((Editor’s note: This tape was transcribed by Kristian Klippenstein. The editors gratefully acknowledge his invaluable assistance.)
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Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1, Pt. 2).
Part I
Jones: Hands clasped while we do this. Let’s move quickly. (Pause) Get some help over here. (Pause) Four, (Pause) four, three, over here, over here. That’s good. You work on this side. He’s a three, I’m at four. Not four, three or less. (Pause) (hums) (Pause) You heard what I said about that– those wrenches under the driver’s seat? (Pause) And the spare plug, the– the spark plugs? How many heard me? Be sure they did. It’ll save a broken neck. (Pause)
One woman of congregation: (Unintelligible)
Jones: Hmm?
One woman of congregation: (Unintelligible)
Jones: Under the driver’s seat? (Pause) Yeah, I’d move them. I’d keep ’em in the truck. I’d keep them in the trunk of a car, yes. (Pause) I’m answering that question generally, I’d have no moving heavy metal object inside the vehicle. Have it in the trunk. You save yourself of unnecessary injuries to the ankle. When you asked that, I saw your ank– your ankle. I don’t know what it meant. But uh, so I’d– I’d get rid of it there, yeah. (Pause) I mean, I saw a danger to your leg, you see, so that– that applies I think universally to people, to get objects that can float free, you know, and come move like a missile through the vehicle, get them out of the way. (Clears throat) Pays to listen to me, I’ve had a pretty good record all these years.
Congregation: (Murmurs in agreement)
Jones: With having no one killed on the highway. Nobody on the highways like we are. (Tsks, sighs, makes popping sounds)
Congregation: (Scattered murmurs of agreement)
Jones: Stand up.
(Sound of the congregation standing)
Jones: Thank you, so much.
Man 1: (Unintelligible)
Jones: Hmm?
Man 1: (Unintelligible)
Jones: (Unintelligible) take a four.
(Feedback)
(Thumping on the microphone)
(Organ music begins to play)
Jones: That’s a– That’s a lovely song.
(Congregation begins to sing “Our God has brought us from a mighty long way”)
Jones: I like that melody right now anyway. Sing it. (Clears throat)
(Thumping on the microphone)
Man 2: Where’s the microphone?
Jones: You need more cloths? Here’s some–
Congregation: (singing) Our God has brought us–
Jones: Hold your hand up high.
Congregation: (singing) –from a mighty long way.
Jones: Four, three, wait, wait, wait, wait. Three. Three. Four.
Congregation: (sings, joined by Man 3) Our God has brought us, from a mighty long way. I’ve been blessed by his goodness. I’ve been saved by his love. Our God has brought us, from a mighty long way.
Jones: Sing it a little bit louder. That’s sweet.
Congregation & Man 3: (singing) Our God has brought us from a mighty long way.
Man 3: (singing) A mighty long way.
(Sound of microphone being thumped and blown on)
Congregation & Man 3: (singing) Our God has brought us, from a mighty long way. I’ve been blessed–
Jones: Shhh!
(Congregation stops singing and Man 3 trails off into a quiet hum. The organ continues to play the tune quietly)
Jones: I want– I– I have something to tell you. This little bug– You see there where that sp– that fly was there? This little bug, it wa– I swear to you it was covering just him, it was right on top where that bug was, like that was where he– best place to hide, and he was just exactly on the place where the bug was nose to nose. He’s moved now. He’s up here. And I thought that was such a c– a cute thing. He was hiding in that paper right smack on top of the picture of the bug.
Congregation: (Laughs)
Jones: He’s going back up there. He’s going back up there and looking at it now while I’m talking to him. Right here he is. He says, “I wanna find out about that bug there.” He says, “He’s a weird looking thing.”
Congregation: (Scattered laughter)
Jones: See, he’s looking– he’s looking at it now. He’s looking at it.
Congregation: (Scattered laughter)
Jones: It pays you to notice little things like that. It has a healthy thought. I felt to mention it to you. If it doesn’t touch you, all right, but it’ll help you if it touches you. Here he is, he’s– he’s– he’s crawling around.
(Sound of thumping on the microphone)
Jones: He’s got two little fellas back there. He can handle himself. (Makes popping sounds)
Congregation: (singing rises, joined by Man 3 and Jim Jones) –a mighty long way.
Jones: Peace, see you tomorrow night.
Scattered in Congregation: Thank you, Father.
Jones: You that are called for council, I’d prefer it not having it done publicly tonight. If you’ll allow me to have my wishes in that matter, all my love to you.
Man 4: (Loudly) Be on time for the buses, because they will depart starting at five P.M.
Jones: Yes. It’s– It’s very important, very important that we there because we have these officials all week long.
Man 5: Testing one two–
Man 4: Don’t delay. You’ll be standing here without a ride.
(Crowd noise. milling)
Jones: Shhh! People are– Some are questioning about various people. We’ll tell you if anyone’s missing. Like someone’s asking where Harold Cordell is. Harold Cordell’s going down to help in Los Angeles Temple for a while, due to the fact that we need it, not because he’s being punished.
(Crowd noise, sounds of service breaking up, and Jones consults with unknown persons on places to stay)
(tape edit)
(Tape silence for several moments)
Part II:
Jones: On the– on the back page of the front section, it covers a whole page, and I would like for you to hear just a little bit of what it says. (Pause) The peril of power comparable to Adolf Hitler is evident today in America in every phase of its life. The Watergate situation is one of the indications that is absolutely frightening to the publishers of this paper. The atmosphere here is exactly like the atmosphere of Germany in 1933. This writer remains– retains a vivid memory of a brief encounter with Hitler in 1937. He was introduced to Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator, through deputy assistant Rudolf Hess. Payne and Hitler were together for awhile. At that time, he said, most of the world had the impression of Hitler as a pasty-faced little white man with an absurd mustache. He wasn’t that way at all, according to Payne. His skin was bronzed, he had steely blue eyes, and an elegance of manner. He had a sweet voice and more charm than most people are allowed to possess. He had a crisp, cold mind. He definitely was not a clown. I’ll skip on to something else now (clears throat) in this same article because it’s very long. (Pause) He said, “I expect,” this writer said – now this is the paper, the– the leading paper in California – he said “I expect,” now notice this, “that a government like Adolf Hitler’s will happen here within the next five years.”
Congregation: (Stirs)
Jones: Now this is not Jim Jones anymore. This is what I’ve been telling you for years, and here it is. (Clears throat)
Archie Ijames: That’s right!
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: In his biography, he goes on to write – this uh, publisher – to declare that the scapegoat this time will be blacks, Mexicans, and Indians. As you know, Hitler murdered all of the Jews before he finished. Now that won’t happen to us if you listen to me. We have plans that are laid. We have plans that are absolutely workable. But it’s going to take more cooperation than we now get. You’re going to have to make this your chief commitment. Now these are white people telling you that we’re going to have a man like Hitler at least within five years, he said. Well, the Watergate is such a bad mess, that the head of the FBI [L. Patrick Gray] was guilty of burning up papers that were plots to discredit Senator [Edward] Kennedy. They were all lies concocted by the State Department of the United States. That’s what came out. The FBI director resigned last night–
Congregation: (Murmurs)
Jones: –because he was caught with his proverbial hand in the cookie jar, burning up. The man that’s supposed to enforce the laws took an order from the assistant of the president of the United States [counsel John Dean] to break the law and to burn up papers that would have indicted everybody– everybody in Washington. That’s how corrupt this mess is. These people involved themselves with a plan to get guns. The only thing that stopped that was a Virginia gun dealer who reported them. And they have gone in and spied and bugged and wire tapped, stole papers, lied on the Democratic Party. This evil, every kind of evil that you want to think about, they have personified it, and they are the leaders. The leaders of this United States have done everything that they’ve always told us that we should look upon with disgust. Now it’s right at the door, and NBC brought out the fact that Mr. [Richard] Nixon did the same thing in California. This week it revealed all that had been done – which was frightening – that they represented themselves when Mr. Nixon was running for the governor of the state of California, he represented himself to be a Democrat running a Democratic organization, and sent out a half million cards telling people to vote for him, representing himself as heading a Democratic organization, which was clear fraud, and nothing was ever done. And NBC, the nightly news, showed you the pictures of the ones that took part in that nefarious affair twelve or thirteen years ago, and every one of the pictures you saw on your television are the same surly bunch that are involved in this mess now in Washington.
Ijames: Yes!
