I just watched the PBS program, "Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple," and once again was reminded of the terrible destructive potential of refligion.
Anyone who was around when the Jonestown tragedy occurred -- Nov. 18, 1978 -- will never forget what happened. More than 900 members of a cult founded by the Rev. Jim Jones committed suicide, at his orders, in their community they carved out of the jungles of Guyana.
It's an amazing and extremely disturbing story. But it's been almost 30 years and it's not something you think about all the time. One phrase that has become part of our jargon is to "drink the kool-aid," a reference to people who are so caught up in something, usually a religion, or such devoted followers of a person they have become like puppets -- Jones' followers drank cyanide-laced kool-aid.
As the show starts, they quote a member saying, "nobody starts out to join a cult." It's so true. When they joined Peoples Temple, they had high hopes for creating an idyllic community. But Jones was a sick and twisted man who used his position as a spiritual leader to achieve sinister goals. It comes through in this documentary that he was having sex with many of his male followers, for example.
Yet he seemed to have some genuinely positive goals, such as overcoming prejudice and materialism. Like many leaders who go bad, there was an element of good in what he was doing. And the fact that he was able to convince nearly 1,000 Americans to sell everything they owned and move to a remote jungle in South America to start a new life shows how influential and charismatic he was.
The documentary includes interviews with members of the cult, including Jones' adopted son, as well as reporters and engineers who went to Jonestown with Congressman Leo Ryan, the visit that triggered the tragedy. Ryan and four others were shot to death on the airstrip, after which Jones compelled everyone to kill themselves, women and children and men and boys and girls. Shockingly, this documentary includes not just photos and videos, but the actual audio tape of Jones ordering the people to drink the kool-aid, children first and then adults. It's harrowing to hear him barking out orders, "Quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly," he tells them. "Death is not the end, it's just crossing over to the other side..."
Most of the people did it. There were armed followers surrounding them but a few people managed to escape, and they were interviewed in this film. About 80 cult members were not in the compound at the time. Jones died of a gunshot to the head.
It's almost unbelievable. Unfortunately it's true.
Here's a link to the PBS website with information on the program, including a transcript:
Jonestown
God help us from anything like this ever happening again.
Sylvania, Ohio, April 15, 2007