Transcript prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.
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(Note: This tape was one of the 53 tapes initially withheld from public disclosure.)
Jones: (In full throat) (Excited) —He has to have these anniversaries, why does he have to have these $500 suits? Why does he have to have that Rolls Royce? Why does he have to have that Lincoln Continental? Why does he have to have that Cadillac?
Congregation: Applause.
Jones: (Calmer) You’re going to try to lie to yourself tomorrow. (Builds to full fervor) You’re going to try to set there, but I have bewitched you. I have bewitched you with the truth. I have come, and you cannot now turn away. You’re gonna try, but if I had not come, you would’ve had no sin. If I had not spoken in Philadelphia, you would’ve had no sin. But I have come, and I have spoken, and now, you’ve gotta walk in the light.
Congregation: Applause.
Jones: (Calmer) Oh, yes. Glory. Got my security people wandering around because there’s a preacher threatening, I’m gonna get killed, in Philadelphia. Well, I’ll tell you one thing. The last man that tried that run up the aisles. He had a gun. His name’s Alvin McFall. You go into San Francisco and s— you can find him these days. He ran up and he said, (Cries out) “I had my gun.” He looked for his gun, he like a man looking for something, he looked like he’d lost his drawers. His gun was gone. He said, “If I had my gun, I’d kill you.” But he didn’t have his gun, ’cause I done took his gun away from him.
Congregation: Applause.
Jones: Hey! (unintelligible exclamation). (Pause) And I said, you’ve touched the ark. It’s no longer a wooden box, it’s no longer a paper Bible. Jeremiah said, get rid of the paper box, the talisman, the ark of the covenant, and I said get a— rid of the letter, ’cause the letter killeth. I’ve told you, as I did in the day of Jesus, go out without purse or script. (Pause) Don’t go out with anything but the Living Word. (Pause) [You] Say, “I don’t have it.” Well, then, get around me. You’ll get it. (Pause) You’ll get it. (Voice rises) I’ll make you fishers of men. I’ll give you power. I’ll cause you to go forth and lay hands on all these— these oppressive devils, all these oppressive spirits that’ve held us down in racism. You get around me, and I will send you out (Cries out) in my name, and you will set the people free.
Congregation: Applause.
Jones: (Calm) Think I can’t do it? I’ve done it, as I said, I’ve sent them to all of our churches, and I sit at home, writing letters, and told them who to call out, and who to take out of wheelchairs, though I’d be 4000 miles away, I would tell them what to do, because (Voice rises) I’m on the scene. I said, I am that I am has come. The very same Jesus, and the very same God.
Congregation: Applause.
Jones: (Calm) Talk to them. Henderson, talk to them, so they don’t make any unwise mistakes. In any case that they make wrong moves. Peace. (Pause) You know, if someone had written a book about you, and you were over here in New York and they’d written a book out in California that had told a whole lot of lies about you, some old king had come along, and he held race slaves, as I said, we— The blacks amaze me the most. They’ll hold onto that black book. And King James was the first one that sent the Good Ship Jesus to Africa, to bring us back in slave chains. The way they got us, the way they got the Union of South Africa today, a black person cannot even go out of the house after six o’clock at night in Union of South Africa. And Africa no longer controls. They killed— they came there in the name of the Calvinist Baptist faith, a few years ago, Union of South Africa, said they were gonna educate the people, and Africa didn’t need any education, they had all they needed. They had freedom, they had the land, but they sit down and let those missionaries talk to them, and while the missionary, one of them was talking to them, the rest of them took the rest of them off, and killed them. Killed their leaders. And now in the Union of South Africa today, a woman cannot be with her husband, because she has to work— he has to work, and they cannot travel at night more than a mile from where they work, so a wife will not see her husband for a year, or her children. (Pause) (Calls out) You wake up over there, child, I’ll throw some water on you.
Congregation: Laughter
Jones: I’m not talkin’ to that elder sister, I’m talkin’ to the one younger. Leave her alone. She’s all right. It’s beyond her time now. All I want to do is just love her and take care of her. Just let her rest. But I’m not gonna let any young people here— some of you people’ve been— you’ve been— (stops in frustration) (Pause) (Slow and deliberate) You’ve been the Man’s house n[igger] too long. I’m a field n[igger]. You know what a house n is, don’t you. You know what the house n’s used to do. They’d go and tell where the slaves were and say, “Yassuh, nossuh, yassuh, nossuh.” (Pause) They got there— You got they doing that with that religion. They got you in religion, and you’re not doing anything. These ghettoes rottin’ around you, and they’re tellin’ you up and down here, that rascal down the street, at Broad Street, I know him when he wouldn’t used to speak to me, because I adopted a black child, right down here on Poplar and Broad. Now he’s got mostly blacks. (Pause) Just because he’s taken their money. But you don’t see nothin’ but an old rotten building, fallen down around itself. He’ll never do anything about these ghettoes. [You] Say, “Who are you talkin’ about?” Well, his names rhymes with Bones. (Pause)
Congregation: Belated applause
Jones: ‘S all right, some of you spies, get over here, I’ll tell you the truth, too. Just get up into that (stumbles over words) brass band, he wouldn’t ever adopt one of the black children, I have a black child that has my own name, I’m talking about Jones down the street. (Pause) Oh, I know it’d get quiet when I said that, but that’s who I’m talkin’ about.
Congregation: Applause.
Jones: And whether you like it or not, (Cries out) you can lump it. I’m here to set the truth. I’m here to set the record straight.
Congregation: Applause.
