Jonestown Audiotape
Primary Project : Summaries
Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee, III. If you
use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.
Tape Number : Q 1059 (Part 5 of 6)
To read the Tape Transcript, click
here. To listen to MP3, click here.
To return to the Tape Index, click here.
FBI Catalogue: Jones speaking
Date cues on tape: Fall 1974 (A man described as "doing fine" in segment
from Q 1059 (4) -- which was specifically dated to October 20, 1973 -- has died
on a recent September day.)
People named:
Bible verses cited:
o "God ... 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.")
o "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.")
o "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.")
o "Because if we want a future, we will lose our life, and if we lose our life,
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.)
o "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.")
o "Jesus ... 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)
o "I'm talking about Solomon's dunghill." (Numerous references to "dung" in
1 Kings and 2 Kings)
o Discussion of flood story of Noah (Genesis 7-9)
o Discussion of Jonah swallowed by big fish (Book of Jonah)
o Discussion of Joshua commanding sun to stop in sky (generally, book of Jonah;
specifically, 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.")
o Creation story of Adam and Eve (generally, Genesis 2 & 3)
o Story of Lucifer exiled from Heaven
This sermon is a continuation of one which began part way through Q 1059 (4)
and which continues onto Q 1059 (6). Taking place probably in the fall of 1974,
it includes several elements of a Jones address: descriptions of what Peoples
Temple as an institution, and Jones himself, do for its members; reflections
and predictions on government, politics and American society; liberal use of
quotations from the Bible, mostly as a mean to discredit it; and reflections
on the miracles and healings of the church.
The portion of this address opens with Jones speaking of Chinese oppression
under capitalism and Christian missionaries. But now, he says, "my spirit" is
working there, and the Chinese people have turned their lives around. They have
a network of shelters which will protect the population in time of nuclear war,
unlike the U.S.
He reflects upon Chinese society later in his address, describing it as a utopian
society. "Everything's free in China, because the rich have met the fate that
our rich are going to meet."
On the subject of the approaching nuclear war -- a consistent driving force
in much of Jones' philosophical and political belief system -- he says that America
will suffer more than any other place. That's why he wants to get everyone to
the Promised Land.
Later, as he stakes his claim as God, he speaks of the inevitability of nuclear
war, followed by the triumph of socialism over capitalism.
Still later, he says that the Rockefellers and the duPonts will die in a nuclear
war, and says they may die as well, but "I'd be glad to be blown away, too,
just to see them blown away." The difference, he says, is that the spirits of
Temple members will be reincarnated in little babies. But even if they aren't,
that makes no difference. Using a message of Christ for inspiration, he declares,
"if we want a future, we will lose our life, and if we lose our life, we will
find our life." What that means for members of Peoples Temple is this: "if we
reach a Promised Land, be glad. If we do not, be glad."
He speaks of the happiness of the spirit in living under socialism. If two
people are identical in every respect, he says, but one person lives under socialism
and the other doesn't, only one is in heaven.
"The rich never prosper," he says. "Always, their end comes bitterly." After
he tells the story of a rich woman being robbed blind on her deathbed by greedy
relatives, he concludes: "So she died, like all rich will die, and deserve to
die."
He asked rhetorically what does Peoples Temple want, then answers, victory
for the cause, for Christ the revolution. He doesn't need the Bible to help
them get to their salvation, he says, the Bible needs him. "Because I am the
Beginning, I'm the End."
Jones talks about using sex to advance the revolution, and then -- even while
maintaining his own fidelity in marriage -- speaks of the institution as a conceit
of capitalist decadence. Addressing a woman he chastised on the previous tape,
he says he sees her "heart bleed with desire" for a marriage, "but you'll have
nothing but hell. There's nothing but hell in these marriages, because capitalism
breeds self-centeredness. Socialism breeds self-sacrifice."
Expanding upon the theme, he dares his followers to take a test, to see if
anyone loves them but him. "Every honest feeling you have about [your partners],
tell them in two days. And that love that you think that they have will turn
to wrath... Tell Oem the whole truth. Tell Oem exactly what you don't like about
them. Their arrogance, their way they've used you, possess you, abuse you, cheated
you. Tell them. See what happens." But he will love them forever.
He returns to sex later, when he talks about women who flirt with him and expect
the same kind of response they get in other churches. But such running around,
such promiscuity is evidence of something else, he says: their own homosexual
tendencies, whether they are male or female. "[Y]ou think we think you're lovers,
we just stand and feel sorry for you, because it's obvious that you don't know
a thing about love... 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."
Jones sounds several self-described revolutionary themes. He is the chief revolutionary,
he says. Even Mao Tse-Tung doesn't have his spirit. But he also claims the mantle
of non-violence. "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 with blood." He makes
a similar promise elsewhere in his address, when he says, "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."
Jones offers conflicting assertions on his divinity. He first says that King
James misquoted Jesus in saying the poor would always be with you. "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." Jones continues that he has to allow people to praise
him, because that's the tradition they come from, and the Temple has to build
faith. If he just talked the way other preachers did, people wouldn't have faith
to do what he needs to do. So, he has to be God. But he doesn't like to play
that religious game. "I'm Jim, that's what I am."
People want a God, he says, and not a revolutionary. They show that when they
talk about being born again. It's only a partial rebirth, he says. They want
to hold on to many of the old material parts. They want Jim Jones "plus that
Skygod shit."
He returns to that theme of incomplete followers later in the address, when
he says people "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."
Jones offers a long aside on his relationship with Father Divine, and how they
found unity in a belief that no God in the universe would allow starvation on
earth. They had many strategy sessions together, he says, and Father Divine
passed along his mantle of leadership to him. As for Divine himself, he slipped
into becoming a man seeking earthly pleasures, embracing everything he had once
rejected, lost behind a phalanx of secretaries. Towards the end, "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... [T]he Spirit and the consciousness of socialism was gone. There was nothing
but Cadillacs and diamond rings and jewels." Jones ends his reminiscence by
saying, it won't happen to him.
Using other parts of his own biography as a springboard into a discussion of
the Bible, he speaks of his strained relationship with a racist father, then
continues with a description of problems of physical and emotional abuse in
other families. Citing his own life as illustration, he says parents shouldn't
demand respect, "just because somebody played in bed ... to do their thing, and
we happened along." The lack of questioning parental demands of respect leads
them to similar naivete regarding the God of the Bible. But they don't question
it, he says. They don't question the stories of Noah or Joshua or Jonah or Adam,
"don't make any difference what God said, if God said it, it's right."
The end of this tape becomes increasingly farcical, as the congregation joins
Jones in laughter about God farting out the stars and planets, then the angels,
and then Lucifer (whom he refers to as "Lucifart"). "You see, all the rest of
them had been controlled farts, but that was a ... loose fart." He then graphically
describes Adam as a piece of God shit, saying that in Greek, Adam means shit.
As he gets wound up in his demolition of the Bible, he notes that people are
leaving, and says he expects a 10% drop in membership, because people don't
want to hear the truth. He also warns a woman who refuses to join in the scatological
fun, that "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." Later, he says
the congregation needs a little levity, and he intends his humor to save someone
from having a 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'll make
myself look like an ass, if I can heal you."
FBI Summary:
Date of transcription: 6/21/79
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 17, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B108-40.
This tape was found to contain the following:
JIM JONES conducting Temple services and preaching, some with quite a Socialist
content. (From context, tape was made during President FORD's administration,
probably 1974.)
Differences with FBI Summary: None