I got an Epoch Times or Prager ad yesterday that went something like, “There’s a lot of talk in the media about right wing violence. But did you know those on the liberal left also promote violence? One famous example is Reverend Jim Jones, who tricked his followers into believing they could live a socialist lifestyle until he forced them to drink a cyanide-laced cocktail in an act of socialist revolutionary suicide!”
"Before forming a church, Jim Jones had become enamored of communism and was frustrated by the harassment communists received in the U.S. during the Red Scare.[2] This, among other things, provided a clerical inspiration for Jones; as he himself described in a biographical recording:[2][3]
I decided, how can I demonstrate my Marxism? The thought was, infiltrate the church. So I consciously made a decision to look into that prospect.
Although Jones feared a backlash for being a communist, he was surprised when a Methodist superintendent (whom he had not met through the American Communist Party) helped him into the church, despite his knowledge that Jones was a communist.[4] In 1952, Jones became a student pastor in Sommerset Southside Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, but left that church because it barred him from integrating African-Americans into his congregation.[3] In 1954, Jones began his own church in a rented space in Indianapolis, at first naming it the Community Unity Church.[3] "
Jim Jones and his wife were the first couple to legally adopt a Black child in the state of Indiana
"Jones carefully wove in that the Temple's home for senior citizens was established on the basis "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need", quoting Karl Marx's Critique of the Gotha Program.[13] He did so knowing that his Christian audience would recognize the similarities with text from the Acts of the Apostles (4:34–35) which stated: "distribution was made to each as any had need."[13] Jones would repeatedly cite that passage to paint Jesus as a communist, while at the same time attacking much of the text of the Bible.[13]"
"The Temple had little luck converting most Midwesterners to communist ideals, even when disguised as religion.[14] Admiring the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Jones traveled to the island nation in 1960 in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade poor black Cubans to move to his congregation in Indiana.[" I believe it was before or after Jones' return from meeting Castro that he began to fall under the spell of anti-communist wrecking & CIA infiltration/psychological games
"Regardless of its official membership, the Temple also regularly drew 3,000 people to its San Francisco services alone.[38] Of particular interest to politicians was the Temple's ability to produce 2,000 people for campaign work or attendance in San Francisco on only six hours' notice."
it was a powerful social coalescing. What it became is highly dependent on the political & parapolitical atmosphere of this period
I got an Epoch Times or Prager ad yesterday that went something like, “There’s a lot of talk in the media about right wing violence. But did you know those on the liberal left also promote violence? One famous example is Reverend Jim Jones, who tricked his followers into believing they could live a socialist lifestyle until he forced them to drink a cyanide-laced cocktail in an act of socialist revolutionary suicide!”
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"Before forming a church, Jim Jones had become enamored of communism and was frustrated by the harassment communists received in the U.S. during the Red Scare.[2] This, among other things, provided a clerical inspiration for Jones; as he himself described in a biographical recording:[2][3]
Although Jones feared a backlash for being a communist, he was surprised when a Methodist superintendent (whom he had not met through the American Communist Party) helped him into the church, despite his knowledge that Jones was a communist.[4] In 1952, Jones became a student pastor in Sommerset Southside Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, but left that church because it barred him from integrating African-Americans into his congregation.[3] In 1954, Jones began his own church in a rented space in Indianapolis, at first naming it the Community Unity Church.[3] "
Jim Jones and his wife were the first couple to legally adopt a Black child in the state of Indiana
"Jones carefully wove in that the Temple's home for senior citizens was established on the basis "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need", quoting Karl Marx's Critique of the Gotha Program.[13] He did so knowing that his Christian audience would recognize the similarities with text from the Acts of the Apostles (4:34–35) which stated: "distribution was made to each as any had need."[13] Jones would repeatedly cite that passage to paint Jesus as a communist, while at the same time attacking much of the text of the Bible.[13]"
"The Temple had little luck converting most Midwesterners to communist ideals, even when disguised as religion.[14] Admiring the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Jones traveled to the island nation in 1960 in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade poor black Cubans to move to his congregation in Indiana.[" I believe it was before or after Jones' return from meeting Castro that he began to fall under the spell of anti-communist wrecking & CIA infiltration/psychological games
"Regardless of its official membership, the Temple also regularly drew 3,000 people to its San Francisco services alone.[38] Of particular interest to politicians was the Temple's ability to produce 2,000 people for campaign work or attendance in San Francisco on only six hours' notice."
it was a powerful social coalescing. What it became is highly dependent on the political & parapolitical atmosphere of this period