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: As this paper said, the scandals were very similar just before Hitler took power in Germany. Now Mr. Nixon’s gonna have to do something quick, or his name is gonna be mud. I don’t think Mr. Nixon is the kind of man that’s gonna go down in history with his name mud. And I think that there’s some generals that will– if it does get to him, if it finally gets to him– Of course it’s already with him. None of this could’ve been done if he hadn’t been involved in it. If this gets to him, he will conspire with the generals like it was done in Greece, and as it was done in Turkey, and was done as I prophesied on the sixteenth in the Philippines islands, and the generals will take over, and civil liberties will be done away with, and as they did with the Japanese, they’ll run everyone into concentration camps. But you’ll have a few days, and we have an emergency plans for our buses that will get us out. Because the Japanese had a few days, but they didn’t believe it’d happen to them. But we have one in our church whose mother was put in a concentration camp in the middle of a desert, and she died with cancer even though they owned– owned several thousands of acres of farm land. And she was put in a concentration camp and died of cancer. I did not know her. She died of cancer and was denied an aspirin. For six months she agonized and suffered and bled to death and was in pain till she bit her own flesh, and they would not even give her an aspirin tablet. That’s what happened to the Japanese, and if you think they would do it to the Japanese and the Jews in this United States and wouldn’t do it to us, you’re some kind of a dumb Uncle Tom.
Ijames: That’s right! Yeah!
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: Now we must not be caught lacking. We must not shirk in our duties. I’m asking you now, and I want to see every envelope, I want us to rally here. They brought me this offering. It is pittance. It won’t pay for the bus fares back and forth, the fuel of the buses, and we’re right on the face of a– of a national rationing. We oughta right now be able to get gas storage. We cannot do that, because everyone puts everything first, except their God, except this great cause. You’ve got money for everything but this great cause, and this will be the life of you and your children. If you don’t protect this, you’re going to lose your life. Now I mean that as a prophet. You mark my words. If we don’t protect this, we will lose our very life.
Ijames: That’s right.
Jones: So I’m asking everyone, and I want to see each one take an envelope now and do something sacrificially, and I want those e– envelopes brought up to me here on the pulpit. Everyone take an envelope. Let’s do something. Let’s show that we’re not gonna be caught lacking. We need millions of dollars to get land abroad. You understand me, folk, we need to be prepared for every emergency. We need to have our cave equipped with every kind of supply, and we’re well on the way. Certainly we’ve got a valley up there. If we stay in America, we’ve got a valley that we can always come back to and a valley that we can protect short of a dictatorship. If the earthquake comes and the nuclear war that will come on the day that we prophesied, we’ll– we’re well protected. We just need some more supplies. However, between now and that prophecy, a dictatorship could come which would mean we would have to take a short journey out of this land to save our lives. Now don’t you think it can’t happen to you. The Jews said they were God’s chosen people. The Bible said they was (Deuteronomy 7:6, “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” See also Deuteronomy 14:2, Psalm 33:12, and Psalm 105:43), but seven million of them died in Germany. And they had a constitution, and they had the best bill of rights, and they had best democracy, but on March fifth, 1933, Hitler said there was too much trouble, so he declared martial law. Do you know President Nixon can declare – or any president – can declare martial law any time he pleases?
Congregation: (Murmurs)
Jones: Any time he pleases. And this Watergate is such a mess, that it’d be just like this, some case like this when he’ll say, “The country’s in disorder. I have to have absolute control.” That’s what we did in the Philippines, and believe me, if they do it here, we’re finished, unless we work together, move together as one people. United we stand, divided we fall.
Ijames: That’s right! Yeah!
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: So everyone– You don’t understand how it works. Some of you white people here think, well, you’ll get out of it. Hitler went back and saw everyone that associated with Jews for twenty years, and killed them all right along with them. It’s too late, child. In the first place, it’ll come to every poor white and Mexican, and some of the Mexicans don’t rel– realize yet who they are. They’re not like Sister [Aurora] Rodriguez and a few of that sort, they don’t yet realize that they’re one of us. Some sister today, Sister Mabel was t– talking, or Sister Davis that took the first offering. Someone was calling her grandchildren, a Mexican family, dirty black niggers. They didn’t want them to play out in their yard. The Mexicans’ll wake up, they’ll find out that they’re dirty black niggers, just like us too.
Ijames: Yeah. That’s right.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: And my Indian people are beginning to realize it. At Wounded Knee, uh, just yesterday the news came out, that they’d come in there and strafed– The newsman said that they came in and strafed, shot down those Indians right in the streets. And what happened to him? They arrested that white man, just because he was reporting the news, just because he told you the truth, they arrested him. He was a reporter, a leading reporter of The Boston Globe, and they put that white man in jail, charging him with inciting a riot because he told you what happened at Wounded Knee. America is already on the brink of fascism.
Ijames: Yeah. Yeah, that’s right.
Congregation: (Scattered applause)
Jones: Dunlop was his name. If you read the news, you know. Some of you are too busy reading that black book. You’re reading that slave book. You’re reading the Bible, you oughta start reading what’s going on around you.
Ijames: Yeah.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: He’s in jail right know awaiting trial on the grounds of inciting a riot, because he told you how Indian children and adults were shot down by governmental personnel in the airplane, shot down. He saw it with his own eyes, and he reported it, and they’ve charged him with inciting a riot, because he was above– without a gun, he was in a plane reporting the news, which is supposed to be the only thing that will keep a country free, is free flow of the news. And Abraham Lincoln said, give the people the facts, and they will be free, and without the facts, he said, they will be enslaved, and here’s a reporter who was arrested yesterday just because he told you the news, and charged with a crime that can put him in jail for 25 years. Just because he was in a helicopter going abroad, going over, reporting the news, which was his job and he had no gun, nothing else, he wasn’t even involved. But they didn’t want you to get the news, and now they’re gonna punish him for telling you what happened at Wounded Knee. So this white reporter of The Boston Globe is in jail today facing a charge of conspiracy to incite a riot.
Ijames: That’s right.
Jones: Now when are we gonna wake up and get our mind off of, you got shoes, or heavenly slippers, or the pearly white cities? When are we gonna get our mind off that stuff and start building our heaven down here?
Ijames: Yeah!
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: Now everyone one take it. I– I– this gonna be a special test. I want to– I’m going through these envelopes like I’ve never gone through any. I wanna see how many’ve responded to this great truth of today’s news. Five years. Five years. Now this is the most conservative paper in the nation. San Francisco Examiner. If it tells you this, you better look out.
Ijames: Really. That’s right.
Jones: This is The San Francisco Examiner, the biggest press in America, the Hearst press, and it says that within five years, we will have a dictatorship just like Hitler’s. Said, because people don’t care. Said, people are unconcerned. (Pause) Said, ninety percent of the nations have been brought under dictatorship. We’ve brought ninety percent of the nations of the world today under military dictatorship. Nine out of ten of them are under military dictatorship. (Sighs) That’s something else. What will you do about it? Will you act upon it now? I wanna see. ‘Cause I’ve not made it so straight so I’m gonna particularly watch this offering. (Pause) It’s in several newspapers. I just happened to read you that one. (Pause) That’s why we need to shout when we’re talking about our principles, when we’re talking about our God of democratic socialism, nonviolent egalitarianism. We need to shout and dance and gain momentum, and some of you won’t get out and dance with us, because when we dance together, it was as the Indians used to before they would go into battle. If they danced with enthusiasm and brought their people together, they’d win their battles, they would make their conquest. And we’ve got to get our energy and our enthusiasm up for what we believe, so that when we all dance, we dance together, and when we all shout, we shout together.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Ijames: Yeah, that’s right.
Jones: And when we all study, we study together.
Congregation: (Scattered murmurs of assent)
Jones: Now I want to tell you something. I know that some of you that were not involved are the ones who think that there are some other God besides this God.
Congregation: (Murmurs)
Jones: You toy with religion, you deal with scriptures, you deal with Bibles, you involve yourself in mysticism. That is counterinsurgent. I want to tell you today for your good, allow no one here to praise anything else, or talk about anything else, except what I am. Don’t let anyone else tell you that so-and-so can do something, or there’s such-and-such a group over there doing nothing. Thi– this is the only group that’s helped at Wounded Knee. I was the only one that got Billy Smith off. I was the only one that put funds for [Angela] Davis. I was the only one that helped with things I cannot even mention here because some would hurt us. I have been the only one that’ve been in the court, and this week, three have been gotten out that had trumped up charges. I’m the only one, and I consider it blasphemy, and I consider it treason if you let anyone praise anything else (Emphatically) except what I am.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: And you that don’t clap, I’m watching you, I’ve got eagle eyes. I’m watching you.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: I’m watching you. I wanna see you clapping right now, if you believe this. If you don’t believe it, take a walk.
Congregation: (Applauds louder and scattered cheers)
Jones: Listen, brother, I’m asking you in the balcony, why aren’t you clapping? If I hadn’t– if I hadn’t stood up for you, you’da been in jail not long ago, over something that happened under my roof. At least you could do is support me in my beliefs, I– And you know what I’m talking about. I’m talking to you in that balcony. Now you stand by me. People wanted to nail you to the cross for something you’d done, which I wouldn’t dream of doing but I– I covered and cared for you and overcame the problem, and then you have other gods before me. You should be ashamed of yourself (Deuteronomy 5:7, “Thou shalt have none other gods before me.”).
