Jonestown and Jim Jones 40 Years Later

Jim Jones and The People's Temple

  On this date November 18, 1978 918 People Died in a Mass Murder/Suicide at the People's Temple in Jonestown Guyana at the hands of Cult Leader James Warren Jones. In the days of Trumpism when a trump supporter says to me that I have "drank the kool-aid" I laugh hysterically because 9 times out of 10 these people have no clue what they are talking about and don't know what the origin of that phrase even means. I ask them do you know where that phrase came from and I get Crickets every time... then I usually reply I rest my case. 

Jim Jones, Charles Manson, David Koresh, and Donald Trump all Charismatic Leaders. Trump supporters are the Prime example of what Kool-Aid Drinkers truly are. If you don't believe me lets draw a comparison. 

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 says the following:

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

Throughout the world, many cult leaders will exhibit the same character traits and employ the same manipulative and coercive techniques. By nature, a leopard cannot change its spots. A bad tree will always bear bad fruit (Matthew 7:15-19).

Below are Traits or Characteristics of a Cult Leader:

A Spiritual Abuser

The cult leader is a false teacher who not only teaches false doctrines, but he also seeks to intimately control and abuse the lives of his followers. For example, he can control who you should and should not marry; he separates members from their families; he destroys marriages; No major personal decisions are made by various cult members without consulting the cult leader or without his knowledge; He brainwashes his members to perform unethical activities on his behalf or on behalf of the cult.

The cult leader is obsessed with manipulating and controlling his followers through authoritative leadership style and coercive techniques. This ultimately leads many members of the group into a state of spiritual bondage.

They Twist The Scriptures For Personal Gain

Cult leaders will constantly twist and misinterpret the Bible in order to justify their scandals or justify their sinful lifestyle. For example, many cult leaders are known to twist the Scriptures to their followers in order to justify their sexual immorality or polygamous relationships. Some will also twist the scriptures for monetary gain or for demonic mind control purposes.

2 Peter 2:3 says “And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

Narcissistic Sense of Self

Cult leaders basically believe they were born to be better than others. In fact, they are tempted to believe that nobody can be better than them. They are basically arrogant and are driven and motivated by a spirit of pride.

Eventually cult leaders tend to claim or insinuate to have power, position and authority that is exclusively godlike. They not only claim to speak for God, but they believe and teach their followers that disobeying the leader is equivalent to disobeying God. Matthew 24:24 speaks of the rise in false christs or false messiahs. This scripture does not only refer to people who claim to be Jesus Christ, but it also refers to narcissistic people who will claim to have equal authority to Christ.

Superficial Charm & Charisma

Cult leaders are actors and pretenders. They understand that discovering your weaknesses, needs and desires are a gateway to putting you in bondage. Projecting superficial charm and charisma to members or potential followers is a method of disarming people from seeing the true deceptive and controlling nature of the leader.

In their mind, it’s essential that they draw followers to themselves and therefore they feel the need to stand-out and be noticed because inwardly cult leaders consistently crave attention and recognition from their members. Therefore the charm offensive is an important part of a cult leader’s act to gain trust and admiration from unsuspecting followers.

Lack of Guilt or Remorse

The cult leader is sociopathic by nature and is therefore incapable of showing genuine empathy, guilt or remorse for any sinful behavior. For example, a cult leader may feel no remorse for destroying marriages or for exploiting and abusing his members, because cult leaders are generally proud and arrogant at their core. Sociopaths are generally known to be incapable of showing genuine love or empathy. Instead they project superficial “love” and emotions which always has the deceptive motive of desiring something back in return for their own personal gain and agenda.

1 Timothy 4:1-2 makes reference to false teachers who are hypocritical liars and have a seared conscience. This alludes to the fact that false teachers are incapable of having a good conscience because they feel no sorrow or guilt for sinful behavior. They also see no need to repent as a result. Instead a cult leader usually projects his faults on others such as his own members. Therefore their conscience is so seared or so deceived that they cannot truthfully differentiate between right and wrong.

