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Jones: (Voice rises to ministerial cadence) Twenty years ago in China, under the dominion of the white masters and Christian missionaries, China was dying, a million a day. Christian missionaries were walking down the streets, pushing their bodies aside, as a rich oil millionaire uncle of mine, who did not want to re– remind himself that he was one-fifth Indian. He used to talk about pushing the bodies out of the way of little children, as they starved in the streets of China. China had 600 languages. China was a divided people. China had the worst suffering and the worst (unintelligible word) and the worst famine that were ever known to history. But I did declare if they that did not express their knowledge that knew me, I would pick up the rocks, the stones. And over in China, they threw out the missionaries that pushed the bodies aside. And my millionaire uncle that my mother once looked to and said, oh what a perfect marriage he and his wife had, he never helped a little Chinese baby that starved. But I remember before he died – I wouldn’t go to his funeral, ’cause I was just a lad, because I came into the knowledge, I entered the Temple of the Holy Spirit of Truth, I was conducted as God when I was just knee high to a grasshopper. I became the “I Am” long before I ever entered a church (Exodus 3:14, “And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.”). They said, go to Uncle Lester’s funeral. I said, I wouldn’t go to the dog’s funeral. Anybody that would kick little Chinese bodies aside, and say well, you can’t concern yourself about them, and they would kick their selves– these bodies aside, and would go to what they called the American Club, for whites only. And the missionaries went to it for whites only. And on the lawns of those American clubs– (angry) I want you to quit your laughing, and look to me, or I’ll throw you clear out into Hades. I’m talking over here in my choir. (Pause) And so, on those yards of the American club of the rich, imperialist American fascist wi– rich wealthy interests, on the yard, even where the missionaries lived, it said, (Slows for emphasis) “No Dogs and Chinese Allowed.” Twenty years ago, the Chinese were considered as dogs. (Pause) But my friends, my spirit is working there, and you have to be prepared that we may have no other victory than there, but absolute victory is going to come there.
Congregation: Applause.
Jones: Peace. That same China today has an underground network of lead granite shelters. I read to you yesterday, Ingrid Bergman– Ann Landers– they’re overwhelmed with the love of the government of China for its people. Underground shelters that reach out like anthills throughout their universe, that accommodate millions of people down beneath the surface of the earth. Hospitals, doctors, stores, hotels, all underground. That should tell you immediately, when a government provides underground shelters with a year of food stored, the only government in the world, the next government that does it closer is uh– socialist Sweden, and the next, socialist Russia. But America does not have one shelter for its people. If a government does not provide a shelter or food for its people, or underground tunnels, when a nuclear can happen any minute, that will obliterate our cities – Dr. Kissinger [Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger] said this week, it could happen any minute over the oil crisis – and yet this government is not like China. The government there is a government of the people, (draws out for emphasis) by the people and for the people.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: (Voice lowers to normal tone) That government cares about its people. And it was in the newspaper, and I read it to you, this actress, this rich actress was overwhelmed, as she spent her vacation, just wandering through the tunnels and the hospitals and the dining rooms and the health c– care centers and the doctor’s clinics and the hotels that were underground. (Shouts) Wake up. (Pause) (Normal tone) Twenty years. Nuclear war is going to come. The elements are going to melt with the fervent heat. That’s why I wanted you out into the Promised Land, because America was first, and it will be last. It will suffer worse in this war than (draws out for emphasis) all other nations. For its government does not love its people. Its government has made no provision for its people. We don’t even have four days of grain. We are not concerned. Rather than give milk to people– the government could buy it up, because the government gives money to Lockheed, the government gives money to Trans World Airlines, the money gives welfare to the rich, gives money to keep the rich richer. But it won’t give a dime to buy up milk, and this past few days, they’ve been pouring milk in the rivers of California, because they cannot get the price they want, while our people in Mississippi have no more food stamps, and Alabama and Georgia, and they’re eating starch three times a day. Our government does not love its people. (Ministerial tone) But I’m telling you, you’ve got to be ready to be so satisfied to live what God is. God is love, and love is socialism. And socialism means, from each according to his ability to each according to his need. Some said, I’m working so hard, and everybody else doing so little. That’s the way it is, till the revolution comes. But because some of you are working so hard, and you are giving of your ability– that’s the motto, that’s what I am when they say, they look to Jim Jones. They’re not looking to Jim Jones, they’re looking to God, which is Love, which is Socialism, which is, from each according to his ability to each according to his need (Acts 4:34-5, “Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.”).
Congregation: Applause
Jones: And I know that oftentimes you get weary in well-being because you have such ability and people will pull from you, and others will sit in here, and they will drink up in parasite– like little leeches, they’ll pull on you, take the last drop of blood. I saw two in counsel last night. One was living like Lazarus (Lazarus in John 11 and Luke 16:20-31), they were– he was in heaven– one was in heaven, the other was in hell, setting at the same counsel table. One was worshipping capitalism, one had no love. The other one was on the road to socialism, but they were side by side. We shall say these two gentlemen were side by side, and yet one of them was in hell. One of them had tasted of the waters of life (Revelation 21:6, “And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”), and the other had no knowledge. The one person had a freedom, the other person was all tied up. They had their money, they had their possessions, they weren’t sharing what they had to give, but they were in hell, and anybody could see it all over their face.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: (Voice lowers to warning tone) And remember, all those that take, the takers, they get it. My rich uncle that my mother admired – said, oh what a wonderful marriage he had – (Pause) he walked over everyone and had millions of dollars and drove Lincolns and Cadillacs. But at 56 years of age, he died, but not before being ill over a year before. He developed cancer, and his quiet, subdued little wife broke loose and brought every kind of man and party under his nose, and the last day, ten days of his life, while he was still conscious, he’d run out of his last dime, she’d run him through, and she took off, and there was nobody even to stand with him while he died. The rich never prosper. Always, their end comes (emphatically) bitterly. I remember the sister that I healed and counseled here, Carrie Langston, who’s now supervisor of one of our beautiful convalescent homes up in Redwood Valley, the black sister from Texas who also died and I resurrected her. She told of the rich woman over here in Beverly Hills, all of her children, all of her people came in and stole her blind, before she died, stripped her of everything she had. You heard her testify here. And I’ve heard that testimony from people after people, of how rich people had to live under protection, because when the final moments come, and finally, her own children (breathless) poisoned her. (Voice rises) Terry went away and she said, please Terry, don’t go away, but Terry had to go away. She didn’t think of Terry when Terry should’ve been thought of. She never gave Terry any money to help her when Terry had problems with her family, so she had to go. That’s (unintelligible word) with rich people. They always want. And they get that way– what they want, for a while, they grade drain dry, everybody they can, but then (shouted word) finally the worm turns. (Pause) (Voice rises, quickens) My uncle died, and she died, the woman I just mentioned a few weeks ago, died in Beverly Hills, and they got everything she had, all of her mansions in Beverly Hills, and all of her resorts, they got her, poisoned her, because when Terry came back, exactly happened what she said would happen, and they covered it– Terry had even seen them try to poison her. And she said, they’re going to poison me this time. Don’t go. But she didn’t want Terry to stay bad enough to give her some money to help her with her own mother that was in need. So she died, like all rich will die, and deserve to die. And my uncle died, like all rich die, and deserve to die. And he died with only 22 people in his funeral, and his wife out with another man. And his millions, gone. His son and his wife run through them all. The love of money is the root of all evil, and you think that now– and that’s capitalism, and love of money is root of all evil, meaning capitalism. Property, ownership. If you pursue it, it’ll kill you. You live by it, and your children will finally hate you. You won’t keep your children, you won’t keep your money. You’ll lose everything. (Pause) (Voice builds to ministerial fervor) I wish we could develop in this house the joy in knowing that we have already won. And quit worrying about whether they’re gonna be in the Promised Land. Likely you will. Quit worrying about whether you’re going to be resurrected and go on to the next heaven or another planet. Likely you will. Quit worrying about where you’re going. My satisfaction is tonight, that when the nuclear bombs drop, and the elements melt with the fervent heat, and cities in America all over, burn down and are melted down to powder, my delight is in the law of my God. My God socialism. My delight is in the (unintelligible word) –maw of this red revolution. I know. I don’t think anymore. I know that China will now survive, their people that are freed, their people of all pestilences, all venereal disease, all flies, they have no rats in China, they have no hunger in China, they have no oppression in China, they have no rich– child doesn’t have to pay for a circus or for a music lesson, he doesn’t have to pay for a doctor or a dentist. Everything’s free in China, because the rich have met the fate that our rich are going to meet.