Jones: I know him when he wouldn’t have a thing to do with me or my companion, because we’d adopted a black child, who is Jim Jones Jr. He’s there for black people’s money, but you don’t see any black piece— black people’s housing, you don’t see any colleges or dormitories like I have, you don’t see any sanatoriums like I have, you don’t see any Greyhound buses for the people like I have, you don’t see any land— I’ve got acres of fields of greens and potatoes and strawberries and pears and tomatoes, I’ve got pears and grapes, I’ve got the harvest on a th— hundred hills. (Cries out) You don’t see anything down there but an old building, you can’t even paint it, ’cause all they want to do is get as much out of it, he’s gonna get as much out of it as he can, and then he’ll be gone.
Congregation: Applause.
Jones: [You] Said, you’ve done stop preachin’ and gone to meddlin’. (Voice rises) Well, it’s the same one that just raised that woman from the dead, when she was white as a sheet, when the blood was falling over her hair, that’s the (draws out word) same one, the one that just resurrected her tonight, the same one that healed that woman and took her out of the cast, the same one that stopped the cancer in this that operated five times, the same one that caused her to spit up the cancer, the same one that raised that woman from the dead there. It’s the same one that healed him from the blindness that’s standing there.
Congregation: Applause.
Jones: (Voice calms) I don’t like these liars. You need to get free from ’em. Now, excuse me, Peace Mission children, I’m gonna tell you, I have to talk plain. When you’re in Rome, you talk like the Romans. You are, too many of you, white man’s niggers.
Congregation: Sustained applause.
Jones: [You] Say, “I’m not a nigger.” Settin’ back there, you’re light. Oh, yes, you’re a nigger. I’m a nigger. I’m a nigger until everybody is free, till everybody that’s treated niggardly is free, I am a nigger. I don’t care if you’re an Italian nigger, or you’re Jewish or an Indian (claps hands once), the only people that’re getting anything in this country are the people that got the money, baby. That’s the only one. They’re the only ones not niggers in this country. (Pause) (Quiet voice) I don’t care. It’s wonderful. Some preacher down there, wantin’ to get his people out of here. Well, he gonna have to come up and get ’em. Let him see who— (stumbles over words, laughs)
Congregation: Laughter and cheers
Jones: There’s a Jewish attorney back there, there’s a Jewish attorney back there that I healed when he was dying of cancer, now he gives free legal services to the poor. Tell him. You just go tell him, if— Let him come up and see who goes down. Hey!
Congregation: Sustained applause
Single voice: So true, Father.
Jones: (In full throat) Let him come up and get his people, if he wants their money. Let him walk up in my presence, let him dare to come in my face, let him stand and say he wants his people here. Let the God that is God answer by fire. I know who’s God. If you don’t know who God is, I know who God is.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: Hey, truth!
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: Spirit of truth. Hallelujah. I never did finish his story, and I shall finish his story. Don’t need to worry if they throw you out of church. I’ll get you on that Greyhound bus, you don’t have a penny. And I’ll give you the finest room you ever saw. I don’t have anything but orange crate in my room, because I’ve taken everything out and made antiques in every senior citizen home, the most beautiful rugs, air-conditioning, beautiful. You don’t need to worry. Let that preacher go. He just wantin’ your tithes anyway. Just get on my bus, and I’ll take you on to the Promised Land. Hey, the Spirit! God!
(Organ plays few notes)
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: There are Joneses and then there are Joneses. There’ve been Joneses around this town, holdin’ meetings for years. They haven’t got one acre. They haven’t given one job. They haven’t established one senior citizen homes. I’ve established so many, I cannot count them. I could not right now tell you how many buildings we have, how many apartments we have for the needy, I could not tell you how many children really are in college, that our church is paying. I could not tell you how many tons of food we have sent to Africa or Wounded Knee. I could not tell you, because I come here in old used shirts and old used robes, while those preachers drive around in Cadillacs, they wouldn’t have you in their dining room, they would have you through— come through their door, they’ll take your money, but you’d have to slip through their back door. They don’t want nothin’ to do with you.
Congregation: Cheers. Organ plays few notes.
Jones: All they want is your money. (Pause) It’s all right, remember who you’re walking out on. (Pause) Vernelle. Speak. (Pause) I’ll tell you what I feel. I don’t like to speak in terms that the man speaks in, but when Jesus had to, he got on the level, he said, sons of hell. He said I— you’ve cleaned outside of a platter, but the inside you’re filled with all kinds of things. He said some things that King James cut out. If you heard all he said, you’d really be shook up. (Pause) That’s what I got to say. That’s what I got to say tonight, for white man’s niggers. (Pause) I’m a field nigger. You say, I’m Jewish. Well, you’re a field nigger too. They killed six million of you. You thought you were the Chosen People ’cause a book told you so, but they murdered— Dr. [Richard] Tropp is member— a member of my church, he lost 60 of his relatives in Germany, they murdered them. (Pause) (Calls out) Where you gone? Where you going, children? Who’s gonna fight for you when you get in trouble? Better talk to that woman that’s a registered nurse coming in, that would’ve died, if she hadn’t known me. Where are you going, just because I’m giving you the truth? (Pause) Talk to them folk. (Pause)
Congregation: Light applause. Organ plays few notes.
Jones: Oh, yes. (Pause) What are we doing? (More conversational) What are we doing? Want a seat? Fine. Let’s do it. Everybody want to sit down, we’d be glad to, everybody sit down. There nobody going out of here. (Pause) Peace.
