Q929 Summary

Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.

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FBI Catalogue: Jones speaking
Date cues on tape: Late 1973 (Reference to kidnapping of J. Paul Getty’s grandson)

People named:

Bible verses cited: None

Summary:

Jim Jones responds to a man’s question whether the greatest problem in the world is class, race or religion. “Distinctly it is class,” he starts. Later he summarizes his position: “[A]ll separation comes from class. If you’ve got money equalized, and there was no real rich, and no real poor, you’d have no racism. You’d have no religion.”

He describes religion as “the way the rich have to manipulate the poor.” The poor develop it because it gives them hope for another world. The rich don’t need religion, but they foster it and support it.

He blamed the concept of race on class as well. Racism was created when the rich needed someone to do their “dirty work,” and the race of the oppressed people varies by the circumstances of the day.

Members of Peoples Temple do not believe in private ownership, he says. Factories should be owned by the people who work in them, not by absentee landlords. “We do not believe that the rich should be entitled to own things that they do not use. No one should be able to get anything out of something, unless they put labor in it.”

Instead, he says, the love of money results in people putting wealth above family, it breeds violence, it leads to pollution. “That’s what the love of money does,” he cries. “That’s called capitalism. The love of money is the root of all evil. Your Bible tells you that… We call [capitalism] the Antichrist.”

FBI Summary:

Date of transcription: 7/2/79

In connection with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the assassination of U.S. Congressman LEO J. RYAN at Port Kaituma, Guyana, South America, on November 18, 1978, a tape recording was obtained. This tape recording was located in Jonestown, Guyana, South America, and was turned over to U.S. Officials in Guyana and subsequently transported to the United States.

On June 21, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B110-6. This tape was found to contain the following:

JIM JONES concluding a sermon with a short lecture on the “evils” of capitalism.

Differences with FBI Summary: None

Tape originally posted October 2000