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: (Normal tone) The cleanest city in the world, as Ann Landers and all the news people and all the doctors that are going said, there is no way that you can get the surgery or medicine like you get there. And when you’re ill, if you’re– a worker (unintelligible word) on the street, there are 80 doctors who’ll work over you. They’ve never lost anybody. A person can have their arms cut off out in the field by a tractor, or a thrashing machine, and they save every one of the arms. They can transplant arms and even transplant other people’s finger. A finger that I’ve kept as a momentum [memento] of how I saved a black young man, when a white person was going to kill him, and I put my hand and took the knife. In China, they can take that finger and put another finger on it. They have synthetic insulin. They don’t have to kill ant– animals to give you insulin. They’ve developed an artificial insulin. They’ve stopped many of the diseases that are routine. In 20 years, they have spoke 600 languages 20 years ago, they were in a cave, and things looked (Shout) bad. You get so worried. Oh we can’t help but win. Just a few days ago, Mao Tse-tung [leader of People’s Republic of China] and Lin– no, (stumbles over identification)– not Lin Pao, Ling Piao [premier of People’s Republic of China], but Chairman Mao were in a cave. The Chinese fascist Nationalist Chiang Kai-shek [leader of Republic of China], with the backing of the Japanese warlords and American capital, because American capital was making money in China, right while we were fighting the Japanese. We have capital investments with Japanese and China. Did you know that? We had capital investments. [Vice President Nelson] Rockefeller had investments in oil in consort with the Japanese, while we were fighting, and the sons of the poor blacks were dying. Rockefeller was making money, not only in China, but in Germany, he was making money on both sides of the war. Their day is coming, it’s not soon, maybe in your sight, but I can see it. I look unto the hills and I hear it, the light of revolution coming.
Congregation: Cheers.
Jones: Now China has no one that has to have even operations by knife surgery. Only in very rare cases. When cancer develops, and it’s fastly disappearing. Strokes are very reduced, because cancers are not there. The jails are closed in most every state in China. They have no lawyers, because nobody keeps anybody. You don’t have to lock your home, Ann Landers said, and all the people that go there. You don’t have to lock a hotel room. You can lay anything down, nobody steals from anybody. Ohh, that’s close to heaven. It’s not our goals, it’s not our way, but it’s close to heaven. It’s not this sheep fold, but it’s other sheep which I have which are not of this fold. (Clears throat)
Congregation: Applause
Jones: No venereal disease. In half of the children in this high school division of California, in all of California, by 1977 or 1980, will have syphilis. (Pause) (Speaks quickly) What are you doing over there? Don’t you worry about water. You’re going to be in hell, woman. You’re going to be in hell, and you’re going to cry for water, and you’ll have no water. You’re going to be in a capitalist concentration camp. You’re going to be in (unintelligible word) of hell. Why don’t you quit worrying about what the woman’s doing with the water, and listen to me. I’d never ask that ordinarily. Ordinarily, I’d tell you to drink and let you parade around here, but now I want you to listen.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: I only put enough water to moisten my vocal cords that I’m giving to the revolution, ’cause they one day will be used up, and I’m glad. I don’t take enough to quelch [quench] or any way whet thirst, (stumbles over words) whet that thirsty need. (Pause) So what are we looking for? Victory of the person? Are we looking victory for our God? Victory of our cause. It isn’t important what they do with me. Take no thought for what they shall do for you. Take no thought for what shall come in that hour. Spirit of Truth’s gonna speak to you one way or the other. Spirit of Truth will come out to you. [You] Say, I can’t read. I can’t write. You can resist a racist oppressor. You can destroy the works of the (tape distortion, unintelligible word). You know how to set a bonfire, don’t you?
Congregation: Applause
Jones: You are ordained to be here. As I said, it shows you are Chosen People, the avant-garde, the front line, the first ranks of the revolution. God, Christ, means the revolution. Christ means revolution. Christ means anointing. It means a revolution. You’re the first ranks of it. How many have been with me ever since I had this Temple? (Pause) (unintelligible phrase) See? Many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 22:14, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” Also, Matthew 20:16). You and every one in this room has been with me from the beginning, people come and go, because they’re not ready for this free gift. They’re not ready for the deliverance. They’re not ready to overcome self, to lay down their life. Jesus said no man will take my life, but I will lay down my life for my brothers (John 10:17-18, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”).
Congregation: Applause
Jones: And I (tape break-up) Jesus, very, very much (tape break-up for several words) aspects of history better than others. People said there was such great (unintelligible word– sounds like “sayings”) in the Bible. Well, I’ve got about 50 good ones, and there are thousands of pages in there, so that doesn’t say too much for your book. It does say something for the speaker. Because I had to search through all that dung to get 50 good quotes. (Pause) I could have searched through Webster dictionary, and not had to go one page, and had just as good a quotes, but you’re more accustomed to the Bible, so that’s where I come. But you see, the Bible needs me. I don’t need the Bible. Because I am the Beginning, I’m the End (Revelation 22:13, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”).
Congregation: Applause
Jones: (Voice rises throughout) Yesterday, I told a woman her thoughts, deep thoughts, just exactly how she thought before I healed her of her disease. Healed of her crippling disease from laxatives. Told her thoughts. She waving her hand. Told her thoughts. Only one can do that. The one you said wrote the Bible, or the one you said spoke, and some other fools wrote what he said, and how could any mortal fool be able to write what God said, but you said in the Beginning was God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was made flesh, and he moved (unintelligible phrase), said the Word will know yourself, will know the intents of your heart, the Word will be able to separate soul from body, and resurrect the spirit from the body. It will be able to separate from the bones from the marrow. I’ve taken off casts off of sisters like this, who broke her body in hospital, broke her leg in two places, I cut it off, just a couple of Sundays ago, and she went back to hospital, perfectly made whole.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: There she sits.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: (Cries out) Good God Almighty! (Pause) Don’t tell me what the Bible says. I know what’s good in the Bible, I know what’s rotten in the Bible, because I am the (unintelligible name). But more than that, more than that, I am (unintelligible name).
Congregation: Applause
Jones: (Quiet, then builds) We have already won this revolution, if I did not do which I will do before I make that final translation for you and for those that love your God. We have already won the revolution, because the nuclear bombs are going to fall. Even President [Gerald] Ford says so. All the nations say so. But after the bombs have fallen, China’s gonna dig out of their lovely caves a year later, so it is already a victory. The capitalists were too careless, capitalist rich people used– the propertied class used the workers. They always abuse the workers. They never take care of their workers. They always deprive them of what they need. But the communists, the socialists, take care of their workers, and their workers are going to dig out of their caves, and today already, socialism has won the victory over the world.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: (Calls out) Hallelujah, revolution. Hallelujah!