Ijames: Yeah. That’s right.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: Perhaps somebody should tell just how much they want to do to people who deviate and how much I stand up for people that make mistakes or indulge themselves in areas that I do not care for. How much I am a protector, and then when you cannot declare that I’m the only one. I want you today to stand on your feet and clap your hands and declare it or leave.
Ijames: Yeah.
Congregation: (Calls and sustained applause)
Jones: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m not trying to be difficult. I just know who has to save you, and when we’ve got somebody with double mind, carrying water on both shoulders, they’ll hold us back. Let them go out there and believe in a Sky God that’ll never come. Let them believe that these things’ll never happen. Let them die in the gas chambers if they want to, even though I want to save everyone. That’s their choice. But don’t let them be in here holding us back by looking back to other gods or looking back to Sodom and Gomorrah (reference to Genesis 13 and 14). Don’t let it be.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: You demand that they only speak of one God, God Jim. (Emphatically) You will let them speak of only one God, the savior that’s here talking to you. Don’t let them talk about any other God. I will have no Gods before me (Deuteronomy 5:7).
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Ijames: Yeah.
Jones: (Fervently) For your salvation. For your own welfare. For you. It’s because I love you. Don’t let anyone else be before me, because I’m the one that will marshal our resources together, I will marshal our strength. It’s me that will unite us if we have our whole attention undivided upon me. But if someone is here able to sow discord amongst the brethren, it will hinder our exodus to Babylon. It will hinder us and cause us to die in the wilderness. So don’t let any traitor name any other God. (Ministerial cadence) I am God and there is no other God before me! (Deuteronomy 5:7)
Ijames: Yeah! Thank you!
Congregation: (Sustained cheers and applause)
Jones: Peace. I’m not seeking any accolades nor any kind of public demonstration, I’m only trying to unify us, and I happen to be the heart of the organism. I happen to be the pulsating center. I happen to be the vibrant dynamo that will draw us together, and if you let somebody else be praised or some other foolish religion– You know no one ever before me. You talk about a prophet here or a prophet there, no prophet ever has done anything for the blacks or the Indians or the poor. No one’s ever done anything for them until I came along. You know that.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: So the question’s settled. Don’t listen to any of this business and– uh, anyone that discusses a healer is a blasphemer. We’re not interested in healing. I heal my people better than anyone on earth. I keep you in a better state of health than anyone, but that’s not why we’re here. (Emphatically) We’re here because we want a new earth, a new society, a free movement.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: So if any other healer is mentioned, it’s blasphemy. If any other healer, living or dead, or any other religious leader living or dead is mentioned, it’s blasphemy. We need to unify, and if we find you doing otherwise, you will be out, because we can get along without you, but you can’t get along without us.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Ijames: Yeah. Thank you.
(tape edit)
Jones: (Enthusiastically) You choose this day who you’re going to get with. You choose this day who you’re going to work with. You choose this day who you’re going to serve, what idea you’re going to serve, because you cannot serve two masters. You– The one you’re going to hate, the other you’ll love, and I say you’re gonna cleave to one or push away from the other (Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” See also, Luke 16:13). So now decide today, who’s it gonna be? Is it Jim Jones or is it not?
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: Bless you.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: (Moderates) We just rescued some little kittens that were being choked down a– uh, in a– in a garbage pail right next door here. Little baby kittens being choked down in a garbage pail, and the woman using all kinds of racial language. Let me tell you, there’s only a– We got them, they’re saved here. But she had no feeling about it, and they wouldn’t have any feeling, some of these people, they’d just as shoon– just as soon shove down a little black child in a garbage pail too. They’ve got no feeling!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: You oughta see these pretty little– little baby kittens, just shoved down into a garbage pail. If I hadn’t been there to rescue them – and they’re back here – if my workers hadn’t cooperated and got them to a veterinary– People do it all the time. It’s not the first time I’ve rescued them. They put uh, in a church. One church put little– you heard them talk about putting little cats and dogs down in the outdoor toilet. That’s what religious folks did, because they knew that that’d be a way to get me to come out of my church to come and help the little animals. This country’s ready to kill anybody on the very snap of your finger. They’re ready to murder. This nation’s filled with murder.
Congregation: (Applause)
Man in congregation: Letting the people throw damn mice in the fire.
Jones: You better get– You better get your mind off all this other, this– this poopy crack. You better just get off of it. (Pause) You got too much poppycock in your mind. That poppycock never saved you. That poppycock never took your great grandmothers and grandfathers out of the cotton fields. That poppycock of Sky God and fly away religion never helped any of us. We don’t want none of it here, and if you talk about any of that other religion, I don’t wanna hear nothing about your Bibles or your religion. I only want to hear you tell me how we’re going to build a free society out of this earth. I wanna hear about a heaven on earth and I don’t wanna hear (Cries out) nothing else!
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: Thank you. Turn in those offerings now, so that I can take a count of it, because I’m gonna separate the true from the untrue and the faithful from the unfaithful. (Pause)
One woman of congregation: (Unintelligible)
Jones: That’s the difference about this place. We shout sometimes, and when we shout, we’ll shout, and when we get serious, we lay it on the line and tell it just as it is.
Congregation: (Applause)
Ijames: Yeah, all right!
Jones: When Hearst is printing this kind of stuff, when the Hearst boys are getting nervous, when they think we’re going to have a Hitler in five years, we’re liable to have one in five months.
Congregation: (Scattered applause)
Jones: Now what we have in mind when it comes, our missionaries are getting ready to go, we’re going to serve the people abroad, and that’s what we’re gonna do, and they’re probably going to try to stop us. They’re already making big issues, that we’re a church that takes care of our people too much. Said a church shouldn’t have any money to take care of its people. That’s what that reporter made a case on the television, we take care of our people too much. Said a church should give its money all away. (short laugh) Yeah, they want us to be poor, as uh, Job’s turkey. They want us to be po– poor as a church mouse. They don’t want us to have anything. That’s what they got in their mind to keep us poor, and we’re doing something about it. And they’ll probably try to raise a lot of Cain, but if we show to them that– the– we’re like a wild bunch of panthers when they come after us, if we show them that we can get really angry and if they want to take one of us on, they have to take all of us on, then we’ll have some trouble.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: You know, there’s over a thousand people– there’s over a thousand people here in this room and closer to two thousand on Sunday, and that’s a whole lot of people to take on. We can be pretty angry when you take us on.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: Now we’ll quietly walk out of here. We’ll quiet– we’ll quietly take our little trip through the wilderness and leave Pharaoh’s Egypt, Pharaoh’s Washington, Pharaoh’s America (Book of Exodus), we’ll leave it quietly and we will go along humming our songs, riding in our buses till we get to the border, and our missionaries are going out now to get us some land south of the equator. They’ll be serving there, and we’re gonna build a clinic and then we’re gonna get some land where we can raise food – that’s our hope – and some animals. That’s starting in the next few days. The br– The brother that leads the choir [Don Beck], he speaks Spanish and he’s going, and uh, the Mertles [Elmer and Deanna Mertle] who have a picture, they’re going. And we’re going down there, uh, we’ve got a little spot where people live to be a hundred, and a hundred and eight, a hundred and nine years old. I’ve found a place that people don’t uh– don’t get old like other people do. And uh, you know me, when I look over this world, I look for the very best place I can find.
Ijames: Yeah, all right. That’s right!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: And we’ll go there and be good citizens and we’ll help others. We’ll right now be serving, as I say, through a clinic and show them how loving we are, so we’ll win their hearts so they’ll want us. And uh, we are glad uh, that to anyone who wants to share with that vision, we’ll share with you. But we’re going to have to do it with all of our might. It calls for every kind of a program that you can bring about. It calls for every one of you selling any kind of project, because believe me, when we have to go, we have to move as one people, at Jerusalem, as it was when– when Jesus [Jeshua] warned them there, you’ve got to be as one people at Jerusalem (Ezra 3:1, “And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.”), and if we’ll stand with one people in those eleven buses, soon to be twelve, maybe thirteen, if we stand in those buses and are unified, they’ll let us go right straight through, I promise you.
Ijames: Yeah! All right!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: At this– at this juncture– They’re gonna– There’s not one person that weak– weakens the chain– And if you do, they’ll kill you. They’ll take you and use you just like the Jews– the few Jews that sold out the rest of the Jews, they took them and used them for awhile, and then they castrated them.
Ijames: That’s right.
