By Author: Hope-Elena Sardella-Claunch
Originally submitted for : LSTD – 2203 – Evil Actions , Religious Reasons
University of Oklahoma – College of Professional and Continuing Studies
Nov, 16, 2020
Kimball’s (2009) “When Religion Turns Evil” reveals key terms common in all religions, are also vehicles for evil to exist. This Journal entry attempts explores the example of Jonestown, operated by Jim Warren Jones. An escape’ of the mass murder orchestrated by Jones, stated the last words of Jim Jone’s that he heard as he was escaping Jonestown was the sound of his voice mocking the screaming, desperate pleas for help from the children, as they begged their mothers not to force them to consume poison (Eric Strum, 2019). Jim Jones was able to use the structure of a religious sect/cult through the ordination from the Pentecostal church with no formal religious education, giving him the credibility of sacred texts that were misinterpreted for personal gain, therefore allowing deadly messages of an ideal time to lead over a thousand people to their murder. Concerning the religious cultures discussed here, the author has acknowledged Ethnocentrism to identify flaws in academic work centered around bias in results that are influenced by the tendency to lean toward conclusions made by researchers’ culture seem more superior (Rodriquez, n.d). Familiar narratives of Jonestown employed perceptive writing to negate the responsibility of the United States government’s complicity in what occurred. Consequentially, undermining the experience of the victims created a blatant trail of omissions and ultimately endangered society. In order to prevent such crimes being committed in the future it’s imperative one reflects on current narratives that simply just don’t add up. The analysis proceeds to review subsequent roles that evil within Jonestown was allowed by identifying the State Department of California’s explicit negation of responsibility.
What is Sect & Cults?
The word Sect or Cult may sound esoteric and mysterious, but it is merely a term to describe a branch of religious movements that differ from conventional religion. Due to sects and cults abandoning societal norms and religions, they face scrutiny by society, which usually brings an automatic bias. First, sects are variations of pre-established religions that retain their root religions’ entire belief system and practices; similarly, cults; tend to have less content or influence is in traditional beliefs by using a set of unique customs and ideologies (Kimball, 2008, pg. 83). Almost all religions are rooted today from a sect or cult. For example, Christianity started as a religious crusade in Palestine in the first century within the Jewish way of life (Kimball, 2008, pg. 83). It is essential to remember our past in order to diminish bias through reflection on one of the most common religions in western civilization being a sect/cult.
Although sects and cults share the negative bias associations with significant events in which a cult or sect becomes associated with heinous or capital crimes. Subsequently, a portion or all the group’s actions set a lasting president on the sect/cult’s entire image (Kimball, 2008, pg. 83). Society is justified in reviewing these organizations through these negative scenarios that have occurred in history. However, the community of scholars should make more effort to prevent these occurrences through a more transparent examination of how the agency supplies acts of evil. Only then will we cease occurrences of unbridled power in their tracks. According to the text of Kimball (2008), sects & cults are small evolutions actualized in religious thought; animated with leaders with strong charismatic traits; consequentially allowing for persuasion with un-unique spiritual messages, contextualized as reformations of prior religious sects (Kimball, 2008, pg. 83). The presence of charismatic traits is familiar in religious sects and cult, along with the process’ that usually cause them to develop.
Ideal Times & The Sacred
Mechanisms used as forces of good can also be used as a catalyst for evil. A primary example of how charismatic leaders have led atrocities in western civilization is the case of James Warren Jones (Jones), who created a vast following in the nineteen-fifties by using messages of an ‘ideal time.’ Societies’ instinct to endlessly pursue a wholly unrealistic existence is upbeat and even hopeful. However, the persuasive traits of charisma, along with perpetually apocalyptic messages, have historically been reassuring indicators of significant abuses of power in sects & cults (Kimball, pg. 114). Sacred texts are abused through the permission of a presiding religion to represent text and through the application and extraction of the information in the sacred text (Kimball, pg. 62). With the use of the Pentecostal religious sacred texts, Jones integrated ideologies of socialism & communist agendas and racial integration; that attracted young people majority of Jone’s followers were baby boomers born into the Great Depression and had endured long-term racial and economic oppression; ideologies of capitalism to be questioned, causing Americans to be attracted to socialist messages and racial equity (pg. 85). These socialism messages embody messages of “idealized time” or romanticized expectations of reality that could have consequences proven to be significant driving factors that are facilitating evil. It is evident that the evil committed used a mix of the literal and metaphorical connotations of the ‘ideal time.’.
