attention to the signs, instead they were completely overwhelm by the Reverend’s persuasive and fiey speeches. Some of the followers sold their homes and gave all their savings and earnings to the cult. As the madness of Jones was about to be exposed, they migrated to Guyana. In Guyana everything fell apart, the once good preacher became a monster. What began as a small church service open to all ended in mass suicide, over 900 men, women and children died.
The documentary is a good historical highlight of the tragedy, all of the major events were covered. However, not much is said about Jim Jones, except as a boy he did quite a few unusual things with his school friends that involved animals and funerals. These isolated communities and cults take time, the journey is long with deception, the swindling of the poor and disadvantage by a man with an excellent voice.
Rick Razack
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October will be the 30th anniversary of that tragic day in the history of Guyana
Wow, that is a long time ago, yet it feels very recent. 30 seems so far away.