Cult apologists always strive to unload the thickest sugar coatings over the true horror of People's Temple. One of the most elaborate was director Stanley Nelson's appalling 2005 whitewash documentary "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple." This site is dedicated to exposing such insidious historic fiction, apologist promoters, and the self-serving power elite that lack the ethics and courage to confess the real truth about their role in this crime of the century.
Get ready for an irresistible cult apologist's BIG splash, everybody -- smack-dab in the middle of the world-famed Oprah Olympic Pool!
That's right. But this time it's unlikely to be anything as sensational as Scientologist Cruise's notorious couch hysterics that we all remember.
No, not quite that. But Harpo's Royal Highness still has something to show the world tomorrow afternoon that might just be as valuable a ratings bonanza.
All over the Info Highway, the thrilling announcements: "WEDNESDAY ALL NEW! Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy's Sister & Mass Murderer Jim Jones's Son Speak Out...."
And one more thing, she says, needs to be cleared up -- he was not a monster.
Well, okay, if she insists. Tell that to the families of the people her crazed sibling butchered so efficiently.
Now if this is what we'll be hearing from Sis Gacy, just try imagining the promos Mr. Jones, Jr. might be tossing out about the "good and kind" sides of his dearly departed relative?
If his past statements are any sign, it ought to be more breath-taking than practically any of the hogwash floating around Becky Moore's propaganda palace, "The Jonestown Institute."
In a 2006 interview, Jones, Jr. commented about his father's "functional" side when being asked about Director Stanley Nelson's twisted whitewash "documentary," entitled "Jonestown: Life and Death of Peoples Temple." Jones(R) is seen standing here with the scowling master of cult apologist cinema, Lord Nelson.
"He [father Jim] must have presented something to them to make him trust them," said Jones, Jr. "And I think Stanley's film shows this functional world of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple." Two years later, at the 30th anniversary memorial service for the 900 victims of his "functional" father, he made the astounding claim that this mass-murdering monster "should not be villianized."
Why?
Because, according to Jones, Jr., his savage, sadistic father was "a victim," just as much as the nearly 300 children and babies he subjected to agonizing death sentences by cyanide.
Painful beyond belief, it must have been, this victim father's gift of dying "with a degree of dignity."
Perhaps something like this:
A toddler, screaming that her throat is on fire, heart racing uncontrollably, world around her spinning. She can barely breath.
A dark, complete terror wracks her brain.
The screaming slowly descends into a helpless moaning.
Bathed in sweat, she begins vomiting.
Then, her entire body surrenders to ghastly convulsions.
More.
And more.
And more.
Finally.
She's still.
"Crossed over," just as the monster and his planning commission executioners had hoped.
Imagine, if you can, this horror repeated 900 more times. Official estimate was that the great majority of Father Jones's victims did not in fact have their "C" served up in a cup of Flavor-Aid. They were forcibly injected in the back.
So much for the notion of "revolutionary suicide."
So tomorrow on Oprah, besides hearing how "good and kind" John Wayne Gacy was, will we also endure the sick spectacle of someone arguing the master mind behind this unspeakable Crime of the Century was "a victim"??
Bitterness and controversy on the right way to memorialize the dead of Jonestown just won't go away.
A few months ago I got this elated message from "Rhonda" (who's requested anonymity), a survivor of the Jonestown Massacre:
"I wanted to advise you," she said, "and I am glad to report that the memorial plaque constructed by Lela Howard bearing the name of Jim Jones along with the names of the real victims has not and will never be placed in the African American Historical Society in San Francisco. They are sensitive and understanding about the insensitivity of placing such a permanent fixture in their museum on a permanent or temporary basis. So I guess Lela best move on to perhaps the City of Los Angeles or some other city that will deem Jim Jones a victim of himself."
The above photo from the Jonestown Massacre's 30th Anniversary Memorial Service is something altogether different, of course. Shown is one of the first two panels of a granite memorial wall unveiled at the site of a mass grave of Jonestown victims, most of them children, in Evergreen Cemetery nestled in the hills of Oakland, California.
Seen praying over one of the panels at the far right is Jynona Norwod, who has overseen the project to build the wall. She has as good a reason as any other surviving relative, having suffered the devastating loss of 27 family members to Jim Jones and his executioners in November, 1978.
She is rightfully adamant the monster that destroyed so much of her family never, ever be recognized as a "victim," which would honor him with all the men, women, children, and babies he savagely murdered.