Congregation: Applause
Jones: So whether we meet our advent, whether we meet our confrontation, out on Alvarado, as they tried to set us up once (unintelligible word) around here, I took you through that. I got you out of jail, and I will continue till the right moment comes. Then we may all go to jail. (Calls out) We’ll all make a noise that’ll heard around the world.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: It is wonderful. I remind you also, that People’s China that now has 800 million free of (draws out word) all forms of hunger, malnutrition, bodily deficiency, no psychiatrists, no mental hospitals, no lawyers, no jails. But just a few years ago, (Voice drops) just a quarter of a century ago, just 25 years ago or so, the two leaders of that nation were in a cave. And the fascist American Chinese were (breathless) after them. And they said just exactly where to go, when there was only two left. (Pause) Mao-Tse Tung and [premier of People’s Republic of China] Chao En-lai. And 30 top-grade Green Berets, like the ones that came out in the paper today in San Francisco, in the Berb– the Barb [Berkeley Barb newspaper], it came out that the Green Berets actually killed [Chilean president Salvador] Allende. We landed our own Green Berets. One of them has come forward and confessed, to a concongre– congressional caucus, that he was in it, the dar– they were Latin-trained Green Berets, and they landed, speaking Spanish, and murdered the Socialist President. But that’s how he could hold his head up high also, when Dr. Allende walked out with his helmet on his head, he said, I will not leave the governor office, I will not leave my president’s office. (Low voice) If you want me, come and get me. He knew that the revolution was already (breathless) won.
Congregation: Applause and cheers
Jones: But a paramilitary professional outfit trained by the CIA, the U.S. Intelligence Division of the Army in those days, told him exactly where to find Mao, and he was hungry and beleaguered, the leader of China. And the 30 top-notch men got there, and they were too lazy to go into the cave. Some reason, they were afraid or lazy, they just went back and reported to their division commander, he ain’t there. And if they had taken 15 more yard– steps, China wouldn’t be there today. There’d still be a million people dying a day. [Cuban leader Fidel] Castro in 1953 didn’t know he was ever going to see the light of day. Now they have free medicine and all the other things. We’re going down there to court them. Little island, our president sent down Senator Javits [Sen. Jacob Javits (R-NY)] and another Senator, you gotta go down there, ’cause they got the sugar we– we need what they got. (Pause) Yeah.
Congregation: Applause, laughter
Jones: (Calls out) Little ol’ island, in the middle of Caribbean, where it used to be rum, the churches, the Assemblies of God that owned the prostitution houses. (Voice quietens) Pentecostal churches owned the prostitution houses, and had little girls in then, at nine and ten (tape break-up for several words), I went in and got them out before Castro came to power. They were put in there, put in chains at night so they couldn’t get out. Right under an Assembly of God church, I tore hell out of it with my preaching, and took the children away. But today, the little island, just a little island that used to be just nothing but a den of thieves, and poor, poor black people couldn’t even go to the beaches, (Pause) couldn’t even go to the beaches, because of the color of their skin, but the revolution came, and the beaches that were prepared for the rich were open to the poor black, and the rich couldn’t go on the beaches.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: (Calls out) It’s wonderful! (Ministerial tone) But in 1953, Castro was arrested, and he never thought he’d see victory. Or, he said, one day, he couldn’t get an attorney to defend him, he stood in the court all alone, his family disowned him, son of a rich– he coulda been rich, just like I, he had wealth, he had money, he didn’t have to take that role of suffering, he stood up, nobody to defend him, couldn’t get one lawyer in the whole nation to defend him, and he said, history, I (unintelligible word) not die, but history will absolve me.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: They charged him with sex crimes, they charged him with all kinds of sexual deviation, they charged him with criminal behavior of every type, they dirtied his name in every newspaper. He was ruined in the eyes of Cuban, but he knew that somewhere in the revolution, his God had already had the victory.
Congregation: Applause and cheers
Jones: That’s why he held his head up high, just a young man, he held his head up high, and he said, I need no defense. History– history will absolve me. History will prove the rightness of my cause.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: I know trouble’s brewing for me. Trouble’s brewing for you. Jesus got a cross. We may get several. But I’ll tell you one day, there won’t be silence on our Golgotha’s brow (site of Jesus’ crucifixion, named at Matthew 27:33, Mark 15:22 amd John 19:17-18). If they hang one of us on a tree, they’d better damn well hang several of us, because we’re going to make a lot of noise.
Congregation: Applause and cheers
Jones: (Normal tone) Hallelujah. The revolution is won, because China is feeding its people soy beans, all the things, apri– apricot seeds and sunflower seeds that makes them radiation-resistant, so the nuclear war’s not going to hardly faze them. In the first place, they’ll be able to come out a year later, after the bombs have blown away the Nixons and the Kissingers and the (breathless) Rockefellers and the DuPonts. Honey, I’d be glad to be blown away, too, just to see them blown away.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: But our spirit (voice abruptly lowers) is reincarnatable. And in the next minute, we’re liable to wake up as little babies in the new world, ’cause the spirit marches on. We might find ourselves Chinese the next time. Makes no difference. And it makes no difference if we have no future. Because if we want a future, we will lose our life, and if we lose our life, (Calls out) we will find our life (Numerous references in King James; Gospel references are: Matthew 10:39 & 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24 & 17:33; and John 12:25.).
Congregation: Applause
Jones: (Quiet, confidential) So don’t think that today of small things that were defeated. Oh, I have got many aces up my sleeve. I have got many. Days are going to get heavy. There’ll be trials and tribulations, because they that lively godly in this revolutionary Jesus– and Jesus means justice. See, all those words are symbols. Jesus means justice, revolutionary justice. They that live good in this revolutionary justice, Christ being revolutionary, they that live good, live perfectly in this revolutionary justice will suffer persecution. They’ll lie on you, they’ll kill you, even thinking they do their Skygod a service (John 16:2, “…yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”). They’ll throw us out of their churches, but honey, we don’t throw out easy, when we get put up against the (Calls out) wall.
Congregation: Applause and cheers
Jones: (Calls out) So if we reach a Promised Land, be glad. If we do not, be glad. People say here, they’re wondering all the time, what’s Father doing? Father is suffering it to be so. Father is suffering the revolution to be so. Someone was wondering if Father or Mother had a romance with anyone. We would never have a romance with anyone. We are in complete love with the revolution. We would never be led around by sex. (Pause) No, no. And if we were using sex, it would not be to you the great– with great ability, unless you had a special task to perform, it’d be those that have need. So if you hear me in sex, it’ll be somebody that owns a Cadillac or a Jaguar that I’m trying to get a hold of.
Congregation: Applause and cheers
Jones: I do not expect you will hear me in such a position, and some know what I’m talking about when I drop that last little phrase.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: I do not have to say much, but you get the message. I’m going to tell you, if you worship Cadillacs and Lincolns and Jaguars or any other car– (voice abruptly lowers) precious, beautiful, misplaced souls – (Pause) (Normal tone) So don’t worry about whether I love anyone. I love everyone. Don’t worry about whether I would respond to someone sexually. No, not that alone, I could not. Someone who has need, or someone who deserves, or someone who is kind, or someone who never believed they had any beauty or love, if it came to that. But why don’t we just get out of it, because that’s where we are. Why don’t we stay out of it? Why don’t we grow up? Because capitalism, America, has reached its lowest point of extremity. You can find no love. The dear sister wants to have a marriage, and I see her heart bleed with desire, but you’ll have nothing but hell. There’s nothing but hell in these marriages, because capitalism breeds self-centeredness. Socialism breeds self-sacrifice. Socialism will cause people to lose their self, capitalism tells you to worship yourself. And so everybody’s in love with themselves today. They’re all out to get a long old-type mirror, hall mirror, put it in bed and wiggle in front of it, because that’s what people like, is themselves.