Jones: They saved the worst penalty that they could find for the quisling. They saved the worst kind of torture for the rat fink, for the one that sold out their brother. They saved the worst for the one that turned in the rest of their brothers. They gave them the worst torture. Not one of those that turned in their fellow travelers, their fellow Jews, not one of them got by. They castrated every one of them and tortured many of them and poked their eyes out and did a whole lot of things. So you’d feel terribly bad if you sold out your brothers and sisters and then that’s all you got in return. So let’s be determined that we will stand. Where two or three agree as touching anything, it shall be done and we will move together (Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”).
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: Reverend Garrison, who was called out and healed from a Baptist church when he was a Baptist pastor, Baptist minister, now has a project to tell you about. And he’s got this project, and I want others to do similarly, because we’re going to build the best here, and we’re going to build the best everywhere, and they’re not gonna stop us. If they do, we’re going to raise so much hell that they’ll hear us all the way to the White House.
Congregation: (Sustained cheers and applause)
Jones: Now we’re peaceful, and we don’t believe in killing, but we will protect what we have. We’re gonna protect those convalescent homes and that beautiful forty acres, the children’s home. We’re going to protect our cave, we’re going to protect our senior citizen homes, we’re going to protect our dormitories, we’re going to protect our beautiful children’s home and the forty acres, we’re going to protect our swimming pool and all that we have here, and we’ll protect our land abroad, and we’re going to protect our buses, and if you want to try to prove what we’ll do, you just see, you just try to take one little thing away from us and see if we don’t fight like hell.
Congregation: (Sustained cheers and applause)
Jones: Peace. I got a pompous spy for a– a bunch a sell out churches here. And he’s setting back there, I want him to get it all straight, ‘cause he don’t know, I’m loving. I’ve taken in people who’ve betrayed me. I’ve forgiven them. One man I saved– saved him when he was being crushed with a bus by revelation. The bus would have pulverized him, but I saw where he was. But he didn’t know me in those days, and he turned me into an agency and made false charges. But I took him in when he got the light, and I’ll take you back many times. I forgive more than anybody you ever heard of, including your God in the Bible (Matthew 18:21-22, “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”).
Ijames: That’s right.
Jones: I forgive and I forgive and I forgive.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: (Intense) But there’s one thing. I’m mean when you mess with my children.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: And these are my children. Now you say what you want to about me, you talk about me, you can just say any old ugly thing you want to, but if you try to hurt what I have built up for my children, because I’ve come without money or price (Isaiah 55:1, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”), nothing but these old used choir robes, I’ve never bought new shoes, never bought a pair of new shoes in my life – you’ve heard the story – I don’t have anything but just money protecting you and the people that I love and these facilities. (Intently) But if you think, good bro– brother from the alliance, if you think that I will let anyone take any of what I have sweat and nearly died for to build up for my children, if you think I’ll let one little speck, one little dirt, one little plot of my forty acre place where we’re gonna raise greens and strawberries and we have our cattle, if you think that you’re gonna take one little rock, I’ll bust your ass.
Congregation: (Cheers and sustained applause)
Jones: Now that’s– I think I’ve established the message. I think I’ve made it very clear.
Scattered voices in congregation: Yes!
Jones: You say, “I didn’t know that was in the Bible.” Oh, yes it was there. When Jesus talked about asses and Paul talked about dung. He talked about the worst word in the Bi– in the Yiddish language, Hebrew language, Paul said, “I counted all dung that I might apprehend the Christ vision,” (Philippians 3:8, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”) and that was the dirtiest word you could say for ass or BM, so uh, I’ve got a right to tell it when I want to get a message across, and I think that that good alliance minister will now get what I’m sayin’: Don’t mess with my children.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: Now Reverend Garrison, ex-Baptist, but now healed, has got a project which– He had a ring once when he thought he needed rings, and then he decided he didn’t and he had a thousand dollar ring and he’s doing something with it – it’s quite interesting – with– some other people are joining with him.
Garrison: Thank you, Father.
Jones: It’s been appraised, by the way. All those things have been appraised and proven that they’re worth exactly what is said.
Garrison: Peace.
Jones: Peace.
Garrison: Say it like you mean it. This time (Unintelligible word) the peace is very shaky.
Congregation: That’s right.
Garrison: The San Francisco Examiner stating what pastor has just read. We all should be at our best. Uh– Realizing that we are not where we should be, we all are working on projects up in the Bay Area, and we hope that you here would do likewise.
Jones: (Coughs)
(Microphone moved around)
Garrison: In this particular project that I have here is a drawing. We have raffle tickets drawing uh, you know. You see them here, a dollar apiece.
Jones: Let me read what’s on there for it. And I think it’s a wonderful way he gives up his jewelry. One diamond ring, three karats, appraised at over a thousand dollars. One mink fur jacket appraised at o– over five hundred dollars. One ladies diamond wrist watch appraised at nearly five hundred dollars. Another one, uh, ladies watch– all you get, you’ll get these things or these people you know, try to sell them to people out there that, you know, like that sort of thing. They’ll get them a dollar per ticket. If you happen to get ‘em and don’t want it, you can do it again.
Garrison: Right.
Jones: You know. (Short laugh) If you don’t– If you’re like me, don’t want diamonds– Uh, mine’s been put in. I saved a man’s life, as my people know, with a dai– he gave me a diamond ring and I turned it in to the treasurer. Saved him on Market Street, San Francisco, three thugs were gonna beat him up. And I– I– I saved his life, and they gave me a diamond, but I wouldn’t have a diamond. He wouldn’t give me a diamond if uh– Well, I won’t say what I was gonna say anyway.
Scattered in congregation: (Laughter)
Jones: Any– Anyway, you can take it and you can sell it, you can use it, you know, whatever. That’s not the point, but everyone participate with this. Everybody– How many’ll get uh, some of these tickets and I don’t know how he’s gonna (unintelligible under Garrison)
Garrison: Sister Wilson, where is she? She’s in charge of Los– of our Los Angeles district down there. Where is Sister Ruth Wilson?
Woman 1: (Unintelligible)
Jones: Sister who?
Garrison: Wilson uh–
Jones: Oh, the head of the–
Garrison: (Unintelligible) yes, you– Most of you know her.
Jones: Yes.
Garrison: And she has stated that many of our L.A. members– many of our L.A. members that have been uh, criticizing, saying that–
Jones: (Unintelligible)
Garrison: He said, don’t wear rings. What are we gonna do with them? Well, if you are dedicated enough to not wear the jewelry, then turn it back and have it uh, raffled over again. That’s what we’d do. But–
Jones: You– You’ll find some of your good old neighbors that’d love to get a thousand dollar ring. You can sell those tickets, honey.
Garrison: That’s right.
Jones: You’d find a lot of Uncle Toms and Aunt Jane. You got one on both sides of you.
Congregation: (Laughs and delayed applause)
Garrison: Now this raffle come off the twentieth of May, and uh, these te– tickets haven’t been moving like they should. And there’s much involved in this, I want you to think about it.
Jones: I want you to come up tonight, at the end of the day, and we’ll uh, have some secretaries there at the table. You assign these tickets through Sister Wilson and take the re– registration of who will take them, to proven members, you know, and uh, then we can take ‘em out and sell ‘em, because we ought to get those sold. We don’t want to give no one a thousand dollar ring unless they come up with a thousand dollars at least, you know, in the raffle.
Garrison: Right.
Jones: I mean unless we can sell a thousand dollars worth of tickets we want (Unintelligible) assuredly uh, pay for these. Now, sisters doing it– we ought to be able to do it, one of the– some of the sisters are taking a quilt and doing that. They’re doing a qui– they’re doing a thousand dollar (unintelligible) with a quilt. And we need to do it, we need to get everything we can together. Honey, whatever you got to sell, sell your old man, if you have to. Come on.
Ijames: Yeah!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Garrison: That was (unintelligible)
Jones: And that– that– that applies to the brothers too. If you’ve got a contrary old lady who’s been holding you back, and she won’t let you go forward and do this new work, sell her, honey. She– See what she can get on the market.
Ijames: Yeah!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: Warner Brothers– Warner Brothers movie studio’s come by and they want to know whether we’d rent this, (Stumbles over words) we’d rent this place. They want to do a murder scene in it for a movie. I said anything I got is for rent for my people.
Ijames: All right!
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: And that’s just exactly what I meant, to get you where I want to get you free, I’ll rent anything I got, honey, and you can think what you want to think. (Laughs)
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: If that isn’t the holiest thing I know, I don’t know what holy is.
Ijames: All right.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: Because we’re gonna be free. You hear me? We’re gonna be free.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: I’m tired sitting around, having to worry whether we’re going to have a dictatorship or a concentration camp or what new thing they’re gonna do with the blacks, and now this new move that the president’s getting ready to make to cut back all the welfare and the Social Security, I’m getting tired about that. (Emphatic) And if I can’t do something about it, we’re gonna take them on full square, and die in the process, ‘cause I’m tired of it!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause),
Jones: Give me liberty or give me death. I don’t want to have to live this way.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: We’re in this together, baby, and if you don’t like to go in anything together, then you better get off while you got time. They’ll get you too. They’ll get you, but we’re in this together. Sink or swim, hell or high water.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: All right, you’ll have those tickets up there at the– at the desk– at the uh, inn. Thank you.