Congregation: Light applause
Jones: (More emphatic) Peace! Why is it you won’t endure me? I’ve come all the way here for nothing. Brought all these buses, housing all these people, taking back seniors that are living in rat traps, who said they don’t have any money. I said, come on, we’re gonna put you on board, taking back people that had no way to provide for themselves. I said, come on, get on board. Last time I was in Philadelphia, I took a starvin’ dog right out of the (unintelligible word), that were on 41st and Westminister, starving to death where they said there was abundance and the fullness for everything, a little dog was starving to death in the street. I put him on— The sister I healed of a paralytic stroke, now, she took him in. Sister [Rose] Shelton. And we— they called him Philadelphia, ’cause they got him in Philadelphia. (More emphatic) Anyway. You gotta wake up. You have to wake up. Whether you’re white or whether you’re black, you gotta wake up. Religion has kept you oppressed. The form of God in this has kept you oppressed. Sunshine Mines, they collapsed, and in Wall Street— the owners of Madison Avenue, rather, they called up the foreman, called up— you read it in your newspaper. But they were all white in the Sunshine Mine, but they were niggers. They called up and they said, “There’s fumes.” The owner said there — and it was in every newspaper — said, “Keep ’em down there. We don’t want to lose any work hours.” Well, he kept them down there, the foreman did, like he was told, (Voice starts to rise) and finally the mine collapsed, as you remember, and they tried to get on the elevators, and the elevators didn’t function, because somebody paid off the government inspector, and the mines had not been inspected for 30 years, and the (stumbles over word)— the mine elevator electric wouldn’t work, the lights wouldn’t work, they put on the gas mask to keep the gas from killing them, you read it in your newspaper, and the gas mask wouldn’t work, they died in their own spit, because the gas mask wouldn’t even work. And nobody in the Sunshine Mines has been arrested. Every newspaper showed what they did, but nobody was arrested. Hundred and some died. Only two stayed down there. ‘Member what those two got up and said? (Pause) ‘Member what those two said when they got out of there? [They] Said we first prayed. We heard people screaming and dying, and prayers didn’t do any good. We pra— first prayed to the Skygod. And nothin’ happened. (Claps hands once) Hundred and some hours later, [they] said, “We weren’t prayin’, we were cussin’ the man that put us down here.”
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: Peace. And they said, when they got up, and they did it, they got up and said, “We have been given religion to blind us so that [the] rich can make money, the rich can get richer, and the poor can get poorer,” and they said, “When we get out of here,” and they made a covenant, “Get us out of here, and we’ll go from one end of America to the other,” to tell them what’s happening, what the monetary system is doing to the people, what people are doing in the name of tyranny, fascism, or whatever you want to call it, communism, whatever. It’s not a pure socialism, I can tell you that. (Pause) Shh. They went out. They didn’t pray. Just like that Baptist deacon, he throwed down his plate when I got through preaching in Watts, he said, “I wish you’da come along a long time ago, you little black-haired nigger.” He said, “I wish you’da come along.” He said, “I’ve only got 83 years gone, I’m now gonna give you whatever left I’ve got,” he said, “But I wish you’da come a little sooner, because,” he said, “I’ve been singing for some fifty-some years as a deacon, I’ve been singing 58 years,” I think he said, “take the whole world and give me Jesus,” and he said, “the Man has done taking the whole damn world and given me nothing but Jesus.”
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: I know you’re leaving. I’ve had people walk out here. Black mother that walked out, that I’da given her a home. And I’da fought for her to get her pension increased. I woulda fought for her, to taken her in, she’da never been hungry or lonely again. And she walked out because I told her the truth. And she pulled over and got another sister, and made her go. (Pause) People won’t take the truth. [You] Say, “Well, you preach something I’ve never heard.” Sure. You been tellin’ your little children that Santa Claus was comin’. You’ve been tellin’ ’em for years, they been telling for three-, four-thousand years, that every Christmas, Santa Claus come to town. (Cries out) Every year, Santa Claus gonna come your chimney, and there no poor white, and there no poor Italian, and there no poor Jews, and there’s sure been no poor nigger that ever seen Santa Claus come down any chimney yet.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: ‘S all right, honey. You’ll need me one day. (Pause) You’ll need me one day. ‘Cause they’re gonna put— I’m gonna tell you what they’re gonna do, I’ve (stumbles over words), I’ve prophesied the date, the hour, the minute and the year, they’re gonna put people in this country in concentration camps. They’re gonna put them in gas ovens, just like they did the Jews. (Voice rises throughout) They’ve started at Watergate, and they’ve told you in the paper today, that we have been lied to at Cambodia, that we’ve bombed the wrong people, that we’ve killed innocent children, that you were lied to, and they’re just seeing how much the people care. And if you don’t resist, if you don’t rise up and demand honest government, it’s not going to be long, if we don’t let the government be upon his shoulders, that they’re gonna put you in the concentration camps that’re already in Tulelake, California, Allentown, Pennsylvania, near Birmingham, outside Elreno, Oklahoma, they’ve got them all ready, Title II, Section— Title II of the McCarran Act, they still have the concentration camps, they did it to the Japanese, and they’ll do it to us if we don’t quit preachin’ this pie-in-the-sky—