Congregation: Applause and cheers
Jones: If you don’t, just tell them one time. Oh, they love that passion to get to you. Tell ’em you can’t kiss. Your kiss is like the kiss of a groundhog. And you’ll find they don’t want to kiss you one more time. So if it was you that they were interested in, they’d still want to kiss you. But when they find out you are not interested in them, you become ugly to them. You got to kiss their rear end, in order for them to love you. And if you don’t kiss their rear end, wait on them, let them possess you like a little puppy dog, they won’t have any use for you. If you tell them the truth, they’ll kill you.
Congregation: Applause and cheers
Jones: Like this dear woman that at least tried to be free, and joined this Temple, but caught up between two worlds, double-minded, and that causes instability in all your ways, going back and forth from the holiness circle, but at least she give her car to our good civil rights movement across the nation. (Pause) Left that holiness husband. He loved her. Oh, he said how much he missed her. He missed her enough to charge her with forgery, stealing, and put her in jail. And that’s where Tish Leroy is right now, making the arrangements to get her out, on a $5000 bail, she is, facing a minimum of five years, and that’s exact– Oh, you say, my husband, my wife wouldn’t do that. You just tell ’em the truth. You tell ’em everything you feel for the next (Pause) two days. Every honest feeling you have about them, tell them in two days. And that love that you think that they have will turn to wrath, and they won’t want to be penetrating you with a penis, but rather a knife.
Congregation: Applause and cheers
Single voice: It’d take me two minutes. (Laughs)
Jones: One of the people said here, it’d take only two minutes, and that’s probably closer to truth, but I wanted to give you a good try, because some of you don’t know the truth, and some of you be playing around for two minutes. I mean starting out now. You think somebody loves you but Father, start telling them the truth.
Congregation: Applause and cheers
Jones: You’ll find out. Tell ’em the whole truth. Tell ’em exactly what you don’t like about them. Their arrogance, their way they’ve used you, possess you, abuse you, cheated you. Tell them. (Voice calms) See what happens. (Pause) I’ll give you a million dollars, if you did, still come back in two days. Don’t tell ’em what you’re doing, ’cause you do that, then, naturally they’d put on a front. But in this room, where people who’ve turned me in, across the Promised Land those smiling faces of our socialist community over there, where people live, love work, healthy, no sickness, nobody dying. Two people there are traitors (Pause) and past traitors. Oh, let me qualify. One of them turned me in to FBI, the other tried to tear my clothes off of me in a courtroom, when he was after Brother [Archie] Ijames. (Pause) But he’s over there working now, because I love. I forgive. You don’t know if you’ve got that much forgiveness yet. Don’t speak too quickly. (Reprimanding) Don’t speak too quickly, how much– there’re people here that tell me every kind of murderous thing. People say, Father, I want to kill you, because you interfere with my life. I dream about murdering you. You want to interfere with my life. I don’t want a savior. A part of iniquity in me, the self-life, the mortal, carnal, capitalist life doesn’t want a savior, and I want to kill you. I have people that’ve carried it out to the degree, they’ve brought a knife, saying, (Voice calms) I want to get the right time. (Pause) And yet I love them. And yet I have worked with them, and some of them have become Roses of Sharon (Song of Solomon 2:1 “I am the rose of Sharon.”), brighter than the morning star. No, you’ll find that only one loves you, the firstborn of many sisters or brothers, the firstborn revolutionary, the first one in America, the chief revolutionary, and surely you cannot do harm by following me. Mao did not have as high a spirit, and loving a spirit as I, and yet he has created a great country, ’cause he went too many sexual escapades and other things, but even in his half dedication, out of it came a people without hunger, 800 million strong. Fidel also had a lot of things in his life that was different from my dedication, but out of it has come an avenue that’s not our avenue, because we are American Christian Socialists. But out of it’s come hope. There’s no longer starving people, there’s no prostitution, not a person has to give their body to feed themselves as it is common on every street in this town. There are no prostitutes in People’s Socialist China or People’s Socialist Cuba. There are no drugs, there are no murders. They’ve had no murders this year. 800 million, (Slows for emphasis) 800 million. We have two hundred and twenty-five million, and we have ten, fifteen murders a night sometimes in the city of Los Angeles, and they have not had one murder in a year. (Pause) Hear me now. So we have won. Makes no difference if they came today to take us away, although they would not get that done without us making a revolution.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: We are non-violent socialists. We will do no harm to anyone, but we will resist those who try to harm any of our loved ones. We will resist them to the last measure of our devotion. We will resist them with blood.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: Shift yourself. (Pause) Kiss your neighbor on the cheek, for that’s where we’re going. Leftward.
Congregation: General noise.
Jones: (Off mike) I don’t have a watch. (Unintelligible phrase, then mike clicks on) –this message! (Pause) It is very important that you comprehended what I said, and if you did not, you should ask some questions only related to what I have said. For I said your joy should be in giving your life. I said, Jesus loves you– peace, everyone now, let us cease from our talking– (Pause) Would the Father do and greater, then everyone would do that came after him, these things that I do shall you do and greater (John 14:12, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”). That’s the words out of your own Bible. Jesus died on a cross. The easiest thing to do. I live, suffer with people, their selfishness, their (unintelligible word– “infamy”?), and every night, it’s the same. There would be any moments for us to sit in those council chambers, we’ve set there from seven to something, nearly twelve hours, seven last night, or at 7:30, till six o’clock in the morning. That’s what we were doing in that council, gettin’ the ministry’s minds together, getting counselors’ minds together, ’cause charity has to begin at home. You got to get your own house in order.
Congregation: General stirring
Jones: Peace. And then we counsel with others that remain, some must’ve not remained, because they are not used to waiting. We got some folk around here that think that they’re worth more than others, because they have them– they think, certain beauty, special wealth, certain privilege or fancy car. (Pause) I’m back on that car, ’cause, sister, I’m after you. You’re a great and wonderful soul that I’m referring to, great and wonderful soul, you’ve got the makings of a revolutionary, but nobody in this cause would have a Jaguar car, worth seven– eight– nine thousand dollars.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: I saw last night when I went out, and I saw this great soul. I don’t want to name her by name, but she got great potential, and wonderful son. But I looked out there at that car– and every time you get something nice like that, you’re gonna pay for it. All the little children in the neighborhood, little Mexican children, everybody gathered up on top of that car. You get ’em off, they’ll be back on top of that car. (Pause) And my old car? Nobody’s get on top of it. I don’t own it in the first place, but nobody’d get on top of it, ’cause it’s dusty and dirty. You keep these nice shining Jaguars, these children just love it, they’re small, that small little sports car that one of our sisters owns, that they bought new, I know, since you been here. That’s why I’m after you.
Congregation: Scattered laughter, crowd noise
Jones: I’m tired of playing with foolishness. You either know my spirit, I’d save you. Here’s a woman who don’t even go to church, and I’d go to jail, (unintelligible phrase) son in Vernal, Texas, to get the charges dropped against her. But she tried. She gave us her old car, it was a broken down car. So I’m not going to let that woman suffer, if there’s anything I can do. She didn’t give it to me. She’s been kind of nasty to me, in fact. (Pause) Kind of flirted with me, and kind of expected me to respond to her. But there no difference in a whole lot of you, setting here, acting like you’re saints.
Congregation: No! (Applause and cheers)
Jones: She thought that she wanted a little sex, you know, and she’s been accustomed to all the holiest churches. Every place she go, maybe she go up to the holiest preacher, who would take care of that need, the old (Pause) analogy of Reverend Edwards, who, in the Church of God, with all his Church of God congregation is (unintelligible phrase– sounds like “where applicable”). He[‘s] one of my most beautiful revolutionaries now, the holiness pastor that I first stood up in San Francisco, Reverend Edwards brought the entire Church of God in Christ, Church of God Triumph In– brought his whole church into our church. John (unintelligible name). So did Reverend [Bill] Purifoy, white man, brought his entire Church of God Holiness. But– I see some of them, those children warning again, they ought to be hearing this message, at least hear one, I’d like to know they hear one a day. One a year, rather. (Pause) So’s she accustomed to going into these holiest churches, the first thing the holiness preacher do, showing he’s a liar and a hypocrite, he’ll go to bed, once – that’s about all he’s good for, he has– because he’s so weird, he can’t go to bed with the same one twice. You know what I’m talkin’ about.