Garrison: Thank you, Father.
Jones: Thank you. Very good idea. How many’ll buy one of those tickets? One dollar. That’s not much.
Scattered voices in congregation: (Unintelligible)
Jones: Uh-huh [Yes]. Get ’em out and you– some of you can get out on the streets. She’ll take fifty and she’ll sell them too, you go over there. Uh– That’s all right. What’s her name?
Woman in congregation: (Unintelligible)
Jones: Put ’em down. It’s all right. Fifty. Hand me down. I’ll pass on some of these folks.
Ijames: That’s (unintelligible)
Jones: Anybody else wanna take– (Pause) You don’t go to him now. Just give your name to me.
Ida Mae Lee: (Unintelligible)
Jones: Hmm?
Ida Mae Lee: (Unintelligible),
Jones: How many you want?
Ida Mae Lee: Fifty.
Jones: Fifty? What’s your name, love?
Ida Mae Lee: (Unintelligible)
Jones: What?
Ida Mae Lee: Ida May Lee.
Jones: Yes Ida May Yates. Fifty.
Ida Mae Lee: Ida May Lee.
Jones: Ida May Lee. I’m sorry, I’ve got an Ida May Yates. That’s why I jumped too quickly. What is it?
Woman in congregation: (Unintelligible)
Jones: Yeah, she’s not worried about speaking in tongues anymore. What’s your name? (Laughs)
Congregation: (Laughs)
Jones: She’s out selling– she’s out selling these tickets, so it’s good enough. How many do you want? I know you. I may not know your name, but I know all things about you.
Scattered voices in congregation: (Unintelligible)
Jones: Yes. Shout your name out.
Woman in congregation: (Unintelligible) and I want twenty five.
Jones: Twenty-five, good.
Laura Steferson: Laura Steferson (Unintelligible)
Jones: Laura what?
Steferson: Steferson.
Jones: Good. Did you get it? Steferson, fifty. Laura Steferson’s good for fifty.
(tape edit)
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: (Sarcastic) If I’ve got that kind of power that I can take every one of those witnesses and get them in a car and kidnap them and have ‘em all hid, you better be good. (Laughs)
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: No, I don’t work that way. I don’t have to work that way, but you mess with me, and I might work that way.
Congregation: (Applause)
Ijames: Hey! All right.
Jones: Now you can do with me what you will, but don’t mess with my children. You understand that, all you Tommys in here and all you Janies? You understand that, don’t you?
Congregation: (Applause)
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: We’re just not gonna have our children messed with, but I was thinking about that marvelous and remarkable thing, I look at Melvin [Johnson], the singer, three time loser, and I caused the judge to get ill.
Congregation: (Murmurs)
Jones: A prejudiced judge to get ill and send somebody else.
Ijames: All right.
Jones: And who did I send? The only black judge I could find in these parts? All over these hills, I found the only black judge and made him take his duty.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: (Unintelligible word) Just look at (stretches word) all these miracles, miracles, miracles. I look at Kice here that was due to be got– to be gotten. I promised what I told you that Sister Jewel I won’t give you here last name, but when they were coming after her, gonna put a charge against her of welfare fraud, I said they’re not gonna do it.
Scattered voices in congregation: (Unintelligible)
Jones: I said I pledge it won’t be done, and they didn’t do it. Oh, let me tell you, you’re just talking about one of my departments, just a number of things. Kice and– and all the– what is it, the number of people been in trouble – Carrie – and uh, some I can’t name, because it would uh– it would uh, bring out some things that we don’t need to, but oh, the charges have been trumped up on people, and every blessed one– I look over there and see an usher standin’, got him off when they said there wasn’t any chance. I see two ushers here, three ushers.
Ijames: Yeah!
Jones: All kinds of prison records, they said they couldn’t get ‘em out, facing ten year sentences and didn’t get ten minutes. What you talkin’ about?
Ijames: That’s right!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: (Laughs) I like to see you chuckle, honey.
Congregation: (Laughs)
Jones: (Laughs) I like to see that, that mixed-up nigger like me down here, that white– that white nigger down– (Laughs)
Congregation: (Laughs and applause)
Jones: You’ve got the sweetest laugh. When you laugh, it just does my soul good. You see, that’s why you got– you gotta be a nigger to laugh like that, honey. You don’t know how to laugh unless you’re a ni– (Laughs)
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: (Laughs) Say, I don’t like to be called nigger. That’s why I’m doing it, ‘cause some of you folk think you’re white. That’s when I’ll quit using it. When I get all these folks that come in here black as my patent leather shoes and think they’re white, when you quit coming in here, I’ll quit using the word “nigger,” but you better not call us nigger outside. (Laughs)
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: When I think of what we have, the power center here, the power center. Do more than all that God business could do, all that religion could do. The power center of a living Christ, a living savior, how much we’ve done just in one department, not one of our people in jail or in trouble. Not one of them that haven’t been gotten off of these terrible trumped up charges. Just a matter one brother had to serve few– few days when he was facing ten years. My God Almighty, you don’t know what you’re talking about. (Voice climbs) You don’t know what you got here, you want to protect it with all your life!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: (Intense) And the more you give– and the more you give in faith, the more you protect yourself. That’s the answer. So let’s add to our faith, because our money has every time been intrinsically involved with our health. People that’ve died, have died invariably. There’ve been no member in the valley that ever has, none in San Francisco, but the ones I know have held onto money, or they’ve held onto food, they held onto something they didn’t want to give up. Now– So let’s come on through. We’re short today, and we’re not gonna stay short, are we, honey?
Scattered voices in congregation: No!
Jones: If we have to rent out something that we own–
Scattered voices in congregation: (Murmurs in approval)
Jones: We’re gonna come out– We’ve got to come out. There’s nobody else gonna get us through but us.
Ijames: That’s right.
Jones: We waited all those years for somebody to come out of the sky, and they never came, so we know who gonna get us up out of the mud. It’s us. All right, today I want to ask from the depths of my soul if there’s anybody here that will help us with a thousand dollars. That’s how short we are.
(tape edit)
Jones: (Unintelligible) tell you where I’m going?
Scattered voices in congregation: No.
Jones: It’s someplace towards the icebergs. You– you head out towards the icebergs, and you keep on going, some of you, till you get lost.
Congregation: (Laughs)
Jones: We got to do it proper. Anybody got a thousand dollars here to help us in faith to rise up and see what happens? Last night we moved in faith, and my, the miracles that were wrought in San Francisco. It’s the proportion to your faith, that’s always the way it works, in proportion to your faith. Anyone here said, yes Father, I’ll get on my feet and I’ll find a thousand dollars. (tape edit) I would say the best talk show program in the state of California, he said “I don’t know what Jim Jones is by what he says,” but he say, “but I look around and I see my people.” He’s a black man and he uh, leading commentator, and he said “I tell that they’re healthier, they’re eating better, they’re better taken care of than any people in San Francisco.” So he said, “I know what he is by what I see with my own eyes.”
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: So now I want to say to you that uh, we will see that you are taken care of in the best shape. That’s what we want. So if you’ve got dying insurance, then get rid of it. Come on, you don’t need to worry about dying. We’re not counting on dying, and honey, if we die, we’ll die in a battlefield. We not gonna die in no old graveyard, honey. Come on, child.
Ijames: That’s right!
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: You don’t– you don’t want to make some honkey richer.
Scattered voices in congregation: (Unintelligible)
Jones: That’s all right, brother, you (stumbles over words) you’ll need me too one day. Y’all gonna need me one day. You’ll get– you’ll wake up one day. It’s true anyhow. Say, what do you mean with graveyards and cemeteries? I’m gonna tell you one thing, don’t you call me to no more funerals where you’ve got velvet-lined caskets and designed and embroidered caskets and all that bunch of stuff. Don’t you call me. If you die and go that way, you bury yourself.
Ijames: That’s right! Hey!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: No wonder people die. I haven’t had any of these funerals. They aren’t all dressed up, and as I said in– since 1959, never lost a member in the Temple, not one.
Ijames: That’s right.
Jones: Then when you look around at all these funerals, they got ‘em (stretches out word) all dressed up, that last one I had, it was pitiful! They put more money in that casket then some people see all their life. I’m talking about the last funeral I had here in Los Angeles, dressed up, all that stuff. That’s why everybody hates me.