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: (Whispers) [You] Say “It won’t happen. Won’t happen. Won’t happen.” (Normal tone) All right now, you brace yourself. Senator [Edward] Kennedy’s talked about in Massachusetts, some Italian, Greek and German old ladies that’s been experimented on, with government money, just because they were in nursing home, their brains has been cut on, without consent. Black children have been sterilized, all the way from Alabama to Carolina, against their will. The prisons— a doctor in our church, on Wednesday last, told of all the experimentation, cutting on the brains, making people living vegetables, without the consent. Nobody knows what’s going on. Right now— You say, we’re not have any concentration camps. The jails are filled with nothing but poor. There’s only fifteen percent black. As Senator [Edward] Brooke said, the black Co— uh, Senator, he said, we already have concentration camps. He said the prisons of the United States are filled with 80% black, poor, white, Chicano, most of them black. He said, that’s already a concentration camp. (Pause) [You] Say, well, they’re there because they committed crime. Oh, is that so? (Pause) They were hungry, and they wanted some food. (Pause) Fifty percent of the black youth today have no jobs. Fifty percent of the black In— the Indians have no jobs. Unemployment’s rising rapidly. The prime interest is nine point half— nine point seven today. You know what it was in the Crash of 1929? Ten. (Pause) This country has always had to have a war, or a depression. I tell you, we’re— 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 bl— build an egalitarian society, we’re going to be in trouble. (Pause) Watergates. You don’t— Did [former Vice President Spiro] Agnew go to jail? Nah. [Did] [Former President Richard] Nixon go to jail? Never never. But if a black takes a piece of bread, he’ll go to jail.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: Peace. Look at ’em go. Just look at ’em go. (Pause) The pity of it is, is they’re young. Young. I’ve got people, ninety, that’re sitting here quietly. And young people. You say it, don’t look around. I’ve got white family over here that know they’re niggers like I am. They’re sitting. And look at these young blacks, floating out of here. You don’t think we’re in trouble? We’re in trouble. We’re in trouble, if people don’t listen to God on earth, and build the kingdom on earth, and read the scripture, “The 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. (Vehement) You say it won’t happen. I’ve got a member who in my church, he was only one-sixteenth Japanese. His mother owned a thousand acres. 1942, January, they came. They put her in a boxcar, took her out of her thousand acres, put her in a boxcar and sent her to Colorado. (Quieter but emphatic) I did not know her. I know him. And there he died— there she died in a desert in a concentration camp, because she was one-sixteenth Japanese, because the trend then was, we don’t like Japanese. And what happened to her was this: she had cancer, and for six months she had to agonize in pain, and nobody would even give her an aspirin tablet, and that was 1942. (Cries out) Wake up! (Pause) (Angry) [You] Say, I don’t need you, God’s gonna come. God, God, God. Yes, God’s gonna come. (Lowers voice) I see a great man yesterday, Ralph, uh— George Wiley, who worked for the freedom of all people, good man in Washington. (Cries out) Wake up, I said! (Thumps pulpit) I’m gonna preach. (Thumps pulpit) If you don’t like it, you can lump it. (Thumps pulpit)
Congregation: Applause
Jones: (Shortly) Peace. I only came for the few that are chosen, that’ll serve, that’ll be liberators, that’ve chosen not to be waited upon but to come to serve. As Jesus said, I have come to serve and not to be served. 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. (Low tone) All right, all right, all right. Now, have I got your ears open? I hope so. ‘Cause they’re coming. I’ve prophesied the date, the month, the hour and the year. We were led to a mountain, and we said an enemy would die under the shadow of that mountain of protection. We’ve got a mountain that goes to the depth of the earth, and there’s no end to it. You can’t find the end to it, and only we have found it. And I was led 3000 miles to find it, and I found it. And it’s got enough room for you and everybody else, and they’re coming. (Voice rises) You say, I don’t need it. God’s coming. Did he come— I looked at that newspaper, Ral— George Wiley, out there, he fell out of his boat, and the poor— (unintelligible word) the scar on the little boy, you say a Skygod, He’s got all power, Skygod’s everywhere, Skygod sees everything, Skygod knows everything, Skygod can do anything, but that little— that man fell off the boat yesterday, and his little boy— think what’s on his conscience. That father said (breathless), “Son, please help me. Hurry.” And the son threw a rope, but it was too late. George Ri— Wiley went down beneath the water. (Voice rises in ministerial cadence) I don’t claim to be any Skygod, but I claim that if you’ll li— let me be your natural father, if you’ll let me adopt you as an earthly father, I will save you. I’ve not had one have an accident, but that’s not what I’m trying to promise, 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. (In full throat) That’s what I promise.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: (Normal tone) Peace. But it so happens that anyone that calls, and lifts me up and stands by me, they’ve never even had one that’s gone, though we travel thousands of miles. One bus last year put a million miles on it, and not a scratch on anyone’s head. We put millions and millions of miles, but they— yesterday was that case. (Voice rises) You know what the newspaper says tonight? The Afro Sun of Baltimore? (Pause) You say the Skygod’s gonna help you? (Fades off) Give me a microphone. (Microphone turns on)
Single shout (Jones?) in congregation, followed by laughter and applause
Jones: I’ll come down and do an Indian dance, if I have to, to get her woke up, I’m gone tell you, she gone hear the truth. Nobody under 40 gonna go to sleep on me. That’s all right if somebody over here that’s 90 who’s worked all day, they know where the truth is. I’ll let them sleep, but nobody under 40, you’re not gonna be a n— n— ah, ah, you’re not going to be a field “n” in here tonight.
Scattered: Right.
Jones: Ah, ha, ha, now we listening. (Voice rises) You say, the Skygod’s gonna help us. Who were the Chosen People, according to King James? The Jews. And they thought the Skygod was gonna help them, and six million of them were burned to a crisp. I’ve got Dr. Tropp, who’s a member of this congregation, all of his family were burned and gassed alive, waitin’ on a Skygod.