Other concerned parties, however, strongly object. They formed a rival group that constructed a separate memorial--a Lucite plaque--featuring the name of certain "faith healing" mass murderer. They apparently echo the sentiments of adopted son, Jim Jones, Jr., who claimed at the memorial service that "the tragedy is we're villianizing Jim Jones....also a victim, of his own madness. We need to memorialize all the bodies, as a great loss."
Granted, this was his adapted father. But it just can't change the fact that Jim Jones, Sr. was little more than a sadistic, psychotic killer. Memorialize a perfectly hideous beast that caused such unspeakable suffering, years and years even before the Jonestown Holocaust, as a "great loss"??
The revisionists and shameless cult apologists that we're so well acquainted with might be well pleased, because their desperate hope will forever be to one day dupe today's public that the People's Temple's demonic essence was shadowed by its bright, cheery sides.
"....Peoples Temple members were engaged in the world, and tried to make concrete differences in individuals' lives and in society as a whole." --Rebecca Moore San Diego State Prof. of Religion and Sister of Temple mass murderers, Carolyn & Annie Moore
All brought to us by that racially enlightened Marxist marvel, Comrade James Warren Jones and his near lily-white politburo, The Planning Commission.
Jones, honored? Along with his murderous organized crime family, including Sharon Amos, Larry Schacht, Annie & Carolyn Moore, Jim McElvane, and those gun-wielding death camp guards that so efficiently coerced all the other cult members to the slaughter?
Commemorate baby killers? Are you kidding??
Rival memorial group leader Lela Howard is deadly serious. She's the one Rhonda spoke of in her message. Howard lost an aunt at Jonestown and said, "This is the first time they will be recognized as human beings. It restores the humanity of these people and gives their names back."
It's hard to say where Howard and her group will place their memorial, now that it's reportedly been rejected for permanent placement in San Francisco's African American Historical Society.
That clearly will do little to cool down the rage and resentment Howard has for Norwood. At the end of 2007, she wrote to the Apologists Alert claiming:
"A memorial wall at Oakland cemetery is great! But I thought money was collected for that many years ago--what happened to those funds? It seems as if there's an unnecessary competition in regards to memorials for the victims, which takes away from the focal point of remembering them.
This makes me very sad and confused, because this separates us or leans towards a school yard 'choosing sides' type of mentality, instead of family and survivors coming together and honoring our loved ones. It's more about the living and their egos, rather than those who perished...very, very, very sad."
Then, about a year later, came another attack on Norwood. This time from another critic claiming anonymity as "Confused and Getting Upset." It was an even harsher denunciation [see November 9, 2009 JAA post], questioning both Norwood's financial accounting as well as her personal integrity.
Without any outright evidence, there's no way to go beyond mere speculation that this diatribe came from someone in Howard's group or Howard herself.
The attacks have outraged Norwood. She's issued a very lengthy rebuttal.
Some of the highlights:
"Your named and anonymous bloggers," she wrote, "are attempting to distract our focus in memorializing the 305 innocent babies that Jim Jones murdered. Remember that these are the types of tactics that was encouraged and taught by Jim Jones. I remember as a teenager that whoever did not join Jones's church was to be misaligned at home, within the family, and in public....
....It has to do with what is right or wrong. It is about correcting a wrong. In your blog an anonymous contributor compared me with Jim Jones and called me a charlatan because I minister in the five-fold ministry, of which the gift of prophecy is one such anointing....
....I have never said that I would list the names of the murderers at Jonestown. This is another lie. Our decision to include the names of all the fallen except Jim Jones is not complicated. We are neither judge nor jury. We do not know with any certainty all of whom were actually involved in the massacre, but we do know who the leader was.
Would your bloggers also desire that I not accept the support, prayers and commendation's of the political, civil and community leaders who were deceived into befriending Jim Jones? They did not know that he would cause the murder of babies that included over 900 loving people. Therefore, instead of picking through the ruins, we are moving up from the valley of tears to build a monument to repentance, renewal and revival....
....Lela Howard garnered support from leaders and built a memorial honoring everyone including Jim Jones in her 2008 ceremony in San Francisco. She had the audacity to inscribe Jim Jones's name next to the victims and innocent children. She tried to have it placed in the African American Center in San Francisco where she held the ceremony, but when the African American community and leaders found out that she was honoring Jim Jones they called the center and put a stop to it....