Congregation: Murmurs of assent, laughter.
Jones: Peace. Some of you men say, I’m a man. I’ve had many women. Well, some– I’ve actually been with one woman for 25 years, until we’ve reach the plane of understanding and evolved above it, I went to sex every night and then sometimes three times a day, with the same woman, now let me tell you, we got a whole lot more normality than you, because all doctors will tell you, all psychiatrists, when you gotta run from woman to woman, you’re a homosexual, ’cause you can’t stand women, and that’s why you keep runnin’ around lookin’, and (unintelligible word)– and I’m gone talk to some of these flighty women running loose here, and every time you run from man to man, you’re a lesbian. All psychiatrists got your number.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: Everybody left– all the rest of us are, but the– at least the rest of us settle down, and some of you got a burr in your tail.
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: I’ve seen how you think we think you’re lovers, we just stand and feel sorry for you. ‘Cause it’s obvious that you don’t know a thing about love, when you have to run and flirt with this a little bit and worm up to that one and get all hot and bothered, and have one minute fling with that and then it’s (sputters in mike) over. Then you go with somebody else.
Congregation: Laughter and applause
Jones: You think we envy you. We feel sorry for you. We’re wishing that you’d straighten up or get out of our sight till you grow up, because it’s pitiful. You don’t enchant us, we don’t want what you got, looking and slobbering over each other, honey, we know that that is capitalistic greed. We know that’s possessive narcissism. We don’t want any of that disease. We’ve been through it. Take it. Get it out of our sight. We don’t like it.
Congregation: Applause and cheers
(Tape blank for 30 seconds)
Jones: (tape comes on in mid-sentence) –working for a society where there’s no rich or poor, black or white, where I’m working for a society where the oil companies cannot do what they’re doing right now, curbing the market and driving the little independents out of business, and telling you there’s a gas shortage, and he gets by it– Please listen to me. And all the Sai– Senate’s even talking about it, and nobody’s doing anything about it. The oil companies owning– the big oil companies owning the whole of the gas market and able to throttle up– Hundred and eighty little businesses been closed in northern California. Hundred and eighty gas stations have been closed in northern California, alone. And they just keep throttling and tell you that there’s a shortage– yeah, if they want to charge me with saying that I’m against that, (Pause) if they want to charge me that I’m against the rich getting by like they are in California– hundred [or] so that did not pay their income tax this year, but made upwards of a million dollars– if they want to put me on the court and try me, that say Jim Jones is against that, then I would like to get that (unintelligible word- “piece?”) started. I would like things to be built around a proper principle. I want to get down to the nitty-gritty. I want to get down to the heart of things. I don’t want to get in– into court, if I can avoid it, over who prayed to who, or who did the healing, Jesus or Jim. I think that would get us sidetracked. So I agree with these attorneys, and say on the radio, go ahead and say it. Because if they don’t say on the radio that I get this thing done through prayer, you and I are all guilty of a federal crime. Because they have got it set up so nobody will get back in the place, nobody’s gonna come in the place of that lying Jesus. Nobody’s gonna come in the place of that ol’ Skygod. (Intense) They’ve got it all fixed up, so nothing new that’s real and true can get through. You understand what I’m saying.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: They’ve got it fixed up. You don’t use Jesus, then sure, the Jesus that let people waste the people’s money, the Jesus that said in King James, the poor you have with you always (Mark 14:7, “For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always;” see also Matthew 26:11 and John 12:8). The– He never said it. (Pause) The only reason I say He never said it, is because you got to make me Him. And I sure wouldn’t have said it. I wouldn’t have said it. You got you make me Him. Some of you, if I was not Him, you wouldn’t be here. Now, I know some of you would– the good Reverend Edwards back there, he wouldn’t give a damn if I’d been a monkey’s ass the last time. Doesn’t make no difference to him who I was the last time, he’s been a pastor of the Church of (tape break-up), he’d be there– Stand up, Reverend. He’s been a pastor of a big church. It wouldn’t make any difference to him if the last time I’d been a fishworm, he’d be here. But some of you church folk, I had to be that very same Jesus. Well, if you’re gonna make me that very same Jesus, then I sure would not do what he did. They would never set me down– (off mike for few words) get that chair, I’d bust my–
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: (Urgent) I would never set down, and let a woman, man, not any other living creature wash my feet. I wouldn’t want anybody looking down. I don’t want anybody looking up. So if people in here praise you, you know why, because you have got to have that kind of condition in order to build faith. I don’t know why we can’t believe and uh, do it, but we have to build in it, a kind of superstition around me. I don’t know why you don’t know, this woman was crippled, I healed her. This leg was crippled, and it gave her pain, and the operation couldn’t do any good, but I took care of it, (unintelligible word) my pain, when I took care of it, (unintelligible word). This woman was dead, and I raised her. She had cancer, and I took it out. But somehow– I don’t know why you can’t believe that, unless there’s somebody saying, (Sings) I know you’re God, I believe. (Normal tone) I don’t know why you can’t keep it– just when I walk down through here and say, Well, how in the hell are you today?
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: (Stumbles over words) How ya feelin’? How ya feelin’, girl? What’s happenin’ with you? Are you jivin’ me (unintelligible word)? Hmm? Are you cool? Yeah. If I said that about a week, folks wouldn’t have enough faith in here for me to do the works that I need to do. So we gotta walk around here and say, (Sings) “I know you are God, I know–” (Calls out) Well, I’m Jim, that’s what I am.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: (Normal tone) But we’ve been so brainwashed, we don’t want a revolution. We want a patch job. We want a patch job. We don’t want to make a sudden change. We’ve been talkin’ about it by the church for years, we must be born again. Hell, you never did believe that. (Cries out) You meant, I want to partially be born again, but I want to hold on to a little of the old. I don’t want to be something new. Said, behold, you are a new creature. I make you a new creature, if you’d let me, but no no. You want to carry a little Bible, you want to carry a little old song, you want to have a little of that old prayer, you want to have that little old Jesus shit talking inside of you (2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Also, Galatians 6:15, Revelation 21:5)–
Congregation: Calls and cries
Jones: Now I heard the voice, and I heard the spirit, Jesus spoke to me, the Lord spoke to me, the Spirit (unintelligible word) Jim, Jim’s spirit, you just gotta– you just can’t quite make it to Jim all the time. It’s the Spirit. (Pause) Spirit showed me. Spirit of what? The Spirit of Jim didn’t show you, no damn spirit showed you anything.
Congregation: Cries and laughter
Jones: Why it is– we have together– we wouldn’t get these people here. They– They want a God, folks. They don’t want a revolutionary. There’re just a few of us here that want a– want a revolutionary. The majority of people wouldn’t come here, because I started to say is it cool, honey? What’s happenin’? What’s been going on with you? You been jivin’ with me. If I start talking like that, folks would not come. (Pause) (Normal tone, then voice rises to end) If I’d walk in here and say, now folk, let’s get down to it, let’s plan our strategy, let’s build a few more buildings, now hold your faith just right, if you know you got faith in me, I don’t have to tell you nothin’– I don’t have to tell you a word, all you have to do is just like Sister Johnson, just believe around me, know that I’ve got an extraordinary kind of psychic power, extraordinary kind of gift, and just know that when I walk by you, if you’ve got that faith in me, then it’d be the (Cries) what?