Congregation: Scattered applause
Jones: You say you don’t like to sit so long. (Pause) All you have to do is set. I have the throw my voice. I have to give my sweat. I have to— Get out of my way.
Congregation: Sound of smothered laughter; Jones?
Jones: (More conversational) I have to give my voice, I have to give my body. You say you don’t want to talk. I knew there were a lot of people in here tonight, (Voice starts to rise) people said, oh they’re same ones, I said, no, there’s hundred new people, or 200 here, I’ve got to preach to them. They’ll never hear it [from] anybody else, because these preachers have got Cadillacs, they’re afraid to preach the truth.
Congregation: Scattered applause
Jones: Like Reverend Black came to me, one of the big evangelist, and y— all my brothers can lift their hands and say he came to my house, they know it. Came to my house. He said, (breathless) “Heal me.” (Voice starts to rise) Yes. Reverend Allen [Rev. A. A. Allen, healing evangelist of the 1950’s] even wanted me to heal him. I prophesied when he’d die, because he too wouldn’t have anything to do with me, when I adopted a black child. The only way— the only reason he started ministering to black people, was when he got kicked out of the Assemblies of God for being drunker than a hoot owl, and then, were laying the street with a prostitute in Nashville, Tennessee. That’s when he started preachin’ to black people.
Members of congregation: Right.
Jones: You won’t like it, what I’m saying tonight. You may never come back, but I’ll have my conscience free anyway.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: (Quickly, excited) I’ll get my soul unburdened. Makes no difference whether you like it, lump it, lor— want to live it or not, I’m gonna preach what I’ve got to preach, because I got nothing to say but the truth. Thank you, Reverend. It’s good to see a man smiling with a black collar, I’m tellin’ you.
Congregation: Applause and laughter
Jones: (Laughs) I said, “Allen?” I said, “I’ll heal you.” He had liver trouble, ’cause he drank like a fish. I said, “I’ll heal you, if you’ll get up in the pulpit and start preaching.” I’m talkin’ ’bout A.A. Allen. I said, “When you preach the truth about the Bible.” He said, “I know the Bible has got lies in it.” He said, “I know that.” I said, “Then preach it.” (Pause) (Lower tone) He said, “I, well I (stumbles over words), what, what about the tithes?” Reverend Black said, “What about the tithes?” Reverend [Nathan] Urshan, “What about the tithes?” (Conspiratorial tone) I’ve had the best come to me at night, like Nicodemus, they’d slip in, they’d slip in, only my security people would see them, only my people who were at work in the fields or with the swimming pool, or on the property, caring for it, the preachers come drivin’ up, and slippin’ up like a Nicodemus at night, and said, “Would ya heal me?” Then they want to slip out so their people didn’t see them. I said, “Yes, when you preach the truth, I’ll heal you.” A. A. Allen says, “I’m not gonna preach it.” [He] Said, “I— I wouldn’t have anybody follow me.” [He] Said, “I’m used to high livin’,” it’s what A.A. Allen said, that’s exact words he said, “I’m used to high livin’.” (In full throat) I said, “All right. What’d I tell my people? I said, “He’ll die in his own drink. He’ll die in San Francisco drunk. They’ll find thousands of dollars on him, and he’ll die, because he’s lied to the people.” That’s what I said, and that’s what he did.
Congregation: Applause. Organ plays
Jones: (Normal tone) Bless you. Put ‘er there, brother. Peace. I only got a short time. The end is coming. [You] Say, Skygod’ll help you. (Pause) Eight million black, your paper said today, that’re going to die in 60 days in the sub-Sahara. They’re starvin’. I’m the only church I know that send any food. Eight million. I don’t claim to be no Skygod. I— If I— If I found a Skygod, I’d give Him a subpoena, I’d indict Him.
Congregation: Scattered applause and laughter, few organ notes.
Jones: (More excited) I said, if I found the Skygod, I’d swear out a warrant for His arrest.
Congregation: Applause, organ
Jones: [You] Say, what would you— what would you swear a warrant? ‘Cause you say He’s got all power. You say you’ve got a Skygod that’s got all power. You say you’ve got one, that He’s here, there and everywhere. [You] Say, He knows the thoughts of the mind. He knows the thoughts of your body. You say He cares about everybody. (Emphatic) And yet eight million blacks are starving to death in Africa.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: Sure, you won’t come back. But I notice no preacher’s takin’ anybody out of here, are they? They’re sittin’. They ain’t sayin’ anything.
Congregation: Scattered applause; organ
Jones: Want to try— If you want to try a little bit, you may get up and say something, honey, but you won’t stand up and say it long.
Congregation: Applause, organ
Jones: (In full throat) I’ve come to set people free. I’ve come to give them a spirit of liberty. I want you to think. You’ll go to hell if you don’t think. I don’t mean you’ll burn down in some pit. (Voice moderates) The monetary system, you know about that, brother. You’re a smart man about the monetary system. You know about that. You and I may disagree just a little bit about theology, but we got the same heart. You want liberty.
Congregation: Applause, organ
Jones: (Sings out) Mmmmm! Mmm.
Congregation: Applause, organ continuous
Jones: Back up, back up. I’m down here just isolatin’ some s— people, insulatin’ some, and isolatin’ some others. I’m insulatin’ some from the cancers that others are sittin’ by, and I’m isolatin’ the cancers of some that would like to poison the minds of others. (Cries out) Oh, you say, you don’t have very many. I don’t have very many in Philadelphia, but I got 10,000 out in California. Hey! Spirit! Oh, God!