Pathological Liars

Cult leaders are very skillful speakers and they are never at a loss for words. However, they are also pathological liars. Lying and deceit is part of their inbuilt nature and culture. Hypocrisy is their second nature. Deception is integral to achieving their objective of power and control over others. Even Jesus said of the Pharisees (who were religious leaders) “You are of your father the devil who has been a liar from the beginning” (John 8:44).

In Matthew 23:1-38, Christ also addressed the culture of lying and the hypocrisy by the Pharisees. He not only exposed their deception but He warned them of the consequences of their wickedness.

Therefore a culture of lying, hypocrisy and deception is common among cult leaders.

Authoritarian Leadership Style

Cult leaders are always authoritarian in the manner in which they lead their members.

For example, some cult leaders demand obedience from their members at the expense of obeying the scriptures. Cult leaders will also equate obeying them as being equal to obeying God, therefore insinuating that God and the cult leader have equal authority. It creates fear within the cult members so that they live to please the cult leader instead of living to please God. Cult members are taught to obey the leader even if he is wrong. The cult leader therefore creates the false perception that he is infallible and that his teachings and wisdom cannot be challenged even when he is wrong.

They Take Sexual Advantage of their Members

The issue of money, power and sex are intertwined within a cult. When cult leaders have unquestioned power and authority, it is evident that a cult leader will begin to take sexual advantage of his members.

Cult leaders often have a history of extramarital affairs. Therefore adultery and many different forms of sexual immorality are very common among cult leaders due to their grandiose sense of self and the imbalance of power that exists within the group.

With various cults, sex or sexual immorality is used as a method of control. Therefore the cult leader will have sexual relationships with his own followers as a method of emotional and psychological control over his members. For many cults, sexual immorality is also used by cult leaders as a method of initiating new members into the cult or for purposes of supposedly “bonding” with cult members (see article: How Cult Leaders Use Sex To Control Followers)

Cult Leaders Lack Boundaries & Exploit Weaknesses

2 Timothy 3:5-6 speaks of men who have the “appearance of godliness” but yet they take advantage of “weak women”. Paul tells Timothy in verse 5 that such people should be avoided.

Cult leaders do not respect individual or relationship boundaries. They feel entitled to impose or worm their way without any respect for the personal or relationship boundaries of others.

They are always looking for weaknesses in an individual’s life so that they can manipulate for their own personal gain.

Cult leaders also tend to look for followers who are gullible, easily exploited and weak minded.

They Use Sycophants to Ensure Compliance from Members

Sycophants are informers and self-seeking cult members who usually praise the cult leader in order to gain advantage. The cult leader uses them to spy on other members and to ensure that members are complying with the cult’s values and traditions. Sycophants pass information upwards to the cult leader about who is complying and who is rebelling within the group. They also update the cult leader about what individual members are saying, feeling or behaving within the group.

Cult Leaders View Outsiders as Enemies or Inferior

Cults generally have an Us versus Them mentality where anybody who is outside of the cult is seen as inferior to the cult. This mentality also forms the basis of why cults generally tend to promote themselves under the deceptive guise of “evangelism” as they feel that anyone who is not part of the cult is not fully enlightened. Therefore cults believe that people require the cult’s specific indoctrinations or to be recruited into the group.

The cult leader therefore projects himself as the “best” among preachers and he presents his doctrines as the “best” among other religious groups and anyone who is not part of the cult is considered to be “lost” or unenlightened.

Any non-members who disagree with the cult leader’s theology are seen as potential enemies and likewise cult members are not allowed to associate with any outside religious groups or individuals who are likely to discover the cult’s true deceptive nature.

The leader therefore isolates his group from ex-members or from families or from religious groups that are likely to discern and expose the true nature of the group.

