Word: jonesism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Jones followed in the dubious tradition of megalomaniacal American religious leaders. The obvious parallel lies between Jones and his self-declared idol, Father Divine. Sun Myung Moon also comes to mind; but somehow the connection to more mainstream evangelists--the Billy Grahams and Oral Roberts of the world--does not...
Jones himself, of course, provides the most fascinating figure in the debris of his cult, but the details of his psychotic life only provide surface information. What is not so obvious, at least at first glance, is the significant breakdown of values that could alienate nearly 1000 people so completely...
Worse still is the political tool the People's Temple had become before many of its members left California. Jim Jones became the late George Moscone's Housing Authority Commissioner in San Francisco two years ago because he could, on six hours' notice, produce two or three thousand obedient bodies...
Brief, staccato bursts of things everyone fears but is unable to do anything about appeared in Guyana last week. The events rankled of third-world terrorism, possible mercenary involvement (in the airstrip murders), government corruption and laziness, both on the part of Guyana and the United States. The presence of...
THE SPECULATION about Jonestown will continue for some months to come, but no answers will be found, no sweeping conclusions reached. In many respects there is nothing more to say. But as long as the image of 900 bodies, piled layer upon layer on the damp ground, persists in our...