Congregation: Applause, organ
Jones: (Ministerial cadence) [You] Say, I got too much to lose. (Pause) I got too much to lose. Sit down. You got nothing to lose. Who else is gonna stand and look you in the face and say, come, and I’ll give you a job. Come, and I’ll give you a home. Come, and I’ll give you a bed. [You] Say, I got nothin’ but a pension. (Unintelligible word) Leave your pension behind. Who else’ll tell you that? Who’ll tell you, I’ll put you on that bus tomorrow. Who else’ll tell you, you don’t have to have a penny? That’s what I said to her when I came to Philadelphia. Didn’t have to say it twice. (Cries out) She said, “I know thou art.”
Congregation: Applause, organ
Jones: (Voice calms) All right.
Single voice: Thank you, Jim.
Jones: Why is it people don’t want to hear something that’s on earth? [You] Say, you love God. (Ministerial rhythms) And I tell you, you don’t love anything you don’t see. I tell you, you couldn’t love a ghost, you can’t love a spook, and you can get down on your knees, and you can talk to a spirit, but that spirit don’t talk back to you, and you don’t even know it, you may be afraid of it, you may be concerned about it, but you can’t love it, you ought to be able to touch somebody to love them, you gotta be able to feel somebody to love them, you gotta be able to look at somebody to love them. (Voice calms) You know it’s the truth. (Ministerial cadence, hoarse with emotion) 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. You didn’t love no mother in the spirit. You had to have a mother that was 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.
Congregation: Applause, organ
Jones: (Sings in ministerial monotone) This man would’ve been blind, but he was a preacher. You say you can’t afford to give up. This man was blind. [You] Said you can’t give up, but he gave up his church, he gave yo— up his work, he said, (sings out) I know you are God.
Congregation: Applause, organ
Jones: (Voice rises) He gave it all up. Came all the way from Washington. Sick in the hospital, s— not (unintelligible word) expecting him to get up, not expecting to get up, but now he rode all the way with me, from California, and he’s gonna ride all the way home, ’cause he’s anchored, he’s anchored, he’s anchored in a rock.
Congregation: Applause, organ
Jones: Hey, spirit! Yes, yes, yes. You say, I’ve got Jesus. All right, call on him. I don’t want to bother you if you’ve got one. (Claps hands once) Peace! (Calms) And I’m tellin’ ya, if he’s got so much power, if he’s got all power, if he’s the Father that created the worlds and created every living thing, why is it that two million died last year of our black brothers and sisters in Biafra. They were just as good as you. They were just as good as me. But they died over there, little babies swollen stomachs, felled— their mothers held them, and they died, wanting life. Why is it? You don’t know, you don’t know. And they’re gonna do the same thing to you, ’cause they’re giving you the same dose that they gave them. That’s how they got them to sit there and die with their babies, ’cause somebody’d stand over them, these white preachers comin’ to town, they’d say, don’t worry, mother, because (singing) by and by, when the morning comes, Jesus gonna come. (Fervent voice) I’m gonna tell you, Jesus is come right now, and Jesus is gonna do something right now, Jesus is gonna do something today, today is the day of salvation, now, baby! (Sings) Mmm.
Congregation: Applause, organ
Jones: (low voice, unintelligible word) (Calmer voice) We’ll get that taken away. We’ll get that taken away. I’m about through. I’m about through. (Pause) I just want you to think. I’ve just said I’ve come to save ya. (Sings) [Jesus] Said in the last days, saviors would come up out of Zion. Jesus said, ye are gods. Sons of the most high. I’m a savior. I didn’t say a creator. No, because, if I had been the— alone in this universe, I sure wouldna made nobody to come down on these streets of Philadelphia and suffer like black people have to suffer. I’da never made none to have to suffer like Latins suffer, or poor whites suffer. No, I didn’t say that. I just said one thing, and I’ll live up to it, ’cause there’s nobody ever looked to me to be a savior, there’s nobody that’s ever come to me to be a savior, there’s nobody that has asked me, there’s nobody that’s ever come up to me, if they were in jail, some of them, one, the Jewish brother facing ten years, he said, “Save me. My religion didn’t save me. God didn’t save me. The Skygod didn’t come.” And I took him out of jail, ten years, I took him out in ten minutes. Hey, spirit!
Congregation: Applause, organ
Jones: Nobody that’s ever come to me, that’s prayed, they prayed to the Skygod, they said, “Save me,” they had cancer, they said, “Save me,” but thousands have come and said, “Jim Jones, save me,” and Jim Jones saved them.
Congregation: Applause, organ
Jones: (Sings) Ohh, yes. This woman, this black woman setting here, this Afro-American woman setting here, she was crippled, crippled from an accident, crippled, and she was dead, (Pause) (Voice intense) the lawyers cheated her, sold out, s— got together and sold her case out, she didn’t get a dime, she was crippled, in constant pain. Is this not right, Sister Walls, isn’t it?
Walls: Absolutely.
Jones: Is this not right?
Walls: Absolutely.
Jones: But you decided to put away the spook, and you begin to try to love God in this body, and when you did, I called you out, did I not, y— long months ago, and I said, you have a home, and I said, I take the pain, I said, I take the crippling, and ever since that day, ever since—
Congregation: Applause, organ
Jones: You can tell your own testimony. Have you got any crippling now? Your leg was crippled. You— you— Have you got any ache or pain now? (Sings out) Hey, spirit!