Congregation: (unintelligible answer)
Jones: (Normal tones, voice rises to end) It’d be so wonderful, we could sit down here and we could make some plans. We’d get our money. But no, you get your money. You don’t give no money, you (unintelligible word). (Pause) I could stand here, and bless. For I don’t have to put up my hands to bless. I put up my hands, because some damn fool won’t help us save the world, they won’t help us, until I take a religious stance. I don’t have to move my finger to do what I need to do, I don’t have to say a word to do what I have to do–
Congregation: Applause and cheers
Jones: Sometimes, I know how hard it is for you, ’cause it’s hard for me. And it’s much harder for me, having to do it, than you have to, set watching. Believe me, however hard you think it is settin’ watchin’, it’s much harder on me, because if people wanted what I really was, (Pause) I would have peace. But they want me, plus that Skygod shit. They want to wrap that shit up in Jim Jones and kind of put the two together. They don’t want me apart from it, they want to mix me with that shit. (Pause) You know what I’m talkin’ about. Dung. Dung in the Scriptures. (Pause) I’m talking about Solomon’s dunghill (Numerous references to “dung” in 1 Kings and 2 Kings), only you and I (unintelligible phrase), we call it “shitpile.” They want to mix me up with that mess. I remember back in the days when there was honestly a peace mission, and he’d speak to me at my heart, M.J., he’d say uh, “I– I don’t like any of this routine. But this is where the people are.” But unfortunately, something happened with him, in the peace mission movement, he stayed where the people were. And finally he became like something that he wasn’t when I first met him. He died, and his secretaries arose. And it was no longer M.J. Divine, it was the (breathless) secretaries, it was a system, it was an institution, (Cries out) it was Cadillacs and diamonds, it was nothing like to what was formerly there, because the Skygod, the disease had taken over, it had made him the same kind of God that they had worshipped in the former days. (Pause) (Quieter, then builds) And how many times– I’ll never forget the longest day, when I went to him, because I felt in my (unintelligible clause), I came to him, I never missed it, (unintelligible word) never missed it, I know where he’d been from, I’d come from the same place, I was part and parcel of the same socialism. He’d walked in the days, in the first days of peace mission, they walked out in the roads, Simon– some of them carried banners with them, with the– with the socialist, they carried them down the streets.
(Pause) (Breathless) Oh, and I wanted to teach him so bad, and I’d sit down, and I’d talk to him about it, and he’d love to listen to socialism, but they’d get around, old missus would get around, Mrs. Divine would get around, I could never get to him, would always interfere with anything I had to say. She’d just dig in with her nice clothes and her fancy ways, I could never talk to him. But I’ll never forget the last time. He looked at me and he said, “Get out of here. Whatever mantle I have, it’s with you.” [He] Said, “Get out of here.” [He] Said, “Don’t die, like I’m going to in here.” (Pause) I’ll never forget that, as long as I live. That’s what he told me in Philadelphia. And I run out the door, and I stepped back, I said, “You ought to come with me.” And he started to walk, like a poor old little old man, he started to walk, and those secretaries put a circle around him. And that’s the last time I saw him alive. Because he wanted to go. I said, “Come and go with me, and we’ll be like it was when you were free,” when people didn’t (unintelligible word), they didn’t mix up this religion with you, when I could talk to him so straight, the secretaries would feel that it was blasphemy, and they would forbid me to come, and he would put my tapes on the whole damn network. He’d demand, when he had any grace, or any strength left, he’d demand, they’d forbid me to come in his place – they called him God, you know – and they– he– (voice rises) they’d forbid me to come in, and he’d say, “Let him come.” And they’d be so mad that they could bite nails. And he’d put my tapes, he’d put my sermons right over. If you were in the old days in Peace Mission, you’ll remember, my voice was preached there 20 years ago. Twenty years ago, from Circle Mission, my voice went all over the place, and he would (unintelligible word- rip? whip?) them, and those secretaries would just stew, ’cause I’d say he’s gonna die like anybody else, because he doesn’t have the vision, and I’d say it publicly, and they’d get mad, oh they would get mad, (Quieter) and he’d say, leave him alone. (Pause) There was a little bit left of him, but before it was over, there was nothing left. It was a shell. They’d made him their old Skygod, and the Spirit and the consciousness of socialism was gone. There was nothing but Cadillacs and diamond rings and jewels, and the upper class and the lower class, the basement folk that ate downstairs, and the upstairs in come all the honkies and all the special people who set around the table. Oh my my, what can happen, if you lose the spirit.
(Pause) I’ve heard him talk. You haven’t heard him talk. He– He’d let down his hair, what little of it, he didn’t have much, but he’d let it down with me, he let his– I mean, he had no hair, but he’d let it– you know what we mean by hair down, he’d just let his soul open to me, and he’d say, “You’re just like me. Be free.” That’s almost his exact words. “You’re just like me. Be free.” But the saddest thing to hear a man that once led a movement that was with socialists that were marching down the streets of Harlem, that once said, “This is what we need. We need commu– communization. We need it.” And to see it turned clear around and have his writings say, that it’s all bad. I can’t believe he ever said it. Maybe somebody made him say it. I believe somebody put stuff in his food towards the last. I don’t believe he knew his right hand from his left hand towards the last. (Ministerial fervor) I believe in the end they were running the show. I know that he didn’t write the letters that he was supposed to write. I didn’t say, letters written by M. J. Divine, were no more written by M. J. Divine than my tomcat. They were written by secretaries without ever talking to him. I’m gone tell you, it’s not going to happen to me. (More emphatically) It’s not going to happen to me.
Congregation: Cheers
Jones: (Quiet) You know what I’m afraid of, though. (Pause) That we may not be able to build a mo– movement. I remember sitting down one time, telling him – they called him God (unintelligible word – speed? seed?). I said there’s no God out there that’s loving. [I] Said no God in any universe would make people hungry like that, and he’d (breathy) chuckle. He’d chuckle and then he’d kinda rub his head. He said, you know, people– He said, little brother– He’d call me little brother– people’re not going to be able to digest that. Said people won’t be able to accept that. (Short laugh) And I think that’s where he’s gonna be right. (Pause) ‘Cause people aren’t ready to digest that. People just got to believe there’s something other than Jim Jones. Jim Jones isn’t musical enough. Jim Jones isn’t melodious enough. Jim Jones in person, why oh my, he isn’t that beautiful. (Clears throat) But when he comes in the bedroom (clicks tongue), when he whips in on a spirit, when he speaks to me in the night, then I can make him like I want him to be. They never want to take life like it is. They want to make life something other than what it is. We’re always trying to shape it into what we’d like it to be. (Sleepy voice) There’s nobody to help you but Jim Jones. Nobody.
Congregation: Cheers.