Congregation: (Scattered applause)
Jones: No wonder the morticians don’t like me, preachers don’t like me, the graveyard owners don’t like me, ‘cause I don’t like that mess. I tell you, I don’t like that mess.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: Now they’ve tried to shoot me down. That’s why I had some workers– the workers are all invited to be here today, they even tried to set a little fire a while ago. But uh, (laughs) they’ve been trying to kill me so long, ‘cause I trouble so many people. And they’ve poisoned me, and General Hospital said it was enough to kill ten horses, was it?
One man: Yes.
Jones: Ten horses and it didn’t even– didn’t even make me a little more than I was just a little dizzy like somebody’d had maybe one shot more of Old Crow than they shoulda had. But I– (shouts) Hey now! (Laughs)
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: And so, they– they don’t like what I’m sayin’, because they may– they kill us, you know. Make us in debt so them Uncle Tom, I’d been riding with these morticians too, and the only one as I said except that king or whatever their names, Jackson or whatever their names, that’s the only one– I– I’ve rode with them and they– they talk about we don’t have any problems. I– Listen, I won’t ride with them anymore.
Ijames: That’s right.
Jones: Yeah, the preachers supposed to ride in the ambulance, but I’ve been riding in my bus. I said if they don’t give me that bus, I’m not riding with these rat fink hon– honkey type funeral directors.
Ijames: Hey! All right.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: You better hear what I’m saying. I rode with one. He said, “You know if you– if you a good Negro you don’t have any problems.” He said, “I got a swimming pool,” and he said, “My– my girl has all kinds of white friends.” He said, “If you just do right, people be nice to you.” I thought I’m gone hit that sumbitch if I don’t get out of this car.
Congregation: (Sustained cheers and applause)
Jones: All right. All right. Now you think about moving, brother, but you got – back there in the back – you upset, but you got cancer of the prostate, and I’m the only one that can cure it. I’m the only one that can raise the dead. Now you hear me.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: Now you just listen to me. I’m the only one that you’ve seen that can open up eyes. One was on the front row here was blind from birth. I’m the one that took someone– the cast off of the woman over here, right sitting here, she was blind for 27 years. You don’t like my talking. Well, when you get up and walk, you think, by God, about that cancer that’s gonna eat your pubic area out.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: You just sit down– you just sit down a little while longer, and you find out you don’t– you’re not nearly bothered about it, ‘cause you called everybody that anyway. You don’t need to try to act like you don’t understand what I’m talkin’ about. Just like that preacher last night. I said you be up shit creek without a paddle, and he looked– he looked at his wife– he looked at his wife, like we don’t talk like that and I said, “You know both of you talk that way (stumbles over words) each other today. You used those lang– that word just today.”
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: And that good old Pentecostal preacher, he just set down and smiled like a (unintelligible as recording cuts off)
(tape edit)
Jones: – (Unintelligible word) them, them robbing the graves and putting people in debt for ten years. It’s easy for them big fat asses to talk about doing right.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: (In full throat) Now you been wanting me to die but I’ll tell you one thing. If some– If I ever do, you’ll never see me in no box. You’ll never see me in no grave. I’ll give my kidney to some stugg– struggling black, I’ll give my heart ju– because I got a good heart– I’ll give my heart to some poor field nigger. I’ll give my organs to somebody, I’ll be cut up like mincemeat pie, honey! Hey!
Congregation: (Enthusiastic cheers and applause)
Jones: And what they can’t use, they can fertilize on a bed of turnips. They can put out on some greens up there in Redwood Valley to make my greens grow better for you, but if– I want to tell you, if you put me in any box, I’ll get up and I’ll tear that damn box up all over the church house.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: Want no box, want no– and shove somebody off in a mausoleum. (Calms) One of them precious hearts. and it’s all sweet and well, they didn’t know it then and she’s come back to prove us life anyway. I saw shoving ‘em inside these walls. Honey, don’t put me in that mess to make money for white people. Don’t do that. Don’t shove me in no drawer or take all the money, all the time we’ve sweat and all the years we’ve gone without, then put us in a big box to try to make us look like– The Time magazine said, “The reason black people don’t have it” – I think was it Time, maybe Newsweek – said, “The reason black people don’t have any money, they spend three times more on funerals than white people.” We gotta change this, honey.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: (Emphatically) We got to spend our money on the living instead of the dead!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: (Calms, then builds) Roses and all that stuff that we could never have got. We don’t have any company with cut roses. We’ve been cut off too much. We’ve seen our loved ones cut off in the prime of their youth. We don’t want anything cut around us, fancy flowers and fancy mausoleums and fancy caskets. We don’t want any of that. And I’m telling you, I want to go on record now, don’t you dare try to put me and show me off, ‘cause you that loved me, I want you to remember me when I jumped and danced, when I was out there fighting in the jails, when I was in the courts. That’s the way I want you to remember me.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: (Calms) You’ll have a freedom conscience. ‘Course, most of you don’t need to worry, ‘cause I’m gonna be around to see you through.
Congregation: (Calls out)
Jones: And you’re going to have to live– you’re gonna have to live, honey. You’re gonna have to live awfully short, you know, you’re gonna have to live an awful short life, uh (stumbles over words) long life rather, if you’re going to pass me up, because I intend to stay around as long as I possibly can to take care of some of you. Particularly my senior citizens, you’ve been disappointed, you’ve seen this and that happen, and the very ones you’ve depended upon, like Martin [Luther King], shot out from under you. Well, we’re going to do (stretches word) all we can. That’s why I want my men around– Not that I care, and they can’t even get to me unless I’m concentrating on healing one of you.
Ijames: That’s right.
Jones: That’s why all these people, the bus drivers all been (Unintelligible word, could be “signaled”), they made their plans, they’ll be here. They’ll not be out, every man’s around, they’re all watching, ‘cause people like to put your only hope out. They’d like to put the light out.
Congregation: (Scattered applause)
Jones: They’d like to get me out of the way, so that they can continue to rob you. They’ve– they’ve screwed you and w– worked you to death and taken everything away from you, and now you’ve got a few nice things, you’ve got some lovely property up there, you’ve got lovely homes, the lovely convalescent homes, the lovely senior citizen homes, lovely acreage. You’ve got ground, and you’ve got some earth, and they don’t like that. But I’m gonna tell you, they’re gonna have to try awful hard to get me out of the way, because I don’t intend to go anywhere for awhile.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: (Calls out) But when I do, if I do, I’ve already got one groomed. I’ve got one groomed to stand right here. He doesn’t look just like me, but the moment I’m gone, he’ll call out the people with my mind. He’ll tell the people with my mind!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: I’ve got my successor in mind. I’ve got them more than in mind, I’ve got them in plans. So don’t you worry about it. I won’t leave you comfortless. I told you that I’ll always be sitting in this seat, whether my hair may be a little darker or a little lighter, doesn’t make any difference, I’ll always have my person, my mind, my energy, my consciousness will always be here. You’ll never be without a father. I’ll never leave you fatherless, I told you that, and that’s what I mean.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: And I’d give the instructions that if I did not live up to my own covenant, I’m to be killed, and if my successor does not live up to being a good father, he won’t live (dramatic drop-off) long.
Congregation: (Delayed applause)
Jones: (Voice rises) So look out. This office is a lonely office, this office is a hard office. I have told several of my people, I said, if I ever look like I’ve turned back, you cut my throat, and I say, whoever’s in my position, there’s the same thing holds for them. If they act like they’re not going to be a good Father, (voice drops, then climbs again) they’ll be taken care of, because I’ve brought the fathership degree to earth, I’ve made Father mean something, I’ve caused the name of “Father” to have respect, and whoever takes that name from now on is gonna have to deserve that respect. And if they don’t, honey, they’d better run fast.
Ijames: Hey! All right.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: (Calms) And that’s what I mean. And you say, you’ve just got one successor? No, I got four. So, one don’t go– work, I’ve got two, and when the second one has to g– get out of the way, I got the third. I do things very well. Don’t you worry anything about me.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: Now perhaps the one that died a few weeks ago – of course partly being messed up at another church and trying to be here too – and I said you have to have one decision. You got to decide who you’re gonna serve–
Ijames: That’s right.
Jones: You– you’re gonna have to have one God. You’re double-minded in all your ways, unless you decide on one God. But I looked in that thing and I was ashamed! (Quiet) I was ashamed of that casket, I was ashamed of it. It looked like it was embroidered and the– it stood out. My God, that casket must have cost three, four thousand dollars. (Pause) The tragedy. Now if you gonna bring me in anymore of your funerals, non-members or whatever, don’t you bring me into that kind of a mess. I’m tired of it.
Ijames: That’s right! Hey!
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: You right now, if you had my teachings at heart, you’d write down, say if there’s anything useful in me– People are dying in this country, ‘cause they can’t get a kidney.
Ijames: That’s right.