Congregation: Applause, organ
Jones: My God!
Congregation: Applause, organ, percussion
Jones: So don’t you count on it. Skygod didn’t come after the Jews, honey. Six million of ’em died. He didn’t come after the blacks that were in chains. They died. He didn’t come after the poor white Virginia miners. They died in the Sunshine Mines. He didn’t come after the poor anytime, no Skygod ever came. It had to be somebody that put on hands, it had to be somebody like Harriet Tubman, it had to be somebody like a Patrick Henry, it had to be somebody that would put their hands. (Sings out with organ) Oh yes! Oh, yes! I’ll finish when I get through. Just shift your body a little bit more, and I’ll finish when I get through. ‘Cause somebody gonna get saved in Philadelphia. Somebody is gonna get on the Freedom (draws out word in song) Train in Philadelphia. [You] Say, “I don’t like it, because you said I was a nigger.” I said I am too. I said, that district attorney over there, that white district attorney, I said, he’s a nigger too. He had to find out he was one. Then his baby was healed from blindness. His wife was healed from dying. Oh, I said, we’re all gonna be niggers till everybody gets free, (more emphatic) till everybody gets free, till everybody gets free. (Pause) Are you free over here? Are you free over here, child? Do you know God when you see him? You do, don’t you, sister? Sister (unintelligible name, sounds like “Thomasine”). You know, you know, you know.
People cry out, organ plays
Jones: Te— Just tell her. See this sister, she’s— she’s up there going towards her nineties. She’ll tell you, if you know God, you won’t have to tell him anything. She had cancer. All she did was turn on my record, like instructions, she turned on my song. I’ve got a song to bring God out of the gl— out from the uh, sky, down on the earth. She played the song and spit up the cancer.
People cry out, organ, percussion
Jones: In her home. (Pause) (Ministerial fervor) Well, well, somebody gonna get free in Philadelphia. See this little lady that beats this tambourine. She was dead! She was dead, her heart was dying. Her heart was gone. She couldn’t breathe. She was like stone. She too was lost in that Skygod. But I came down, and I touched her on the floor, and she arose. Hey! Spirit!
Congregation: Applause, organ, percussion
Jones: (Long pause) (Sings) Say, I know some of you think I’m gonna get arrested. I know some of think I’m gone get in trouble, but I’m gonna be the happiest fellow in trouble you ever saw. Aah! Because there’s nothing that makes you feel so good, there’s nothing that makes you feel so clean, there’s nothing that makes you feel so clean as to tell the people the truth, because the truth will set you free!
Congregation: Applause, organ, percussion
Jones: (Sings) Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah. (Speaks, voice returns to normal register) Well, I couldn’t say it in any more words, and I couldn’t have said it in any less. I have spoken. And along with me has come the spirit of the Shakina presence. Justice has come rollin’ down like a mighty sea. (Speaks glossolalia). Have I been with you so long, doubting Thomases and Phillips, have I been with you so long that you don’t know me? [You] Say, I just snowed. [You] Say, my mind is blown. (Calm) Keep tryin’ me. Try my spirit. Test me 24 hours a day. Take me up on my offer and come to California, till I come back. Take me up. Come on over on the other side of Jordan. Come out there in those beautiful fields of Eden. See what we’re doing out there for freedom. And I’ll tell you, (sings) you won’t want to come back. You won’t want to come back.
Congregation: Applause, organ, percussion
Jones: You’re sweet, you’re sweet. [You] Say, well, if I give this up, what would I have? (Sings) Heaven. We get ourselves together, and we get rid of the monetary system, the land would get back where it belonged, and we’d stop the disease, and the streams would no longer be polluted, the skies would no longer be polluted, and there’d be no more Watergates, but the floodgates of glory would open. (Cries out) Aah, spirit! (Pause) (Sings in monotone, with organ punctuation) And the money that’s been bombed on little babies in Cambodia to make the rich richer, even the president said if we’d spend that money, we could heal cancer, and I’ve already healed cancer without any money. Aaah! I’ve taken over a hospital, taken over lands for the people, given them jobs. [You] Say, I’d lose something. You haven’t got nothing to lose. You— All you’ve got is a spook on Sunday morning. All you’ve got is a preacher standing up in fine suits on Sunday morning, tellin’ you about a spook that’s comin’, and if that spook’s come, he’d fall right out of his shoes.
Congregation: Applause, organ, percussion
Jones: (Speaking voice) ‘Cause if he came— I was in Christ Temple one time. That’s the biggest Pentecostal Church in America. And they all said, “Jesus is coming soon.” I was sitting down, ’cause I knew he hadn’t gone anywhere. (Sings) And they were all jumpin’ up and shoutin’, sayin’, “I’m ready, I want him to come, I hope it’ll be mornin’, I want it to at least be noon, and I hope it won’t be before the night.” And they were shoutin’, and they were screamin’ in Christ Temple. (Speaks) You remember about Christ Temple over there. (Sings in monotone) Ahh, yes. And I was there, and I can tell you this for a truth. Aah. About that time, over across the way, a big gas reservoir went BOOM! And all those folks that were on their feet, wantin’ Jesus to come, they all hit the floor, and were down under the benches, they hid on the floor. They had the Holy Ghost, they’d been baptized in Jesus’ name, they spoke in tongues, (speaks emphatically) but they all were crawlin’ on the floor, (sings in monotone) and I looked around, and I was the only one sittin’, ’cause I knew I didn’t have to be (cries out) afraid.