Jones: Shh. Jim Jones may come into your room, and he may not. But if he doesn’t help you, nobody will help you. If you keep his thoughts in your mind, they’re going to get more help than any other people on earth. If you think on him, you’ll have more success, more health, you’ll have more freedom, (dramatic slowness) than anyone else. If you think on him, when 10,000 church people go to jail, you will be able to go free– for every 10,000 church people that go to jail– I mean, that’s just how many times they’ll go to jail, and you’ll go free. They can try 10,000 times over to get their Skygod to do ’em, and 10,000 of them’ll fail before the ten thousandth and one, that’ll get some success and maybe something will come to them. (Voice rises) But thus far, none of my immediate co-workers, none of my immediate friends, (Pause) none of my immediate children– I– I’m afraid of the word “children,” because then we get back into the other thing. (Breathless) God. Son. God. Servant. Father. Son. Father looking down at son. Son looking up at Father. That’s why I would prefer to call you my friends. (Pause) (Normal tone) I’d be glad to be fatherly to you, whatever you call that word, but there’re a lot of things about father that ought to be shot– (Pause) Hmmph. The old idea we’ve had a father, fathers are to be heard, and fathers are to be listened to, and fathers always know best. Well, my father didn’t know best. I’m glad I didn’t listen to my father. When I walked in with my black friend, when I was just sixteen years of age, I took my black friend up, he said, “You don’t bring him here.” (Pause) He said, “You come in here with him, and you’ll never come back again.” And I looked at his face, and I didn’t have– you brothers just stay awake– (Pause) I said to– I didn’t have a damn dime in my pocket, and I didn’t know where I was going to go that night– he said, “You don’t come in with him.” I said, “Then I don’t come in.” He said, “Have it your own way.” (Pause) I did. My father was not right. He was wrong. I was right.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: There’s a whole lot of things about this father-son business, just because the father was supposed to like him, just because somebody played in bed, we’re supposed to love them, because they went to bed, to do their thing, and we happened along, (slight sneer) and then we’re supposed to honor them all the days of our life. And we carry that thing over, our religion, it carries right over, because Daddy is Daddy, you do what Daddy said. (Shouts) To hell with it, if Daddy doesn’t say what’s right. If Daddy doesn’t say what’s right, don’t do it.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: (Quieter) Gotta love that (unintelligible word). Sundown, I leaned over one of the 300 I picked up, a little girl, and I said, there’s something bothering you. No, Father. Oh, yes there is. Someone’s hurt you. It’s all right, Father. (Pause) Finally it came to me. I said, who hits you? [She] Said it’s (stumbles over words) She said it’s a rash. I said that’s not a rash. I said, who hits you? Well, Momma hit me with my hand– her hand. I said, her hand. I said, a belt. She said, but don’t tell her. Singing in my choir. (Pause) Singing in my choir in Los Angeles, had beat that little girl, up the side of her– I said, no no, you didn’t tell me. And I went up to that microphone, and I said, no follower of mine strikes the head of a child. And I said, this child didn’t tell me, and I said, if this child gets anything done to this child, (Voice rises) you’re through with me. I said I don’t want to hear no more of this child being hit in the face. (Shouts) Mother’s right, so mother can smack and beat. Daddy’s right, so Daddy can sock around– the hell with that business. Daddy’s right, then he acts right. Mommy’s right, then she acts right.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: And we tear that God. You see, God Father– Father then– God is to be respected. You don’t question God. Nobody questions God. (Pause) If God says, you shit in the middle of the street, you shit in the middle of the street. That’s the way we have had our faith. If God says that there was– there was a boat, and Noah put every animal on the boat, and put every insect on the boat, and every crawdad on the boat, and every s– rattlesnake on the boat, and every form of life on the boat, and every form of disease. Don’t make any difference what God said, if God said it, it’s right (Genesis 7-9). If God said that Jonah could uh, be swallowed by a fish (Pause) and the fish could keep him for three days, don’t make no difference (Jonah 1 & 2), honey– You say, well, I don’t believe no– you know, God said that. You wouldn’t believe it, anybody else told you, but God said it. You don’t know– you know nobody’s gonna live in no fish’s abdomen for three days. (Pause) You know nobody gonna get– nobody gonna go get two monkeys and two rattlesnakes and two rabbits, only two, and two rats and two mice. ‘Bout the time you had two rabbits, you’d have five, because they’d be (unintelligible word)– gettin’ two hippopotamuses and two giraffes and– all that stuff. Nobody’d believe that, except God said it. And you know how long that boat was? About from me to that wall.
Congregation: Laughter of derision
Jones: And about as high as you go up there, by the measurement up there, you go to that top of that uh, service (unintelligible word). Now, honey, that wouldn’t give you– you– you put four– you put two elephants and two hippopotamus on the damn thing, and it’d sink.
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: I’m tellin’ you, the stuff we believe– Joshua comes out, and he wants to win a battle, and he says, (draws out word) “Sun, stand still.” (Joshua 10, esp. Joshua 10:12, “Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.”) If the sun had stood still, the trees would’ve gone up and the water would’ve belched out and the mountains would’ve pulled out, if the sun stood still, the world would’ve gone (pffts). The world would’ve pulled in a million pieces, ’cause when the sun stops, there’s real trouble. But we don’t doubt it, ’cause they said that– (dramatic tone) God said it: the sun stood still. (Pause) I see you. (Pause) And I’d go on with those crazy stories all night. (Pause) Adam and Eve (general discussion of creation story, Genesis 2 & 3), all those crazy stories, and we still believe them. And I’d get people up in the– teachers– I’d say get up and testify, and they’ll– (clears throat) they’ll still– now nobody’s going to poison that in mid-air.
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: And if they do, it’d relieve my God’s throat.
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: Adam and Eve, and all that junk. God was lonely, up there in the space. I’m going over this one more time, I won’t do it for long, why. God was up there, he’d created all the world, he went (puckers with mouth), there was a star, and (puckers with mouth), over there was another planet. He was just (puckers with mouth) throwin’ his spitballs around, and had ’em– he looked around and saw– he spit a few up there on that ceiling, he spit a few over there, and he looked around, and said, oh God, I’m gettin’ tired of this shit.
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: He’d spewed all the stars out and he’d spewed all the planets out, and he’d spewed everything he could spew out, and he’d– nothing else left to do, he’d farted a couple times (puckers with mouth)–
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: (Laughs) And he looked around, and there wasn’t no Momma God, and there wasn’t no other kind of God, so he had to sit there, and he said, “Oh shee-it.”
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: Keep on, child. If you get– If you die, I’ll raise you up.
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: He said, “It’s too much,” he said, “It’s lonely out here in these stars and these moons and these planets. I got nobody here to talk to me.” Now if he’da been like me, at least, if I’da found myself in a mess like that after I farted, I’da made another one like me. I’da made another one like me, if I was gonna make anybody, but I’d look around over that cold world, and I’d’ve said, “Well, I don’t know how in the hell I got to be God, but I’m gonna at least be good enough to stay alone.” Cold space, and all these cold stars, and I roared out a few planets, and I roared out a few– talk to me, (Unintelligible word), ’cause they’ll leave the day, they’re gone be mad, they’ll– they run– they run mad, and be sure to talk to them, ’cause they’ll lose their life, leaving me, if they lose their life. But this just tears up people. They don’t want the truth. I only give you this every six months, and I’ll bet you to my born day, there’ll be ten percent reduction in membership tonight. It always happens, and I have to build up few more church folk, and then six months later, I tear ’em down again.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: Now if that’d been Daddy Jim out there in that mess– (aside) now, I’m sorry, (stumbles over words) I shouldn’t ought to’ve done that– Um, go wash your hands, (unintelligible phrase), leave my snot there, I– I’d doubled it up inside, but anyway– You put your hand out and I wasn’t even thinkin’. (More forceful) You see, that’s the kind of God I (unintelligible word)– but God, he don’t care nothing ’bout that, he just– he don’t say nothin’– he just lonely.
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: Sheee-it. He’s out there–
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: (Booming voice) “Well, I think I’ll make me another God.” Well, hell, he’s liable to throw some of this shit at me that I been throwin’ out here.
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: Ain’t gone do that. [He] Said, I don’t want none of them stars come rollin’ at me. Well, I’ll fix me up a few little ole dingy dingies– just a little old creatures that’ll walk around and tickle my toes and, when I say, “Move,” they’ll say, “Yessir.” So, plopped him out a few angels, (puckers mouth) farted him out a few more, (puckers mouth). Not too big, now, not too big. He don’t want ’em too big, ’cause they might be able to get as tough as he was.
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: And then he says, “Aha, got it made now.” He say, “You go on ahead, and you do this, and you go ahead, and you do this, and you sing hosanna, and I’ll bust your ass.”
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: And they all say hosanna, the cherubims and the seraphims, (Laughs) they’re all saying hosanna. He made one, he– he didn’t take too much time, though, he farted one a little too quick. (puckers mouth) And that was Lucifer. You say, I don’t like your story. Honey, my story makes more sense than your Adam story.