Jones: They’re dying. All they need– They’re blind– All they need is just a little cornea, they can get it from you. My eyes are already willed. My eyes are already willed, and you that live in big cities have got it easier than some of us who are up in the countryside. So you make your decision now to put in the paper that you don’t let your eyes go into no box. You don’t let your eyes go in any ground. You uh– you reserve those eyes for somebody else, some poor nigger that was made blind by the white society. You give him a chance to see. (Intense) Did you hear what I said? Give him a chance to see!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: Not one of my loved ones will go in any caskets. And I don’t care if the morticians all hate me, it doesn’t make any difference anyway, ‘cause I’ve got everybody else hating me, I might as well have the mortuaries hating me too. But I’m not going to have any of my loved ones in a casket. Not one of them’s gonna go in any casket. Not one of them’s ever gonna stand in the Temple, ‘cause the Temple meant life. When we’re in here, we remember us lively. Somebody wanted to use the Temple the other day, for the dead, I said, “No. Bring a picture of them in here. Bring a picture in here, and we’ll rejoice around that picture of them while they were alive. But we don’t want to remember us in the Temple, in the death, we want to remember us in life, because he came to give us life and life more abundantly (John 10:10, “…I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”).
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: Talk to them as they come and they go, when they come strolling around. Ushers always talk to people when they’re running around, ‘cause it’s important to get the truth across. Well, I did not mean to get on (clears throat) the soapbox about dying and the soapbox about caskets, but I want you to understand what I feel about this. And if you don’t want to give your eyes, like you would if you were living up to my teachings, you’d will every organ that can be useful, if you don’t want to do that, at least get you a simple old pine box. We have lived poor, we have been kept poor, and we’re not gonna take money away from those that we love to put in a box. We’re all going to go back to the same maggots whether you’re in a steel casket, or a copper casket, or in a emerald lining, you’re gonna go back to the same old maggots, honey. So what in the world you trying to do?
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Ijames: Yes, yes, yes. (Unintelligible)
Jones: Well, I don’t know about it. I don’t know whether I can or not. (Pause) There’s somebody here that’s uh, called in wanting me to have a funeral for somebody that I don’t know. And they say I preach such good funerals. Did you just tell them what I’ve uh– Just my–
Ijames: (Laughs) All right.
Congregation: (Cheers and laughs)
Jones: Some– some– some Baptist lady was at another funeral, I don’t know the party, but she said you preach such life in a funeral that she’d like me to take this loved one. Now I don’t know what to do about that, ‘cause she don’t know my teachings. (Pause) Well, how long’s it been since she’s been here? ‘Cause if she– if she heard me at a funeral, she hadn’t got here. Tell her to let the dead bury the dead. Forget it.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: It just dawned on me, if she’d been here all that time in– in the funeral and she didn’t get– she didn’t get over here to see me, now she wants me to bury one of her loved ones, why hasn’t she been over here? I got too many of you to take care of. Let her go on and take care of her problems.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: Well, I’m a hard man but a good father, ‘cause I’m not gonna take care of anybody before I take care of you. Now tomorrow– tomorrow they came up to me and they said, “Our choir is supposed to sing at a Baptist church,” they said. Said, “Your choir’ll be leaving at two o’clock.” I said, “Who in the hell said it was?”
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: It’s all peaceful, ‘cause they’re gonna need my help. You better just– now you better tell these folks (Unintelligible word) before they walk that they may– they may need me before they know it. One of them gonna need me before Tuesday. Right there moving. Say, I know it before he get up. (Pause) Better stay right where you’re at. See, I know when you start up, I know what you’re doing.
Ijames: (Laughs) That’s right.
Jones: All right now. (Claps once) I’m not gonna let anything uh, take away from your– you are the first charge I have. And then they– they set up a program for a Baptist church, I said where is this Baptist church. Said over here, some little old Baptist church? I don’t care what you (Unintelligible), honey, it’s already late. I canceled it.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: (Calls out) You mean to tell me that I’m gonna be here at two o’clock tomorrow, and all this choir gone decide to go to some Baptist church, and I’m sitting here tryin’ to get a message? No! There’s only one way, I’m gonna tell you. There’s only one way that you’ll go sing anywhere, and you– if you do otherwise, you’ll be out of your choir uniform tomorrow. The only way you can go is if they take me preaching first.
Congregation: (Sustained cheers and applause)
Jones: And then I want to tell you– And then I want to tell you, you better know some funeral anthems because when I get ready and finish, you’ll have to bury them, ‘cause they’ll all be dead.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: So they tell me, they– they got to get this bus, when they gonna get this bus lined up, they’re gonna have that bus lined up. I said, “Where’re you going?” Said, “The choir’s going over tomorrow to sing at a Baptist church.” I said, “The hell they’re going over to sing tomorrow (unintelligible word).”
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: Oh no. You think they’re gonna get my singing and use these people, you don’t know how these churches– My people were innocent in it, they don’t know how they work it. They get all these choirs in, and then the preachers collecting and I– I said, “I’ll bet you there’s some pastor,” and sure enough when they got behind– behind it, a pastor’s (draws out, sarcastic) wife.
Ijames: All right.
Jones: It’s always some anniversary or some tea, and if you think that we work and got this music together and sweat to build these organs for you to go to sing for some fat ass preacher to make money off you, (cries out) no!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: If they want to hear us sing, then let them come over and hear the light of the world! (John 9:5, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” See also, Matthew 5:14, John 1:9, John 3:19, John 8:12, John 11:9, and John 12:46.)
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: If they want to hear the beautiful singing – and we’ve got the most beautiful soloist and the most beautiful choir – but if they want to hear them sing, let them first come over and hear the (unintelligible, could be “rock of ages”).
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: (Calms) And that’s the way it is. So that puts to rest to all the other invitations, ‘cause they’ve got several of them down there. And every one they ever told me about, we’re going here and we’re going there? (Voice rises) We ain’t going nowhere but in the Peoples Temple. That’s where we’re going.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: ‘Cause we’re not going to get on that jag. Those people stole us blind. It was those that put us in chains. It was white Baptists that put the mark of slavery and burned it into some of our grandparents’ skin. It was they that put the first chains around our feet. If you think I’m gonna take our songs and sing in that slop house, (cries out) no! We’re not doing it!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: (Calms) No, no, no. That’s putting your mark– That’s putting your stamp of approval right on what they’re doing. We’re not doing it. (Pause) (Clears throat) ‘Cause we’re gonna be consistent. We may not be everything that you’d like us to be, but we’re honest, the most perfect people that you’ll want to see, the most pure ministry that’s ever walked on earth, the most upright, the most holy, the most just, the most socialistic. It’s the most beautiful ministry you’ve ever seen, and we’re not gonna clean– we’re not gonna take this thing that has been pure and unadulterated and undefiled, and then mix it with the whorish things that’re out there in that church system. No, we’re not gonna do it.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: We came too far to get ourselves messed up in that. Well, I started taking offering, I don’t know. By the way, I’ve got eleven more puppies in the back room that I’ve saved here that we need homes for, if you’ll see me at the end of the day. You don’t like the way I talk, but when you get in trouble, you’ll like the way I fight for you.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: Now I want to ask again, is there anyone that’ll help us with five hundred today?
(tape edit)
Jones: (Starts mid– sentence) such a face and the cataracts went off the eyes of one too.
Congregation: Yeah.
Jones: They just fell off the eyes.
Congregation: (Calls and applause)
Jones: Another sister was sitting back there that was blinded from diabetes, she could see everything in detail, everything in perfect detail. Her vision that’d been so dimmed that she couldn’t see objects was wiped away, just like that. She was as clear as just a new child. It’s faith that makes one whole. Try your faith. Try your faith now, try your faith, try it. (Clears throat) And I want her to have good vision. If she doesn’t get it, we’ll see that she gets it, but I like that kind of faith.
Ijames: Yes!
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: One of the few ministers that ever came in here that’s been worth salt, those two sisters–
Man in congregation: (Unintelligible)
Jones: (Unintelligible word) (Muses) Get some of these black ministers in here. Of course, one of our sisters saying down there in her mind, well, the black ministers, they got a right to do it, ‘cause all the white ones have done it. No, they don’t. ‘Cause we’ve suffered more. We don’t need to have to copy the same old kind of trick preachers. We don’t need any of them on our back. We’ve had enough monkeys on our back. We don’t need any Uncle Tom preachers on our back.
Ijames: That’s right! Yes!
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: That’s the attitude of some people here, they got a right to do their thing. No, we haven’t. We’ve suffered too long and it’s too late. We haven’t got time to go through all the stages of corruption that the white man’s gone through. We got to bypass some of this corruption and get ourselves together. Anyone in this room that’ll give five hundred again to help us? (Claps hands once) (Quiet) Try your faith and see what’ll happen. See what’ll happen.