Congregation: Applause, organ, percussion
Jones: (Sings) Aah, I love the truth. I don’t care if I have to die. I’d rather preach the truth than eat apple pie. I’d rather preach the truth, than have silver and gold when I die. I’d rather preach the truth, than to have the mansions of this world.
End of side one
Side Two
Jones: —than to live in Philadelphia for a million years. I’d rather preach the truth, if it meant I went to the guillotine or the cross. I’d rather preach the truth. [You] Say, “They’re gonna come for you.” I know they will. But when they come, they better get ready, ’cause there’s gonna be 10,000 (unintelligible word shouted into distortion)—
Congregation: Applause, organ, percussion
Jones: Yes. Shh. (Speaks) They came for us there, I told you, in that Southern city. You know what I did? They came to get us. Right now, on Thursdays, the last Thursday of every month, that same police officer that got his nose broke, you can find him in my church. (Cries out) Hey!
Congregation: Applause, organ, percussion
Jones: (Sing in monotone) Stood right on my pulpit after I broke his nose, takin’ that woman out of the ambulance with a whirlwind. (Pause) (Speaks) You say, you don’t need me? (Sings) You don’t know what you need. But if you need to live, you need me. If you need to survive in this time of Watergate, if you need to survive, when the crooks, the spiritual wickednesses, they’re up in high places, if you want to get saved from injustice and from robbers, if you want to get saved from jackleg preachers and all their lackeys, if you want to get saved, come on home, come on home.
Congregation: Applause, organ, percussion
Jones: (Speaks) Well, you’re satisfied, some of you. So tomorrow, you go look at that church. You listen to that da— that— that old jackleg, listen to him. He’ll tell you Jesus is comin’ soon. But you look at his tie, you look at his shoes, you look at his socks, you look at his hair. It won’t be like mine. I’ve never paid for a barber. Now I’ve been too busy, trying to get people free. I’ve had no time to cut it. Not ’cause I like long hair, but I just haven’t had time, that’s too unimportant. But you look at him tomorrow. It’ll be trimmed just right. You look at his wife. She’ll be in the finest of furs. (Sings in monotone) But if you see [Marceline Jones] this mother of our church, she’s an inspector for the state of California, she goes in and gets old people out of nursing homes, and closes up rat traps, and she’s over in Los Angeles right now, preachin’ for me. She’ll be in San Francisco tomorrow, preachin’ for me. She goes to work, and she was wounded ten times, they penetrated through her spine, [they] said she’d never walk, ’cause they tried to kill both of us. Sure. Sure. You say, why are they trying to kill you? They that live godly in Christ, they shall suffer persecution. They’ll even kill you, thinking they do God a service. (Pause) And I want to tell you, I raised her up, I raised her up in less than three days. You say your God raised Himself up, in the Skygod raised up in three days, (cries out) I raised her up in three minutes. (Pause) (Speaks) She’s not got no furs. (Pause) Well, I know grammar, I’m a principal, I’m a teacher, I know how to speak good English. But you got plenty of good English, but you don’t know how to speak American. Plain enough to know how to get free. ‘Cause we’re speakin’ a lot of good English goin’ nowhere. (Pause) All right now. You better begin to listen, to hear what the spirit has to say to the church. It’s a long time, long meeting, I hated to have to go so long, but I won’t see you. Some of you’ll be in jails before I see you, if you don’t listen to me. Some of you’ll be jobless. Some of you’ll be lookin’ for bread. And I don’t mean money. (Pause) And I care for you. And I have a way where there is no way. I have got that rock that’s hewn out of the mountain. Umm-hmm. (Aside) Who is flashing lights (unintelligible phrase)? Twelve o’clock, they flash the lights on us? (Back to congregation) Flash them off, we preach in the dark, baby.
Congregation: Applause, organ, percussion
Jones: See, I’m talking for folk. Flash the lights on me. I’ll come back here again, I’ll betcha. Such a law— You see— you see already, they don’t want the law, they want to stop you, you can’t go after twelve. (Pause) When they going to do it next? What’s next gonna be done? (Pause) Yeah, it’s 12. It’s 12. I don’t like that law. I don’t like anybody making these laws that tell people when they can assemble, ’cause the Constitution says, you’ve got freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, the right to assemble. It didn’t say, between 8 and 12. It said, all night, if you wanted to. (Pause) We’re not disturbin’ nobody’s peace out here, ’cause there ain’t nobody got any peace, they’re living in ratholes, and on each side there’s businesses. There’s no peace to disturb. (Pause) (Short laugh) I hope they do arrest me, I’m ready to go to jail, child. We’ll— we’ll shake up this town.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: Nothing be better than somebody take me to jail, ’cause we’ll have the bi— greatest revival that ever come to Philadelphia. (Laughs) (Calls out) You don’t know what this is like, because you just never been around somebody that is a righteous God, you’ve never been around somebody that’s an angry God, and you say, “I don’t like you.” You gone have to like me before you can ever fulfill the scripture, (Sings out) because you’ve gotta love God, with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. (Speaks) And I’m telling ya, you can’t love something you’ve not seen. You’re a liar if you tell me otherwise. Now back we go with sister, I think it was, I called back here by name, somebody. Hands stand— clasp, move and shift your bodies. (Pause) I tell you, Jesus rebuked the Bible. I’m rebuking the Bible by the Living Word. The Living Word’s coming to you now, from Christ.
Sermon ends.
Tape originally posted July 2001