In the early 1970s only a few outsiders had acquired reliable information on the profane activities of Jim Jones. Brenda Ganatos in Ukiah and I in the Bay Area each tried vainly to convince authorities. Ultimately it became clear that politicians, theologians of the New Age, and weak-minded media, became—in almost every case—the set of Jones’ liberal protectors. They basked in adoration of his social activist goals, specious as they were. And the public followed like sheep when those radical leftists planted Jones deep in the San Francisco hierarchy.
Then came the Guyana holocaust, followed by an immediate spate of excuses from the aforementioned liberals. Insidiously leftist San Francisco politicians along with New Age church leaders dodged questions or lied outright about their ties to Jones. The Disciples of Christ, in particular, got away with a phenomenal cover-up, thus exacerbating their radically heretical aberrations—even outdoing the dangerously perverted theological propensities of the United Church of Christ. (The Disciples of Christ dare not challenge me, because they are aware that I know how spiritually sick they have become. So they would never allow an interview with any of their leaders that I might choose.)
Let me be specific about the Disciples of Christ. They welcomed Jim Jones into their denomination with open arms. Then, eight years prior to the Guyana mass murder, they received detailed evidence of his fake healings. I personally warned their bishop in 1970 (directly and by letter). Later, upon getting an earful of Jones’ atrocities (beatings, the abuse of children in “survival outings” where they were forced to eat raw bugs, lizards, and their own vomit), the Disciples leaders continued to defend a monster in their midst. They could not even admit the truth that one of their own, a radically leftist theologian, encouraged at least eight or ten people to join the cult. But, when one of their theologians (probably the one among them who was truly honest) confronted them in one high-level secret meeting just days after the Guyana tragedy, they sent him home with orders to burn “the stencils” of his proposition. They further warned that he should “not mention this to our communications office.” Intellectual cowards is a phrase that comes not remotely close to describing their fierce rejection of honor and decency. Had they but a twit of courage and integrity, Jones would have gone nowhere in California. Children and adults, hundreds of them, would therefore not have died in agony. What more can be said? A journalist, the most courageous and honest of the many I worked with, summed it up most succinctly: The Disciples of Christ “stink on dry ice.”
(David Conn described himself as an “investigator of the Jim Jones Peoples Temple cult for nine years prior to the Guyana mass murder.” He died on December 31, 2021, of Parkinson’s disease. His complete collection of articles for this site is here.)