(tape edit)
Jones: (Mid sentence)– out of the way, went out of the way two miles and it saved him of a hopeless condition. He was called out the end of the meeting. It spared his life.
Man in congregation: Yeah.
Jones: Charity moves mountains.
Man in congregation: Yes it does. Yeah.
Congregation: (Stirs)
Jones: Two hundred? Anyone will give two hundred dollars? Two hundred.
(tape edit)
Jones: (Mid-sentence)– and do it with honorableness and do it with my head held up high. I’m standing here till we get that seventeen hundred and eighty– no, seven hundred and eighty one dollars and thirty three cents. What, you believe that? You better– you better believe it.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: That’s what opened the eyes of that woman. That’s what took the hole that was in her leg, and nobody wanted to set around her, 27 years blind and infirm. That’s what did it. That’s what took the woman that sits out here five years in a wheelchair, the woman that had cancer, operated five times, they gave her up to die. I know all these things, ‘cause I’ll make out a chart on you. Maybe days before, I’ll meditate and I’ll see some of these hard cases and I’ll wonder what am I gonna do? There’s no God to help me. I’m the only one, I’m him, I’m the one that reveals the father, I’m the only thing you can look to. And I’ll study that case as I did Sister [Lovie] de Pina and I thought, what to do with a woman in her seventies? Five operations, sewed up, cut away so much of her they didn’t know what– where to take anymore, and so they sewed her up. (Intense) But that’s what gets me through. You don’t like the way I take offerings, but I’ll remember that day several months when I’d looked at her and said, “This is the day I’m gonna do it for you. This is the day I’m gonna do it for you,” and she ejected that horrible cancer, and she hasn’t had any more pain since that. She hasn’t had any more problems since that day.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: You don’t like the way I take offerings? That’s the way I do everything, I hold on, I hold on. They tell me somebody’s got to go to jail, I said, “No, no.” They told me my two brothers here, Brother uh, C.J. [Jackson] and Brother Brown, they had to go to jail for defending our sister that I raised from the dead that was thrown in that ambulance. Said they– they– they gonna have to take some time, they’ll at least have to take a charge of interfering with an officer. I said, “No, the officers interfered with us. They interfered with the course of freedom. I’m not taking that charge.” I said, “I won’t take it.” The attorney said, “There’s no chance in the world.” I said, “Yes, there is, because Jim Jones is that chance.”
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: And I got them free, and don’t you forget it. You keep thinking (stretches word) all the time as Brother Norman [Ijames] did a beautiful thing today, had you think a minute of all that’s happened. You should do that every minute you can possibly squeeze in. You think of the times when everybody said it was hopeless, and I said – this God standing here said – “Oh no, nothing’s impossible, the impossible just takes a little longer.”
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: So it’s that spirit that gets you through, and it’s that spirit that’s gotta make me raise seventeen eighty one. Some of you’d raise if for yourself, but you wouldn’t raise it if you weren’t getting a penny of it yourself. I’m raising it for you, and I’ll stand here if I felt like I was gonna fall over, and I haven’t slept for two nights and I’ve had a lot of problems, but I– And I haven’t eaten, only these liquids. But I’m gonna stand here, because I know if we one day let our budget go down, then the next day it’ll go down easier and the next day it’ll fall easier, so I’m not gonna let it happen once. (Intense) Did you hear me? Not once.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: And if it doesn’t– And as I said if walwar– Warner Brothers wants to use this, sure, or anything else. And if I can’t get it by offerings, you’ll be surprised what I use this place for.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause) (Pause)
Jones: Well, remember when the cancers come. (Pause)
Ijames: That’s right.
Jones: (Stumbles over words) Tell them there’s one that was dying and can walk, they can tell you all about it. He can tell you about it. There’s a woman that was– her life was lost, there’s a brother that woulda been killed. Tell them, brother. I told you when that car was gonna come and hit you and saved you. Just tell them. Tell these people that don’t know who is the– who they are or where in the hell they belong.
Congregation: (Applause)
Jones: I forgot to tell them about the errors of the Bible. Go out there and tell them about the errors of the Bible. That’s what they get all hung up on their Bible. You tell them. (Pause) Tell the damn fools so they’ll get some sense.
Congregation: (Scattered applause)
Jones: There are people walking around there– His wife filled with cancer, all her lymph nodes swollen, and I saved her. There’s a man was saved out of jail. They’ll go out and tell ‘em, tell ‘em, tell ‘em so they’ll know what they’re doing. (Pause) All right, now, folks. Back to it. How many’ll give us a hundred? Show the alliance man over there that we’re gonna raise our offering.
(tape edit)
(Organ music plays)
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: (Unintelligible) Some– some– The name that comes to me that I’m concerned about to touch at this moment. Some things I write down that I will not even call out. As I’ve said often, I don’t have to call anyone out. But I do to build faith in others, because if you just harmonize on me, if you project your faith towards me, it’ll do more for you than anything on earth has ever done.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: The name that I hear is Olivia Williams.
One woman of congregation: (Unintelligible)
Jones: Olivia Williams. Hands clasped. (hums with organ) They say a ounce of prevention’s worth a pound of cure, and I’m glad that I found a heart in which I can dwell in you. (tape edit) Someone very precious. Steven Michael. The microphone isn’t on, but it’s all right, I don’t need a microphone, it’s good that I don’t to do my work, because I don’t have them very much. (Pause) Steven Michael.
One woman of congregation: My son.
Jones: Hands clasped. (Hums) Do you uh, use nonfat milk?
One woman of congregation: Yes.
Jones: Knudsen’s?
One woman of congregation: Right.
Jones: Nonfat milk. Hands clasped. Mrs. uh, Wright white bread.
One woman of congregation: Sometimes.
Jones: I have bread here that is specially made, free of any harmful chemicals. ‘Course you’ve told me nothing about your diet. I don’t know anything about your home or your life. You’ve told no one else that, is that correct?
One woman of congregation: Correct.
Jones: But by the change of this bread, it will save you from something in the years ahead.
One woman of congregation: Thank you.
Jones: Hands clasped. (Pause) Hands clasped. Birds Eye corn on the cob.
One woman of congregation: True. (Pause)
Jones: C&H pure cane sugar.
One woman of congregation: Right.
Jones: Brown is what I suggest, or honey preferably–
One woman of congregation: Thank you.
Jones: –and in your case I want to prevent diabetes. You’ve noticed at times a little dizzy sensations.
One woman of congregation: True.
Jones: This is the beginning of diabetes, and it’s a dreadful kind of disease, and if I had not come along, before too long, it would’ve afflicted you and you would’ve been blind by it, but not now.
One woman of congregation: Thank God!
Jones: Because I have come.
One woman of congregation: Praise God, thank God! Thank God, praise God, thank God!
(Organ music plays louder. A man sings along, words distorted and unintelligible)
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: And somewhere you’ve some connection or would have some connection with a chapel Lutheran school.
One woman of congregation: Correct.
Jones: Some places en– en route there one day, if I had not known you and you’ve told no one this, but if it were not for this lovely presence that I represent. Spirit of (Unintelligible word).
One woman of congregation: Thank God. Thank God.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: Tracy, Steven Michael would’ve all been gone.
One woman of congregation: Thank God! Thank God!
Jones: But they will not be gone now. Spirit of (Unintelligible under music)
(Organ music play louder)
Jones: (Unintelligible under crowd and the organ music)
(A man begins to sing but it quickly fades as Jones begins to speak)
Jones: (Hums) You’ve had a good heart, and if you want to do anything that’s in your mind, something I said that’s in your mind that comes to me about getting someone like Brando here, it’s all right if you want to.
One woman of congregation: Thank God.
Jones: If you want to do anything, ‘cause you have a right heart and it saved your life. Bless you!
One woman of congregation: Thank God! Thank God! Thank God!
(Organ music plays louder)
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: (Unintelligible)– hallelujah! And I’m so glad to know my own, and when you know me, I’ll tell you your thoughts and know your thoughts and intent (Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God … is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”) and can heal you to the uppermost and to the innermost and to the outermost!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: (Glossolalia)
(A man sings, fades as Jones begins to speak)
Jones: Remember I wish to tell you that we move our clocks ahead. We move our clocks one, ahead one hour the af– this evening so we’ll be here in proper time tomorrow. Before I go on with the healing service, I want to ask a question, so that I do not need to use my powerful revelation energy for this. How many came to this church because they heard of it through the radio? One, two, three, four, five, six, someone’s taken this down, seven? Seven hands. How many came because you heard of it through a newsletter or a leaflet? A leaflet passed to you. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. How many heard of it through a newspaper, reading of a ad in the newspaper? One, two– Hold your hand high. It’s important, because we have to use our funds wisely. One, two. How many heard of it by word of mouth of how great this miracle ministry was–
Congregation: Amen!
Jones:– or how great–
End of tape
Tape originally posted January 2012