...My books are open and I have nothing to hide....As soon as my CPA finishes his YTD report we will make these records available to the Office of the Attorney General and any reputable organization. Therefore, I call upon good people of the nations to help us do good in the face of evil and continue to love in a sea of hate. If we can do this together, we will never see another Jonestown massacre again."
It was over before anyone knew it. And long, long overdue.
The unannounced ceremony this past November 18th was as simple as the white stone plaque they erected at the Guyanese jungle clearing.
It's taken far too long for Guyana's government to officially recognize the Crime of the Century that took place in their impoverished nation more than three decades ago. The stigma, however, seems to have finally lifted with the passing of enough years.
"We think the time is now ripe for some sort of memorial to remember those who died as 31 years have passed and the wound is not so raw," said Indranauth Haralsingh, the director of the Guyana Tourism Authority. "There should be something to remember them as people do come."
"In memory of the victims of the Jonestown tragedy, November 18, 1978, Jonestown, Guyana"
That's the memorial's sole inscription, just as it reads on Oakland's Evergreen Cemetery tombstone (with the added words "Guyana Emergency Relief Committee") where over 400 Jonestown victims are buried.
Since the 30th anniversary of the massacre, the Evergreen site now has an emerging memorial wall of names of all the dead, save one, mass murderer Jim Jones--which has been some of the surviving relatives' vocal point for controversy.
"I hope," said U.S. Embassy charge d'affairs Karen Williams, who helped unveil the Guyana's Jonestown Memorial, "that this simple and very reverent service today and monument will serve to help heal those wounds in both of our nations."
"Wounds"??
Interesting perspective, Madam Charge D'affairs.
Far more ethical and forthright would have been to come clean with her employer's disgraceful derelection of duty in the lead-up to the clearly avoidable massacre that cost over 900 lives, including Rep. Leo Ryan, the only congressman in history to die--senselessly--in the line of duty.
Ryan had had five, count 'em, five briefings provided by that useless and duplicitious State Department prior to this extremely dangerous rescue mission, which not one single other member of Congress had the guts to accompany. With all the testimony about people in the Guyana Gulag being held prisoner, being tortured, and threatened with murder, Ryan requested that some critically needed straight answers be provided by those bumbling bureaucrats. "Nonsense." That was what that oh-so conscientious, competent State Department told the doomed congressman regarding the peril he was about to enter.
And nothing more.
They deliberately sat on the critical information that would have saved Ryan, his delegation, and surely the rest of the Jonestown cult captives.
So as with the journalists, clergy, and American & Guyanese politicians in the Cast Of Shameless Wonders that enabled Jim Jones and his cult mafia to run amok, our U.S. Dept. of State also has plenty of blood on its hands.
And like their reprehensible cohorts, it's a sure bet that "State" will never, ever owe up to its appalling guilt. Thank you, Ms. Williams, for clarifying that for all of us.
Staboek News, an independent Guyanese newspaper, published this observation by one of the country's political parties on the day their memorial was erected:
"The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) says while the public continues to be baffled by the events that led to the Jonestown disaster, it was important to note that the tragedy could have been avoided if not for political interference in the judicial process....
....The WPA said while questions continue to arise about the purpose of the Temple, what is clear is that Jim Jones and his group were allowed to establish a settlement by the PNC [People's National Congress] government in Guyana’s interior and there was little governmental oversight of the operations of that organisations. It is also clear that the Temple 'had acquired considerable influence among certain political officials in the then government who among other things, attempted to influence the course of justice.'
The WPA said the action by then minister of home affairs Vibert Mingo to get Justice Aubrey Bishop [pictured here] to reverse his decision that Jones 'must appear and give evidence in the Baby Stoen case' that had been engaging his attention, is just one example. Jones ignored the judge’s order, the WPA said, adding that perhaps the outcome at Jonestown might have been different if Justice Bishop’s order had been heeded...."
Albert Einstein once wrote that the world is a dangerous place "not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”
Sound social insight from a legendary scientist. It perfectly compliments the other plague: People that knowingly aid and abet evil in its most heinous forms.
On the 25th anniversary of the massacre, Guyanese pilot Capt. Gerry Gouveia made a crude but very reality show-like series of videos of his and a small group's journey into what remains of Jonestown. He might very well be the Guyanese reality show star, considering what he personally witnessed in 1978 and later found in this intriguing look at a notorious killing field that today is devoured by merciless jungle.
