Jonestown Informative Speech

Santiago Charry

(Open with Jonestown 1 )

How very much I have loved you. How very much Ive tried my best to give you the good
life.
These are the opening words of Jim Jones final sermon, recorded on November 18, 1978 in
what came to be known as the Jonestown Death Tape,- A sermon which, according to Richard
Rapaport in a 2003 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, resulted in the largest loss of
American life by non-natural causes until 9/11. Today, I will tell you about the origins of the
Peoples Temple, life in Jonestown, and the events that led up to the Jonestown Death Tape.
The story begins with Jim Jones, a minister who passionately preached the bible in
Indianapolis. According to researcher Anthony Miller in his book The Cult That Died,
published in 1980, from which the bulk of the narrative as told here was drawn, Jones didnt
attempt to preach any specific beliefs from the bible, rather, he focused on the moral lessons
provided, stressing acceptance of people from all denominations and making his relatively
small church more accessible than many others at the time.
Word of Jones church, the Peoples Temple, spread across Indianapolis. Soon,
members of the church and Jones began to receive racist phone calls from people in the
middle of the night as racial tensions in Indianapolis began to increase. In 1961, Jones told his
church that hed had a vision of an Indianapolis holocaust that he claimed would occur on June
15, 1967. He told them that God had shown him that Ukiah, California would be the next
location of the Peoples Temple. Despite the doubts of a few members of the church, Jones
convinced the majority to migrate with him to Ukiah, telling them that it was move now or
perish.
Gradually, Jones begin to preach less and less from the bible, weaning his followers
off of it. By the late sixties, he would use the bible only to rip out its pages and light it afire,
claiming that God had told him that the bible had become a paper idol when in fact it was
really only another goddamned book. In doing so, Jones had placed his own value as a
speaker of God above the bible itself. Jones shifted to a focus on preaching apostolic
equalitarianism which followers came to find was the same as Marxian socialism. It soon
became clear to certain followers that the Peoples Temple as a church was now only an
illusion, preaching communism instead of the bible. According to Ulman, in his 1983 article
published in JSTOR, a collective regression of choice occurs when followers of a movement

replace their own ideals with those of the movements leader, and when the leader and
followers resonate each others fears and wishes. This idea indicates that many of the
members of the Peoples Temple may have lost control over their individual actions around
this point.
The Peoples Temple also centered itself around community service. Soon, this
goodwill expanded to Guyana, near the Venezuelan border. Jones had asked the Guyana
government to allow him to start a farm to help feed the poor. The Guyana government
permitted him 3,824 acres of land in a remote jungle region. Jones told his followers that their
"promised land" in the jungle would be one of the few places where they would be safe in case
of a hydrogen bomb holocaust that could reach the U.S, as the trees would filter out
radioactivity from the breezes. In addition, Jones told them that Guyana would serve as a
refuge for all the temples blacks to stay at when his prophesized race war broke out. Jones
Promised Land ended up being more of a labor camp than a paradise, however.
According to J.T. Richardson, in his 1980 article in JSTOR, most new religions tend to
begin more socially isolated, and later contact increases, often in the form of evangelization.
However, the Peoples Temple worked in reverse, and soon was covered in a shroud of secrecy.
Several agencies and the press expressed concern for Jonestown as rumors of its
hard labor lifestyle and members who werent permitted to leave made their way out.
Deborah Layton, a Jonestown escapee, author of a personal account of Jonestown in the book
Seductive Poison, written in 1998, was interviewed by the press. She wrote of white nights,
which occurred about once a week, in which Jones would awaken the people with sirens,
calling them to the pavilion, where he would inform them that things had become hopeless
and they had to commit mass suicide for the glory of socialism, or risk torture if taken alive by
outsiders. Everyone passed through a line in which they were given a liquid to drink which
Jones claimed was poison. Everybody obeyed and it would turn out the poison was a hoax,
done to test their loyalty. Jones continued to explain that it was only a matter of time before
such actions would be necessary however. Jones had lost his mind.
As these stories reached the U.S, Congressman Leo Ryan decided to pay Jonestown a
visit along with other concerned relatives and reporters. The welcoming party appeared to be
friendly. They took a truck from the landing strip to Jonestown, where there didnt seem to be
any signs of trouble. The hosts gave a proud tour through the facilities Jonestown had
constructed before providing the guests with a feast and entertainment at the pavilion. Jim
Jones greeted all the guests warmly. A number of defectors, however, had approached them
and asked to be taken back to the U.S. with them. By the next day, the number of defectors
had reached fourteen, and a second smaller plane had to be sent for their afternoon

departure. Ryan told Jones that afternoon that he would let everyone know the rumors about
Jonestown were unfounded. However, just before leaving on the truck to reach the landing
strip, Ryan was attacked by a man with a knife. Two people managed to wrestle away the
mans knife before he could hurt Ryan. After the assault Jones asked Ryan Does this change
everything? to which Ryan responded It doesnt change everything, but it changes things.
While the guests waited at the air strip, Jones called everyone to the pavilion and began to
give his final sermon. (Play Jonestown 2)
And a violent reaction there was. The airplane arrived at the airstrip, and they were beginning
to board the plane when gunmen from the temple came and began shooting, successfully
killing all but a few of the visitors, while Jones speech went on. (Play Jonestown 3).
The gunmen finally arrived in the truck and spoke to Jones. (Play Jonestown 4).
The people lined up, taking the poison while others went to the mike to give testimonials of
thanks to Jones over the cries of the children and the majestic chords of the organ. Soon
enough, the music faded into silence with the deaths of over 900 people, a third of which were
children. Jones had his own life taken by a bullet to the head. As Barker explains in his 1986
article in JSTOR, it remains to be understood whether the victims of this disaster were active
choosers, or passive subjects who are acted upon by outside forces.
Today Ive told you about the origins of the Peoples Temple, life in Jonestown, and the
events that resulted in the end of Jonestown. The story of Jonestown is one that often leaves
us with more questions than we started with. Many of these questions, however, will never be
answered.