They View People as Assets & Objects

Sociopaths do not really view people as friends. Instead to a sociopath, people are assets; people are victims; people are accomplices; people are fools who can be conned for his own personal gain.

Just like a sociopath, cult leaders are interested in only achieving the objective that meets their personal and selfish gain. As a result, a cult leader views his cult members as inferior to himself and as people whom he is meant to control, manipulate and dominate.

Titus 1:16 says the following of false teachers: “They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work”

It’s therefore very important that people be vigilant and aware of the false deceptions and the many deceivers who now exist in the world.

1 John 4:1 says: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

this is Textbook Donald J. Trump! if you disagree then you are part of his cult. 

James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American religious cult leader who, along with his inner circle, initiated and was responsible for a mass suicide and mass murder in Jonestown, Guyana. Jones achieved notoriety as the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple cult.

Jones was officially ordained in 1956 by the Independent Assemblies of God and in 1964 by the Disciples of Christ. He moved the Temple to California in 1965 and gained notoriety with its activities in San Francisco in the early 1970s. He then relocated to Guyana. In 1978, media reports surfaced that human rights abuses were taking place in the Peoples Temple in Jonestown. U.S. Representative Leo Ryan led a delegation into the commune to investigate what was going on; Ryan and others were murdered by gunfire while boarding a return flight with defectors. Jones subsequently committed a mass murder-suicide of 918 of his followers, 304 of whom were children, almost all by cyanide poisoning via Flavor Aid.

As a child, Jones was a voracious reader who studied Stalin, Marx, Mao, Gandhi and Hitler, carefully noting the strengths and weaknesses of each.Jones also developed an intense interest in religion, primarily because he found making friends difficult. Childhood acquaintances later recalled Jones as being a "really weird kid" who was "obsessed with religion ... obsessed with death". They alleged that he frequently held funerals for small animals on his parents' property and had stabbed a cat to death. *Donald Trump Keeps a book of Hitler's Speeches on his nightstand. Jones admitted his Father was a Member of the KKK in the 1950's and His Family were members of the Communist Party during this time. (Donald Trump's Father Fred was in the KKK in the 1920's) In 1960 Jones did an about face and after becoming an ordained minister in 1956 then in 1960 opening his own Church calling it The People's Temple.  He became the Human Rights Commissioner by the Mayor of Indianapolis Indiana. 

Mayor Charles Boswell urged Jones to keep a low profile but Jones refused and accepted every photo op and TV show Invitation. It was during this time that Jones and his wife Marceline adopted several mixed race children and called it their "Rainbow Family."

The People's Temple became so large by the Beginning of the 1970's that Jones decided to move the Congregation to San Francisco CA. It was after that when Jones became Addicted to Drugs. The Abuse both Physical and Sexual began when the Temple was in CA. Jones became more addicted to drugs and became paranoid. He decided to move his congregation out of the Country in early 1978 to  to Cover up his Drug addiction and Human Rights Abuses. 

Leo Ryan Murder and Air Strip Shootings. 

Congressman Leo Ryan his Aide Jackie Speier and his crew of reporters and photographers from various newspapers and news agencies headed to Guyana on a fact finding mission to see how the members of The People's Temple were being treated. 

they received complaints from family members about abuse and not being able to contact their loved ones. They landed in Guyana on November 15, 1978. 

They arrived at Jonestown on November 17,1978. Reverend Jones had a reception for them all at the giant pavilion there was food, and entertainment provided by the temple members. 

The Fact Finding Mission packed up and left abruptly in the morning hours of November 18th because Congressmen Ryan was assaulted with a knife by one of the Temple members. Not feeling safe they decided to leave and taking 15 members of the People's Temple with them who chose to leave of their own free will. 