The Guyana Tourism Authority, despite the government's new memorial, continues to refuse the proposal to develop the place as a tourism attraction. Perhaps it might come in future years, if the country gets cash-strapped enough.
Let's just pray that they make very, very sure that the cult apologists don't get their paws on the plans should the project ever come to fruition.
Think of the possibilities, and then help yourself to a nice long shudder.
Stanley Nelson's stomach-churning apologist film would look positively honest by comparison.
It would bring new meaning to historic fiction and revisionism. Think of the fantasy & fairy tales that would make up a visitor's center sponsored by the Jonestown Institute.
And instead of a watching it on DVD or reading about it in one of Becky Moore's Temple Tall Tales books--the latest which I'm going to review very soon--you could pay homage to all the "good works" of the cult "pioneers" that blazed a path shimmering with fraud, extortion, slave labor, and child torture.
Better scenario: Let it be administered by genuine historians. And by authentic survivor testimony.
Allow bona fide facts, not embellishments and half-truths, to tell the real story.
Jonestown, like any of the world's other resurrected gulags, should be revealed to tourists in all its true horrifying colors.
"Conditions at Jonestown were even worse than I had feared they would be. The settlement was swarming with armed guards. No one was permitted to leave unless on a special assignment and these assignments were given only to the most trusted. We were allowed to associate with Guyanese people only while on a "mission".
The vast majority of the Temple members were required to work in the fields from 7 A.M. to 6 P.M. six days per week and on Sunday from 7 A.M. to 2 P.M. We were allowed one hour for lunch. Most of this hour was spent walking back to lunch and standing in line for our food. Taking any other breaks during the workday was severely frowned upon.
The food was woefully inadequate. There was rice for breakfast, rice water soup for lunch, and rice and beans for dinner. On Sunday, we each received an egg and a cookie. Two or three times a week we had vegetables. Some very weak and elderly members received one egg per day. However, the food did improve markedly on the few occasions when there were outside visitors.
In contrast, Rev. Jones, claiming problems with his blood sugar, dined separately and ate meat regularly. He had his own refrigerator which was stocked with food. The two women with whom he resided, Maria Katsaris and Carolyn Layton, and the two small boys who lived with him, Kimo Prokes and John Stoen, dined with the membership. However, they were in much better physical shape than everyone else since they were also allowed to eat the food in Rev. Jones' refrigerator...." --Debra Layton Blakely
No doubt that our Alternative Considerations of Jonestown apologists can put a mind-controlling spin on this "utopian community," as they've proven repeatedly in the popular media.
Today, these babies would have likely had families of their own.
Of all the victims, they were the most senseless and heart-wrenching.
The perpetrator list runs long and wide, as does the continuing coverup. As we mourn the dead today, a short film reminds us of one part of the coverup that continues.
More on this today.
Prayers go out to the relatives of those killed by this Marxist Monster and his executioners 31 years ago.
Happened in Texas, courtesy of a cult maniac swaggering in the footsteps of another megalomaniac who hosted his own holocaust 15 years earlier in a Guyanese jungle.
A memorial for the victims of the 1993 Waco Massacre was established by Branch Davidian survivors two years later on the privately-owned Mount Carmel property. It was a layout of crape myrtle trees, which later had headstones representing victims placed at the base of each tree.
Amazingly, one of those headstones--until it was rightfully destroyed by the property owner in 2006--was dedicated to a murderous, crazed sexual predator.
As controversial as was the ATF raid on the Branch Davidian compound, it's outrageous watching muddle-headed wonders award victim hood status to ruthless, sadistic monsters like David Koresh.
Koresh's crime spree, however, was something of a virtual misdemeanor next to the unspeakable horrors inflicted by Jim "Dad" Jones and his People's Temple Mafia. So why, once again, are people stepping up to actually honor another raging psychopath as a "victim"??
One of those is a group of family survivors lead by Lela Howard (whose aunt died in Jonestown) that tried but failed to erect their own memorial that included Jones in San Francisco's African American Cultural Center, thanks to protests by other survivors.
One of the protesting survivors, "Rhonda" (who's requested anonymity), told the Apologists Alert:
"It was insulting, illogical, and outright disrespectful of Black Americans. Jewish people have never proclaimed Hitler as a victim, nor has his name been placed on a memorial wall erected for those he ordered murdered.