Congregation: Laughter and cheers.
Jones: Talk to me as they go down, honey, ’cause their souls are petrified, if they get– they get out of here– she’s all right. That one’s all right. All right. (Pause) He farted too quick on that one, and that was– that was a loose fart, and they called him Lucifer.
Congregation: Cheers and laughter
Jones: (Laughs) You see, that’s what it was (unintelligible word) in the original. I got one sister back there noddin’, she believe it’s the truth. That was a loose fart. But down through the Hebrew and the Greek, they got that sharpened, they call it Lucifer, but what it was, it was a loose fart. You see, all the rest of them had been controlled farts, but that was a– (Laughs) Too sweet, honey. Too sweet. Because when you need to get healed, when you need to get saved, when you need to get resurrected, if I don’t do it, you won’t get it.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: (Voice rises) Because there’s nobody that can raise the dead, there’s nobody that will take you in when you’re homeless, there’s nobody that can get you out of the prisons, there’s nobody that can make dogs come back when they’ve been gone and bring them out of nowhere and set ’em down. Mmm-hmm. There’s nobody that can take the young man up there when he’s right in the middle of an inferno, right in the middle of a hell, right in the middle of a fiery furnace, and c– when the walls go boom boom, 25 feet, and he can find a path, because I made a way where there was no way.
Congregation: Cheers
Jones: (Quietens) I shouldn’t have to make references like that, though. That’s more of that– we’re not the complete verse, you know, but I had to throw a little bit of that in, ’cause somebody liable to walk out on the only friend they had. (Sighs) The Lucifart, Lucifart– he got– he wasn’t, wasn’t a controlled fart, like the rest of ’em. He was a (laughs). Get the picture, Mother [Marceline] LeTourneau, (unintelligible phrase under laughter).
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: (Laughs) (Cries out) Oh, aren’t you glad!
Congregation: Cheers
Jones: But he– he gets you, and he just didn’t think quite enough, and he let that fart loose too quick. And that fart got loose, and he said, “Why’d that old shit fart me out here for?” He said, “Well, let me tell you, Lucifer, you get up here, and you say, ‘Amen.'” Lucifer tried a few times, then he said, to hell with this.
Congregation: Laughter.
Jones: [He] Said, I didn’t ask to get here. I know all what you know– (stumbles over words) you know, God, you know those farts that you loose, those are the most beautiful farts of all. There’s nothing like a fart that is loose. It is– (laughs)
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: (Laughs) And– You say, why are you doing this, Father? I’m saving somebody from having heart attack. Laughter is good medicine. I know what I’m doing. I’m not just trying to be cute here tonight, or teach you something. I’m trying to build the metabolism. I’ll make myself look like an ass, if I can heal you. That’s the thing about me. You just don’t understand me. (Voice rises) I’m too wide for some people to comprehend, too high for some people to understand, but I’ll tell you one thing, I’m also too low for you to get under me.
Congregation: Cheers
Jones: I’m loosening up some bodily processes that need to be loosed here tonight. Should have farts that was loosed. It was a– And always, when you let ’em go. Quit– and you control ’em, they’ll come out, invariably they’ll be the stinkingest– and they won’t quite– they won’t quite– they won’t quite feel right, ’cause you’re just tryin’ to sneak ’em out. So when you– So when you– (Laughs)
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: When you just say, oh, well, I’m just gonna (unintelligible word– sounds like “loose”) it, it just goes (puckers with mouth)– it’s beautiful.
Congregation: Hooting laughter
Jones: So– so– that beauty– that Lucifart, he– Lucifart, he said, no, now I’m telling you one thing. I didn’t ask to be farted out in this mess. I– He looked around and he see all these other dumb angels going, “Amen, amen, hallelujah,” going around and around, Lucifer says, I– I’m not gone do that. Mmm-mmm. I’m not going go round that fool. It’s bad enough being farted out of him, but I’m going to get away from him. (Pause) So Lucifer, he goes around and in that circle, while they’re going around saying Hallelujah, Glory. He said, “Let me in, you damn fool.” He said, “What are you doing that for that fool up there?” He said, “Come on with me. Come on with me. Let’s get away from this fool, and go up and set our own place where we can fart free.”
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: (Laughs) He said, “He had a free fart, we ought to have a free fart. Everybody ought to have a free fart–” (Laughs) He said, “What’s good for the old fart is good for the new fart.” And I’m telling you, that guy had no longer, he had no sooner had his farts, until one-third of them had taken off. And here he was in some trouble. And he’s supposed to– (Laughs) Some of ’em, they ain’t supposed to be intelligent, they’re supposed to be– he’s supposed to be wise, but he wasn’t so wise as the world has told you, he wasn’t so wise as all religions tell you, because he was so dumb, that he didn’t even control his farts, he had a Lucifart, and Lucifart led all the other controlled farts out, and they went down and started doing their own farts on a little ol’ pile of shit down there that he throwed up– (Laughs) He throwed a pile of shit out there he called Earth. While they’re down there dancing around having fun with every (unintelligible word), they’re loosing their farts all around.
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: He said, (pseudo-God voice) “I’m gonna put some stop to this. I’m gone put some stop to this. (Pause) I’m gone make somebody serve me. All these Lucifarts loose, and all these Lucifarts angels, all these angels runnin’ loose here.” [He] Say, “I’m gone take more time this time. I’m gone make me some shit.”
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: [He] Said, “I’m going to shape it up royal this time. I’m not gone loose no farts.” So he shaped him up some shit–
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: He laid him out one there big one, and he laid– he– he shit him out there, that shit, and he– he put two little dots in the head and he put little dot in the middle of his shit, and then– then he pulled out a little shit here and– put a little– [He] Said, “I’m gone make this a walkin’ shit– I’m gone make–” (Laughs)
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: [He] Said, “I– this time, I’m gone make it right.” [He] Said, “I’m gone make somebody who’ll make me– make me look like I’m the right kind of dirty old (unintelligible word) I should be.” [He] say, “Out there I’m uh– I’m– I’m God, there ain’t no place for all these Lucifarts running all loose here. I shoulda stayed alone, but now I’ve done done it, so I’m gone have to do something here, and make something that’ll show up these Lucifarts.” (Pause) And that old shit there layin’ there– He said, “Well, I gotta breathe on this shit, ’cause it looks bad.”
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: So he spit on this shit, and this shit rose.
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: (Laughs) I– And– And Adam, he got up there, they called that shit– they call that Adam, and in Greek, that means shit. And he– he– he picked that up. And Adam go on up and he says, “I feel like shit.”
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: I’m tellin’ you the way it was, honey, you got it all wrong. I’m tellin’ you the way it was. He said, now– Adam says, “I’m a lonely shit.” “Oh,” God says, “I’ve done done it now. I’m gonna have to make me something else here now.” So He says, “Lay back down there, Adam,” and He plucked a little bit of shit out of his side – that’s all you women all have been, you know, just a little side shit, that’s all you ever amounted to.
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: (Laughs) Now you know that’s the way you been treated all your life, you been treated like side shit. He plucked– he plucked a little of that side shit out, and he flops it down, and he– he– she’s not– she– she’s not worth– she’s a wo-man, after all, she come out of the man, she’s not worth the time to build a whole big shitpile, I’m not gone– I’m not gone do that for no wo-man. Hell, no. I’m gone just take a little bit of that shit I already made, ’cause she’s not worth a whole big blob of shit–
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: So he plucks a little out there– (Laughs) I’m talkin’ about your story, how stupid it sounds. Now, this is how stupid it sounds, and I’m using this language because, (Voice rises towards anger) that’s just how stupid the whole stuff sounds.
Congregation: Cheers
End of tape
Tape originally posted April 2001