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| | [[Image:Jonestown.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The Jonestown pavillion, November 20, 1978]] | | [[Image:Jonestown.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The Jonestown pavillion, November 20, 1978]] |
| − | The '''Jonestown Massacre''' took place on November 18, 1978, in a settlement in northern [[Guyana]], where 914 members of the People's Temple cult committed mass suicide under the leadership of Reverend Jim Jones, including five people murdered at a nearby airstrip. | + | The '''Jonestown Massacre''' consisted of a charismatic communist, [[Jim Jones]], leading his cult to a mass suicide on November 18, 1978, in a settlement in northern [[Guyana]]. In total, 914 members of the People's Temple cult died, including five people murdered at a nearby airstrip. |
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| | ==History== | | ==History== |
| | ===Jim Jones=== | | ===Jim Jones=== |
| − | James Warren Jones was born on May 13, 1931 in Lynn, Indiana, the only child of James Thurmond and Lynetta Jones. He was an average child in elementary school, but in high school he was among the top of his class due to a high IQ. He got along well with others, but he was charismatic and had learned how to manipulate and control them to his advantage. Biographies of favorite world leaders were read, among them [[Machiavelli]], [[Mohandas K. Gandhi | Gandhi]], [[Marx]], [[Stalin]], and [[Hitler]]. | + | James Warren Jones ("Jim Jones") was born on May 13, 1931 in Lynn, Indiana, the only child of James Thurmond and Lynetta Jones. He was an average child in elementary school, but in high school he was among the top of his class due to a high IQ. He got along well with others, but he was charismatic and had learned how to manipulate and control them to his advantage. Biographies of favorite world leaders were read, among them [[Machiavelli]], [[Mohandas K. Gandhi | Gandhi]], [[Marx]], [[Stalin]], and [[Hitler]]. |
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| | At the same time as high school and [[World War II]] had ended, Jones was in the streets preaching. Changing towns from Lynn to nearby Richmond, his message was one of racial equality, and he focused his efforts in the north side of town in a black residential area. He was married in June, 1949, and ordained a minister by 1953; his effective preaching style would come out in Columbus, Indiana later that year. Wanting his own congregation, he raised money by selling monkeys door-to-door, and rented a building in Indianapolis in a racially-mixed neighborhood where "Community Unity" was opened in 1954. | | At the same time as high school and [[World War II]] had ended, Jones was in the streets preaching. Changing towns from Lynn to nearby Richmond, his message was one of racial equality, and he focused his efforts in the north side of town in a black residential area. He was married in June, 1949, and ordained a minister by 1953; his effective preaching style would come out in Columbus, Indiana later that year. Wanting his own congregation, he raised money by selling monkeys door-to-door, and rented a building in Indianapolis in a racially-mixed neighborhood where "Community Unity" was opened in 1954. |
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| | + | Though Christian religious terminology was used by the media to describe Jim Jones' following, in fact his belief system was communistic. |
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| | ===People's Temple=== | | ===People's Temple=== |
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| | ==Repercussions== | | ==Repercussions== |
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| − | Popular consciousness in America likened the Jim Jones cult to other, more ordinary [[new religious movements]] (NRM). For example, people thought members of the [[Unification Church]] of Rev. Moon might also commit mass suicide.
| + | The liberal media likened the Jim Jones cult to very different [[new religious movements]] (NRM), and distracted public attention from the unchristian communism at the core of Jim Jones' belief system. |
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| | ==References== | | ==References== |