Ms. Howard was never a member [of the cult] and she should have conferred with others prior to making her decisions to be disrespectful. Instead she selected to speak with Jones's sons and other white members who were part of the hierarchy. My suggestion is that Ms. Howard maintain her memorial in Los Angeles so that she can frequently visit a site locally for remembrance. Don't smear our faces in it or bring this back to San Francisco."
The late cult leader's adopted son, Jim Jones, Jr., is clear about his place in the revisionist camp, alleging that "the tragedy is we're villainizing Jim Jones," who he claims "was also a victim, of his own madness. We need to memorialize all the bodies, as a great loss."
It's obvious that Rhonda appreciates the Jones, Jr. perspective about as much as she does Howard's. We get the feeling she's equally unenthused over our favorite cult apologist film maker, Stanley Nelson.
"I am tired of those who continue to surface as self-appointed spokespersons for black victims of People's Temple," she says, "I'm tired of the ignorance, lies, and misstatements of Jimmy Jones, Jr., who....is an embarrassment to every intelligent black person in the world.
Jim Jones, Jr. makes ridiculous statements about what a great man his dad was. We must remember that his dad killed his wife and their unborn child in Jonestown. He goes on speaking engagements for pay and has used the death of others as a major source of income.
My question: Why would you continue to bear the name of a murderer? This is sick, just as disgustingly sick as his adopted dad.
I think of the Lela Howards and Stanley Nelsons as the “Aunt Janes” and “Uncle Toms” of the world....Their mission is an attempt to portray Jim Jones as a "victim". They attempt unconvincing arguments that Jim Jones’ name should appear on a wall with the true victims’ names. He is not--and never was--a victim!"
Rhonda voices much support for Dr. Jynona Norwood's work in getting the Jonestown Memorial Wall erected, calling her "a faithful and humble servant trying to give the lost souls their own identity, a name, and dignity. However, she meets constant roadblocks."
Obviously one of the biggest challenges has been raising funds for the wall. It's time to petition former Jones allies such as Willie Brown and Cecil Williams to cough up a substantial chunk of the expense. After all, they're part of that California political rabble with blood on their hands from November 18, 1978.
Let Brown, Williams, and the rest of those self-serving elites make their financial amends next Wednesday at Oakland's Evergreen Cemetery, right after they've publicly apologized to the grieving relatives of every one of the real victims of their Prized Marxist Missionary.
I'm sure they'll have an undoubtedly receptive audience, judging from last year's memorial service:
Another anniversary of that senseless, horrific day of slaughter is crawling towards us again.
Last year's 30th Remembrance at Oakland's Evergreen Cemetery saw the unveiling of two black granite panels of what was promised to eventually be a 36 foot-long stone wall with the names of all the victims. A year has passed and the question remains:
Where are rest of the panels?
What's more, will they show all the names?
Can you just imagine having those Jonestown assassins carved in granite right next to the men, women, children, and babies they brutally murdered??
Would you like to see names like Sharon Amos, the bestial Temple executioner that slit the throats of her two young children? Or any of the monstrous guards and Temple inner circle, such as Carolyn and Annie Moore, who personally orchestrated the cyanide mass murder of their "suicide" targets?
There are still some voices of furious discord amongst the relatives of the Jonestown victims, who continue to question the management of the memorial wall construction, currently overseen by Jynona Norwood, a Los Angeles evangelist who lost 27 family members in the Guyana bloodbath.
Less than a month after last year's memorial, an anonymous reader "Confused and Getting Upset" wrote to the Apologists Alert:
"How are the marble panels going to be secured at the Oakland cemetery? It was brought out on a tracker, so the weight must be over a ton. It was beautiful, but left me thinking: How the ground is going to handle the weight? Also, I have donated money to that fund and after 27 years of collecting money, why is $70,000 more still needed to complete the wall?
There is a website called 'The Miracle Wall.' On the site, Jynona Norwood claims to be a "prophet" and predicted Jonestown (if so, why didn't she do something about it?), the Iraqi war and Princess Diana's death....
I am starting to feel uncomfortable about this.
The original focus is being lost and celebrity is sought. Jones said he was a 'healer' and 'prophet.' Now Norwood is claiming to be the same charlatan, who passes around a collection bucket after the ceremony at the cemetery? I was literally sickened and walked away.
