Why Did Jim Jones Join The People's List

Jacob Neighbors published an article called Obey Your Father: Jim Jones’ Rhetoric of Deadly Persuasion in which he says, “Jones would often use his spoken word and charisma to influence the masses and build his ethos” (Neighbors). How Jones got people to obey was through manipulation. He made everyone give him their possessions like houses, life savings, etc. and in

To get people of different ages and racial backgrounds to be able to coexist together. This was something the great United States of America hadn’t/hasn’t figured out how to do. “Jim Jones was a very desirable man to many women, and a role model to the men. He was extremely charismatic and always came across as a good person who was always trying to help others out.” ( "Histories of Peoples Temple, Biographies of Jim Jones." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.) Even though in ways Jones manipulated the senior citizens of his church, he still looked out for them. Although he had them turn over their life savings and homes to People’s Temple, he made sure they were kept up. People’s Temple had a couple retirement homes were these older members could live with other older members. They didn’t have to pay for a thing food was provided, all their needs were met, and there numerous pictures and videos shows Jim mingling with his older members. Every member in the temple was guaranteed free medical and dental expenses. Also, him wanting to help African Americans and be a part of the Civil Rights Movement. The Jones family was the first family in Indiana to adopt a black child. He was also noted to have desegregated a couple of restaurants and a hospital while still living in Indiana. These things

Along with the division between rural and urban plantation missions, in the 1830s and 1840s, concern arose among Southern churchmen after acknowledging that multitudes of districts in the Southwest had churches that could not contain even “one-tenth of the Negro populations; besides others in which there are no churches at all”. The fact that nearly all Southwestern slave states lacked Christian institutions before plantation missions meant that religion played little to no role in the lives of the majority of slaves residing within these boundaries. Even after missionaries brought the gospel to both rural and urban slaves at home, the prevalence of plantations missions varied from state to state. This deviation shaped the role of religion in the lives of black slaves depending on which state they lived and worked in. Although missionaries urged all slaveholders to actively participate in catechizing their slaves, since the plantation mission movement geographically centered in lowland South Carolina and Georgia masters and

They would sing and dance to the music. They felt the services had life, soul and power they felt a live that what they took out of it. They would mainly be clapping hands and jumping up and down the reason where on how the services was lead. They stated that if a stranger outside their church come they didn't know about the political views and walked in their church hours they would had just thought it was an old time religious services. That the moment Jim Jones come in to preach they had already set up the service for him to talk about his views of religion. Of the world relationship to the human and the life of it. In their church every single person felt that they had a purpose in life they were suprical. Jim Jones preaching would show that he understood how it feel to be different or being the out cost of somewhere. He developed sensitivity for the problems of blacks. They would bring in many people in to the peoples temple the type of groups would be in where the young adults in college, elders, black women, it was just a widely range of diverse backgrounds. They all who entered to the peoples temple had a realization of they were something bigger than them self for the most part when Jim Jones

Pick-Jones, A. (n.d.). Jim Jones and the History of Peoples Temple (Rep.). Retrieved April 24,

Though, the organization itself worked on a basic belief of humanism, it was also divided into two groups of “believers” that made up the congregation. Jim Jones and a few select others actually claimed to be atheists, or at least agnostic, and worked on the belief that communism was the answer. The rest of the congregation was considered to be Christians, though the individual convictions of people varied. (Institute) Many referred to Jones as father, because there was a belief that their individual lives were worthless without Jones to bring them people.

Jim Jones greatest asset was his speech. It is clear listening from the audio tapes that Jones possessed a silver tongue. People would cheer, shout, and applaud the man every time he took to the podium. Jones’s preaching style is not like a typical pastor. In the tail end of the 1950s, Jones would make trips to Philadelphia and it was there where he found the template he wanted to base Peoples Temple off of. Not until Jones attended Father Divine’s Peace Mission that he saw the power Divine had over his congregation, Jones saw where a sermon could be theatrical, emotional, and physical (Race and the Peoples Temple). As Father Divine preached, he saw the worshipers’ reactions from fainting at the presence of the Holy Spirit to the healing of

The members from people’s temple were simple people who dressed simple. They were not materialistic people. They were humble. Jim Jones’s goal was to “wipe out racism and immorality throughout America.” He believed that one his people tried to reach out to others outside of where they live that he would get caught. So he wanted his people to only obey him and he believed that they’ve been betrayed by the rest and that the only way to get away from it all is for everyone to take their own lives.

In the middle of the jungle in Guyana, South America, nearly 1,000 people drank lethal cyanide punch or were shot to death, following the orders of their leader, Jim Jones. Mothers and fathers gave the deadly drink to their children and then drank it themselves. People screamed. Bodies trembled. And within a few minutes on Nov. 18, 1978, 912 people were dead.

“If you see me as your friend I’ll be your friend, if you see me as your father I’ll be your father, if you see me as your savior I’ll be your savior, if you see me as your God I’ll be your God” (Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple; hereafter, Jonestown). At one time, these words had power behind them. People would go as far as selling their homes and leaving the lives they once knew to follow the man who spoke those exact words. The man who I am referring to is none other than Jim Jones. To put it at best, Jim Jones was a man talented at making people feel like they had a purpose and were “exceptionally special” (Jonestown). He was a very charismatic man and he would use his charisma to lure people to join his church, Peoples Temple. He watched the church he had founded with less than a hundred members grow

He also ran the fear that if a majority of the community rejects Christianity then he would lose the fence sitters to peer pressure to not believe in Christianity. As Donovan (1995) states “A community…will act as a unit, accepting you or rejecting you together… it is not possible or desirable to convert the Masai as individuals, but it is possible to evangelize them as groups.”

Slaves formed religious rituals where they could connect spiritually. Secret meetings were developed in woods and cabins were they could practice their beliefs. According to Tempie Herndon Durham, a slave, “After de weddin’ we went down to de cabin Mis’ Betsy done all dressed up, but Exter couldn’t stay no longer den dat night kaze he belonged to Marse Snipes Durham an’ he had to back home.” During celebrations conducted by the slaves, they performed their own services but lacked the ability to read the Bible because they were illiterate. Therefore, understanding the message of God allowed the slaves to interpret the message in their own way as it pertained to their life. Faith was what allowed the slaves to continue the

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints was once home to nearly 800 people who all answered to Warren Jeff. Warren Jeff was the leader of a secret community that lived under rich religious beliefs. This temple was referred to as Yearning for Zion Ranch, where Mormons could live peacefully in a nontechnology society. This Mormon community grew their own food, had their own schools, and their own beliefs. The core

Coercive classroom teaching was reinforced by Scriptures such as, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth,”(2 Timothy 2:15)1 and “…be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you...”(1 Peter 3:15).2 The Scripture found in Hebrews 13:17, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves…”3 provided the cult leaders with the clout to send us out three times a week canvassing door to door and on street corners for converts.

Reverend Smith main goal is to reduce the amount of people who have converted and just stay with those who meet his standards. While he attempts to accomplish this he is encountered with situations that lead other authorities to get involved. District Commissioner calls upon six clansman under Smith's administration. “We shall not do you any harm,” said the District Commissioner to them later, “if only you agree to cooperate with us.” (Achebe, p.194) A passage that demonstrates an indirect form of threat, no harm will be done to the man only if they agree to work with the colonizing administration. Therefor, the clansman would have to give up on their beliefs and agree to work with what the administration wants to impose on the society. After a speech given by the commissioner the