Congressman Ryan after he was attacked at Jonestown

As the Group boarded the airplanes a group of Temple members Drove up and opened fire on the Group. 5 members were killed and the others injured. Congressman Ryan, NBC Reporter Don Harris, Cameraman Bob Brown, Photographer Greg Robinson, and Temple Member Patricia Parks were all killed. Congressman Ryan's Aid Jackie Speier was shot 5 times but survived. She now holds the same Seat in Congress That Leo Ryan held at the time of his death. 

Jackie Speier Today

Mass Murder/Suicide

Jones called all the Temple members to the Pavilion and announced to everyone that everyone at the airstrip was dead. (that wasn't true) and that they all needed to commit an act of Revolutionary Suicide. He had some women of the temple create a mixture of Cyanide, a sedative, and Grape Kool-Aid or Grape Flavor-Aid in large containers and had members line up and drink the mixture from Dixie cups then lay down to die. Those who refused were held down and injected with the mixture. 

All in all 918 died 304 were infants and young children spoon fed the mixture. 

Jim Jones ever the coward shot himself in the head. an Autopsy was performed and the toxicology results showed he had enough sedatives in him to kill him if the gunshot didn't work. 

Marceline Jones was found dead near the Pavilion poisoned she voluntarily took the Cyanide. 

Aftermath

Surviving Jones Children

Stephan, Jim Jr., and Tim Jones did not take part in the mass suicide because they were playing with the Peoples Temple basketball team against the Guyanese national team in Georgetown.At the time of events in Jonestown, Stephan and Tim were both nineteen and Jim Jones Jr. was eighteen. Tim's biological family, the Tuppers, which consisted of his three biological sisters, biological brother, and biological mother,all died at Jonestown. Three days before the tragedy, Stephan Jones refused, over the radio, to comply with an order by his father to return the team to Jonestown for Ryan's visit.

Stephan Jones was accused of being involved in the Jonestown deaths, and was placed in a Guyanese prison for three months.Tim Jones and Johnny Cobb, another member of the Peoples Temple basketball team, were asked to go to Jonestown and help identify the bodies of people who had died. After returning to the United States, Jim Jones Jr. was placed under police surveillance for several months while he lived with his older sister, Suzanne, who had previously turned against the Temple.

Chaeoke Jones, Lew Jones, and Terry Carter Jones. Father, mother, and child all died in the mass suicide.

When Jonestown was first being established, Stephan had originally avoided two attempts by his father to relocate to the settlement. He eventually moved to Jonestown after a third and final attempt. He has since said that he gave in to his father's wishes to move to Jonestown because of his mother. Stephan Jones is now a businessman, and married with three daughters. He appeared in the documentary Jonestown: Paradise Lost which aired on the History Channel and Discovery Channel. He stated he will not watch the documentary and has never grieved for his father. One year later, he appeared in the documentary Witness to Jonestown where he responds to rare footage shot inside the Peoples Temple.

Jim Jones Jr., who lost his wife and unborn child at Jonestown, returned to San Francisco. He remarried and has three sons from this marriage,including Rob Jones, a high-school basketball star who went on to play for the University of San Diego before transferring to Saint Mary's College of California.

Lew, Agnes, and Suzanne Jones

Lew and Agnes Jones both died at Jonestown. Agnes Jones was thirty-five years old at the time of her death. Her husband and four children all died at Jonestown. Lew Jones, who was twenty-one years old at the time of his death, died alongside his wife Terry and son Chaeoke. Stephanie Jones had died at age five in a car accident in May 1959.

Suzanne Jones married Mike Cartmell; they both turned against the Temple and were not in Jonestown on November 18, 1978. After this decision to abandon the Temple, Jones referred to Suzanne openly as "my goddamned, no good for nothing daughter" and stated that she was not to be trusted. In a signed note found at the time of her death, Marceline Jones directed that the Jones' funds were to be given to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and specified: "I especially request that none of these are allowed to get into the hands of my adopted daughter, Suzanne Jones Cartmell." Cartmell had two children and died of colon cancer in November 2006.

Source: Wikipedia  and Inspired walk 12 characteristics of a Cult leader