Jones was handed the keys to success through the allowance of whom ordained him. In nineteen-sixty, The Christian Church, also known as Disciples of Christ, became the primary authorizing agency of ordaining Jones and approved The Peoples Temple into their sect; (Kimball, pg. 85). When the Church of Christ decided to ordain Jones, they technically made history because it was not customary or permitted to ordain individuals with no secular schooling. There are so many lessons that we can learn from Jonestown: If Jones was ordained through proper religious channels he may not have been supplied with the means for financial growth. Jone’s efforts snowballed out of control when he relocated the congregation to California rapidly gaining followers; and corralling the indoctrinated followers in a specific location gave him more power to sway member to relinquish all their assets to the church; eventually led to initial reports of the illegal activities got into the media (pg. 86). Jones decided he would isolate his followers by developing a religious communal encampment on a remote area in Guyana. These tactics of seclusion to gain even more control where he could eventually commit mass murder.
U.S Government a Vehicle for Evil
Requests for investigation in the Jonestown cult in Guyana pushed Leo Ryan to make a personal visit to the most dangerous religious zealot of the 1970s with no protection. He entered the compound with only a camera crew; shortly after arrival, he received a clear indication from people in Jonestown that they were being held against their will; the congressman left with plans to obtain reinforcements but was murdered along with his colleagues the next day at the airstrip (Kimball, 2008, pg. 88). In hindsight, it is astonishing how Congressman Ryan carried out this investigation,, and was permitted to conduct such an expedition that required a trained tactical team. Congressman Ryan thought he was about to walk into a completely harmless situation, but he was indeed in the lion dens. After murdering the congressman and officials, Jones administered a concoction of cyanide to 638 adults and 276 children and mocked the sounds of their screams while they died (Kimball, 2008, pg. 88). Sending unqualified government representatives to investigate Jonestown led to the murder of California congressman Leo Ryan. Ultimately arrows towards other presiding investigative agencies that may have rejected initial claims of abuse, which eventually required a congressman’s assistance to intervene on his constituent’s behalf. It is common knowledge that Congressmen are usually a constituents’ last-ditch effort addressing major societal concerns. Why is it that it had reached the point that a congressman had to investigate? Often the answers raised in the things the government does not say.
Recent evidence has come to light declassified testimony in tape recordings conducted with Leo Ryan with an escape’ from Jonestown. In the interview, Ryan says to the victim Blakey:
Ryan: “Let us suppose that I went down there to Guyana, to Jonestown, and said, ‘If anybody wants to leave, they can leave with me right now’ “What would the result be.”
Blakey: I do not think anybody would go with them
Ryan: Well, doesn’t that prove that Jim Jones is right? That he is doing the right thing and not being a bad guy at all and that your story is pure hokum.
(“Jackie Speier Hears Newly Uncovered Jonestown Tape for the First Time,” -2:55 – 2:50)
Jackie Speier, a survivor of Jonestown killings at the airstrip, was the assistant to deceased former boss Leon Ryan, states on record after listening to the new evidence she states on record:
“It should have never had gotten to the point where people could not leave on their own volition; the state department did not do its jobs. It had a duty to warn, it had a study to investigate, and it had a duty to protect, and it failed on all three of those”
(“Jackie Speier Hears Newly Uncovered Jonestown Tape For the First Time,” -3:25-3:40).
Speier’s testimony affirms Jonestown had gotten entirely out of control and was ignored by every department within California, which consequentially led to the reasons why Speier, Ryan, and staff from congress went to Guyana to investigate Jonestown.
The declassified audio of congressman Leo Ryan only leads to more questions and begs one to consider that evil is not a one-way road; it is paved with the allowance of evil and those who pay for it. In addition to Speier’s assertion that the state department failed in their duties to the citizens to prevent such’s crimes against humanity, she states: “He (Congressman Ryan) never took whatever he was told on face value he wanted to dig deeper he wanted to be questioning what was being told to him evaluating it, and he did not trust the bureaucracy, and I think, not that I do not trust the bureaucracy, I will challenge it” (“Jackie Speier Hears Newly Uncovered Jonestown Tape For the First Time,” -3:50- 4:19). The preliminary evidence paints a clear picture; that even though there was considerable skepticism in Ryan’s voice in the interview with Blakley, Ryan knew he had an obligation to the people to investigate Jonestown, and he paid the ultimate price in the pursuit of truth in the face of mass deception.
Conclusion:
The occurrences of Jonestown has taken me aback by the magnitude of it all. After listing to the voice of Jim Jones on several documentaries, in “the death tapes,” where he mocks the screams of the children, his actions were and is an exemplary example of the epitome of evil, and I genuinely believe he was the modern-day Hitler; if Hitler could have re-engineered his plans. Sadly, the overlapping narratives that allowed him to continue his efforts were equally evil. There is a saying the cover-up was worse than the crime. If these avenues are continuously made available for evil to exist it will persist, unless people take a closer look.
References
Kimball, C. (2008). When religion becomes evil. New York, NY: Harpercollins.
Rodriquez, F. (n.d). “What is Chronocentricity?”. The University of Oklahoma