Some time back I met Janja Lalich. She is a professor of sociology who spent more than 10 years in a cult (Democratic Workers Party, a radical left-wing political cult). Her research and writing is focused on cults and authoritarian groups with a focus on charismatic authority, power relations, ideology and social control.
I learned the most about the Jonestown Massacre from her.
Tuesday marked exactly 30 years since more than 900 people died in Guyana as victims of Jim Jones” influence.
Jones was a charismatic minister who was not ordained by any church and began with a small church of his own before coming to California.
Many of the victims of the Jonestown Massacre hailed from this region.
Jones built a ministry in San Francisco under the guise of a program to help the young, old and poor. He was respected and powerful in Northern California.
At first he seemed kind and generous, championing many social service causes, including an organization for widows of law enforcement personnel.
He claimed to be a prophet.
Jones supplied grants for newspapers, saying he wanted to defend free speech. He charmed the print and broadcast media as well as politicians. He spread money and promises.
He gave to the NAACP and the Ecumenical Peace Institute among many other organizations.
Jones forced members to give up all of their money and to sell their homes.
In San Francisco Jones would become best-known as the sinister leader of People”s Temple. The People”s Temple had about 8,000, mostly poor and mostly black members who joined Jones, essentially doing anything he said. Most members moved to Guyana at the north side of South America with leader Jim Jones. The group was there for about a year when reports began surfacing that Americans were held against their will.
Congressman Leo J. Ryan from California investigated along with four others who were killed when they tried to assist 13 members who were attempting escape. Following the murders, Jones became increasingly paranoid. People began defecting wriggling free from the immense stronghold of Jones. After the accusations of abuse, Jones turned to murder and “revolutionary suicide.”
The cult ended in a most horrific mass murder-suicide.
The members at Jonestown were ordered to drink a cyanide-laced beverage. All who did not drink it were shot. Jones too was shot, some say by a nurse.
Lalich presents a framework for understanding cult commitment and behavior based on a comparative study of Heaven”s Gate, which committed collective suicide in 1997, and the Democratic Workers Party. She has written numerous books, helped many people who suffered and were brainwashed.
The list of the dead from that day is immense and staggering really.
It?s a horrific day woven into the lives of so many Americans, so many Californians.
Certainly we have witnessed more cult tragedy since Jonestown. There”s Waco, Texas, the men, women and children who died as followers of David Koresh with The Branch Davidians. More recently a polygamist cult surfaced in Texas. The terror that some people have endured is surely unimaginable for a great number of us.
I am taking this moment to honor those who died and those who survived this phenomenally painful piece of history 30 years later.
To learn more about Jonestown visit www.rickross.com, www.culteducation.com, www.answers.com. www.peoplestemple.com. To obtain literature by Janja Lalich visit your bookstore or library seeking titles: Bounded Choice, The Violent Outcomes of Ideological Extremism: What Have We Learned Since Jonestown? Or find out more online at www.janjalalich.com.
Mandy Feder is assistant managing editor/night desk for the Record-Bee. She can be reached at mandyfeder@yahoo.com or 263-5636 ext. 32. Opinions are those of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Lake County Record-Bee or its management.
