Some books leave an impression that’s hard to shake. Such is the case with A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown, by Julia Scheeres.
Scheeres gives a thorough, well written history of the People’s Temple Full Gospel Church and its founder Jim Jones.
The name Jim Jones is unforgettable to those of us old enough to remember the news accounts of the mass suicide and murders of over 900 people in November of 1978. In the years since, the derogatory reference to drinking the Kool Aid hearkens back to how Jones’s followers were poisoned.
The word cult comes to mind immediately. That’s what the People’s Temple became. But as Sheeres observes about Jones’s followers, no one joins a cult. Her focus on the lives of a handful of its members lends humanity to the account.
Jones founded the People’s Temple in Indianapolis in 1954. He began as a Pentecostal preacher who became quite a showman. Healings were contrived, and he gained a reputation as a seer.
The group moved to California several years later. In 1974 the Jonestown mission was started in Guyana.
The promise of racial, social and even sexual equality attracted followers. Jones was a devout socialist. It’s disturbing to consider how many today would fall right in line with the progressive ideals Jones espoused.
The greatest number of Jones’s followers were black women. Yet the group’s leadership was mostly white. This bothered some, but it did not deter them from their faithfulness to Jones.
Jones had more political clout in California than I would have guessed. He and his group had a favorable reputation among many.
A number of Jones’s followers kicked drug addiction and cleaned up their lives. Ironically, Jones himself became an addict. That’s what contributed to the paranoya and madness in his last years.
Jones claimed to be God, though he forsook the Bible. He said the letter of the law kills, but the spirit brings life.
But the spirit he cultivated was not God’s Holy Spirit.
It’s shocking and heart breaking to ponder Jones’s changing behavior and decline. He was no stranger to immorality. He became an abusive control freak. The Jonestown community became rigidly militaristic.
I confess to feeling a sense of oppression as I read the book. People in Jonestown were trapped and imprisoned there.
With that in mind, it’s mystifying that so many of Jones’s followers remained loyal to him through everything. Scheeres says they should be thought of as noble idealists who were ultimately betrayed.
But isn’t that the nature of adherents to cults? Often it’s idealism that leads to deception.
Scheeres quotes one of the survivors of Jonestown as wanting nothing to do with religion of any kind because he feels it always entails someone controlling people. I recognize that as a common complaint.
I, too, am wary of pastors and Christian leaders who are dictatorial. I’m enough of a rebel that I don’t want to be a sold out follower of any man.
And I’m a stickler for correct doctrine and Bible teaching.
I didn’t attend church regularly for several years. Believe me when I say I did a great deal of soul searching and praying before joining the church my wife and I attend.
I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a sucker to some. But I’ve had to humble myself and relearn the meaning of obedience and submission to the Lord.
Submitting to the authority of God first puts submission to church leadership in proper perspective. Knowing the one true God through His word, the Bible, and letting the Holy Spirit work in my life has made all the difference.
Since becoming a believer over 40 years ago at age 16, I’ve had a strong desire to see people come to the truth. Knowing about the deceptive beliefs of false religions and cults has been an interest of mine. It’s what drew me to read A Thousand Lives.
Nonetheless, the real reward for me in recent years has been a deeper study of the Scriptures. If a person doesn’t know what the truth is, then it’s easy for error to creep in disguised as truth.
I encourage anyone reading this post to read God’s word. Let the Holy Spirit guide you. That’s how to get acquainted with the Bible and, more importantly, its Author.
One final thought about A Thousand Lives. It contains some sexual references and profanity. The profanity comes from quotes by Jones and others Scheeres cites.
It’s a powerful read.
For my blind readers, A Thousand Lives is in audio form from the NLS collection as DB93311.