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 162
To read the Tape Transcript, click here.
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FBI Catalogue: Unidentified Individuals Speaking
FBI preliminary tape identification note: None
Date cues on tape: Summer 1976 (Peoples Temple trip to East Coast, including
Philadelphia)
People named:
Public figures/National and international names:
"Jeremiah said, get rid of the paper box, the talisman, the ark of the covenant."
"Jesus ... said you've cleaned outside of a platter, but the inside you're filled
with all kinds of things." (Matthew 23:25, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but
within they are full of extortion and excess." Also, Luke 11:39, "And the Lord
said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the
platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.")
"We're in trouble, if people don't listen to God on earth, and build the kingdom
on earth, and read the scripture, OThe Kingdom suffereth violence, and the violence
must take it by force,' if we don't turn the world upside-down." (Matthew 11:12
, "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and the violent take it by force.")
"As Jesus said ... I've come to lose my life, and then find it. But you, the
one to keep your life, you're gonna lose it anyway." (Matthew 10:39, "He that
findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall
find it." See also Matthew 16:25)
"I've had the best come to me at night, like Nicodemus, they'd slip in, they'd
slip in ... the preachers come drivin' up, and slippin' up like a Nicodemus
at night, and said, OWould ya heal me?'" (John 3: 1-21. See also John 7:50,
John 19:39)
"You didn't love no child that you had in the spirit. You had to have a child,
flesh of your flesh, and bone of your bone... And you can't love no God that's
in the spirit, you gotta love God that's flesh of your flesh, and bone of your
bone." (Genesis 2:23, "Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of
my flesh.")
"[Jesus] Said in the last days, saviors would come up out of Zion." (Romans
11:26, "And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come
out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.")
"Jesus said, ye are gods." (John 10:34, "Jesus answered them, Is it not written
in your law, I said, Ye are gods?")
"Have I been with you so long, doubting Thomases and Phillips, have I been
with you so long that you don't know me?" (John 20:24-29)
"They that live godly in Christ, they shall suffer persecution." (2 Timothy
3:12, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.")
Summary:
This tape was one of the 53 tapes initially withheld
from disclosure.
Jim Jones speaks to a congregation in Philadelphia, apparently at one of the
Peace Missions of his former mentor, the late Father Divine. Temple members
made several trips to Philadelphia, and while his several references to a specific
mining disaster would seem to place it in 1972, the allusion to the past legal
troubles of former Vice President Spiro Agnew and former President Richard Nixon
suggests it came during a 1976 cross-country trip.
The sermon has many elements of a typical Jones address: He tries to shock the
congregation by calling them "niggers" — and he is successful, since people
walk out throughout the tape — but he always adds that he is a nigger too,
and that being a nigger has nothing to do with race, but with economic status
in the U.S. He speaks of the King James Bible, having been written by the king
who sent out the Good Ship Jesus to enslave blacks. He speaks of the way whites
use religion to oppress blacks, from early days of American slavery, to current
conditions in South Africa and America's ghettoes.
Along the way, he speaks of the benefits of Temple membership, telling the congregants
in Philadelphia about the dorms, the health care facilities, and the farm plots
in Redwood Valley, and the buses outside that are ready to take them there.
As opposed to other churches, he adds, Peoples Temple takes care of its members,
and still manages to send out tons of food to Africa and Wounded Knee. The next
time the people there tonight go to another church, he invites them later in
the service, look at how well the preachers are dressed, what kind of cars they
drive, how their wives are appointed.
When some of the preachers in the crowd that night want to take their people
out, Jones accuses the clergy of being afraid to face him, but tells the people,
if you're thrown out of your church, I'll take you home with me.
Also, as is usual when Jones addresses a congregation, he talks about the miracles
he has performed. He says he disarmed a man who about to attack him with a knife;
when the man looked down, he saw the knife was gone. He speaks of being about
to conduct miracles through his followers, even though he is thousands of miles
away at the time. Later, when he detects a restlessness among his listeners
because of his message — "[You] say, you've done stop preaching and gone
to meddling" — he reminds them, this is the same man who performs miracles.
He interrupts himself throughout the service, calling out to people who leave,
asking them where they are going, why are they afraid of the truth. He reminds
others that he has prophesied the date — down to the hour — when America's
concentration camps will open. More than that, he wants to know, who will fight
for them when they're in jail or in trouble.
There is, however, a statement which is as tidy and concise an articulation
of Jones' political philosophy — especially as it merges with his theology
— as anyplace else. Midway through the tape, after he ticks off a list
of ills facing America, most with racial or economic themes, he says, "we're
in danger tonight, from a corporate dictatorship. We're in danger from a great
fascist state, or a great communist state, and if the church doesn't build a
utopian society, if it doesn't build an egalitarian society, we're going to
be in trouble."
A moment later, he adds: "We're in trouble, if people don't listen to God on
earth, and build the kingdom on earth, and read the scripture, OThe Kingdom
suffereth violence, and the violence must take it by force.' If we don't turn
the world upside-down, if we don't share the wealth, if we don't establish a
decent order here, in an economics and social order, if we don't do it, the
Man's gonna throttle our neck, and lead us right into the concentration camps."
Jones makes several references to a mining disaster from 1972, how the mine
owners exploited the workers, how overlooked safety violations resulted in the
deaths of over 100 miners (actually, 91 died in the Sunshine Mining disaster
of 1972). The few survivors were radicalized, both in political and religious
terms, Jones says. They now spoke against capitalism. They also realized the
Skygod wouldn't help them.
Jones says that he doesn't claim to be a Skygod, but he'll help his followers.
"I'm promising that if you go to jail, I'll go to jail. If they come after you,
they have to come after me. If they hurt you, they'll have to hurt me." Returning
to the theme a few minutes later, he says, "I don't claim to be no Skygod. If
I found a Skygod, I'd give Him a subpoena, I'd indict Him. I said, if I found
the Skygod, I'd swear out a warrant for His arrest."
You have to be able to touch a God to love him, he continues. You love the child
you can hold, you love the mother you can hold, and by extension, you need to
see and touch and feel your God to love him.
FBI Summary:
Date of transcription: 6/12/79
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 May 24, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B68-13.
This tape was found to contain the following:
Two unknown males giving sermons to a congregation.
This tape was reviewed and nothing was contained thereon which was considered
to be of evidentiary nature or beneficial to the investigation of the murder
of Congressman RYAN.
Differences with FBI Summary:
The difference is almost total: There is one male, not two. The male is not
unknown, but is Jim Jones (as any transcriber in June 1979 must have known).
It is, however, a sermon. Beyond that, the summary meets the FBI's minimal purposes,
even if there is no explanation why the tape was initially withheld from disclosure.