The wall in Oakland is designed to include the names of known killers?
Why?
They killed! They killed! They killed! Their names should not be on the wall!
I am outraged! It is not right! Their names next to they those killed?! How can this be stopped? I don't want my money used for this. I think you or your dad need to really look into this!
Something is wrong!"
Last November, this blog reported the brewing controversy. Norwood demanded that only the most notorious name should be left off the wall, while some of her other detractors insisted that all, killers and victims alike, be featured. The excerpt:
"Jones was not a victim," said Norwood, "To me, that's like putting Hitler's name on a memorial to the Holocaust."
It's clear, however, that her sentiment is not shared by all the relatives and survivors, including Lela Howard, who lost an aunt in Jonestown and had contacted the Apologist Alert late last year. She has publicly questioned Norwood's accounting of memorial funds (See "Division and Controversy Roils Construction of Jonestown Memorial," January 4, 2008 post.)
But that's not all. Howard's rival group of survivors unveiled their own memorial plaque at the ceremony, bearing all the names of the dead, including a vicious sociopath named James Warren Jones. They've arranged to have the plaque displayed at San Francisco's African American Historical and Cultural Society.
Norwood said she intends to inscribe the names of the Temple assassins that murdered Congressman Leo Ryan, three journalists, a defector, and shot 11 others (including Ryan's aide, Jackie Speier, who now holds his Congressional seat) at the Port Kaituma Airstrip.
But not Jones. Not ever. "To put Jim Jones's name on that wall is an insult ... to all the dead," she said. "He was the most evil man who walked on this earth."
Not so, says the man that carries his name, who survived the bloodbath with his bothers, thanks to a basketball tournament in Guyana's capital city, Georgetown. Jim Jones, Jr. sides with the Howard faction. "The tragedy is we're villainizing Jim Jones," said the cult leader's adopted son. "Jim Jones was also a victim, of his own madness. We need to memorialize all the bodies, as a great loss."
Other victims of their own hyper pathology include a pair of notables that Father Jones in his early years studied voraciously to learn the finer techniques of sadism, power, and mind control.
His cult of personality ended up fitting like an iron glove and crushing like a charm.
Some TV network execs have apparently now been bitten by the cult bug.
More than two weeks ago, long before the November anniversary marking the tragedy, CNN rebroadcast Soledad Obrien's "Escape From Jonestown".
Now, tonight on MSNBC, we're getting served a triple entree of cult crazies. From 7 to 9 p.m., the saga of those ferociously poisonous flower children is being presented in "Will You Kill For Me? Charles Manson And His Followers."
Between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m., we'll see the replay of last Sunday's "Witness To Waco," detailing the horrifying end to David Koresh's Branch Davidian cult.
In 2003, ten years after the Waco holocaust, Cult Expert Rick Ross wrote an expose in his Cult News Network about one of the many cult apologists that continue making excuses for Koresh's slaughter of nearly 80 men, women, and children.
Her name is Catherine Wessinger, a professor of religious studies at Loyola University. Ross reported the following:
"It seems Wessinger can be depended upon for an apology no matter how bizarre and/or destructive the cult. Today in the Waco Tribune-Herald’s second installment of its nine part series about the Branch Davidians she once again offers her unique spin on a cult’s demise.
What does Wessinger make out of the Davidian cult tragedy?
Well, she says it was largely about 'the militarization of law enforcement and the problems … and abuse that arise from such militarization.'
Right.
Apparently this college professor doesn’t wish to acknowledge the implications of a purported 'psychopath' leading a cult group. Wessinger admits, 'I’m not trained in psychology so I don’t articulate those opinions....I’m sure he [Koresh] had some psychological issues.'
What an understatement.
Wessinger offers her usual apologetic spin. She has previously attempted to explain away cult tragedies such as Heaven’s Gate and Jonestown. Wessinger once said, 'If Jones and his community had succeeded in creating their Promised Land, they would still be here. But due to the attacks and investigations they endured, they opted for the Gnostic view that devalued this world.'
Again, no meaningful blame is placed upon the deeply disturbed cult leader and the inherent destructive dynamics of his control over the group. Apparently almost any cult and/or cult leader’s behavior may be largely excused according to Wessinger’s reasoning under the general heading of 'persecution'....
Koresh broke the law, failed to comply with a warrant, murdered federal officers and then refused to surrender for 51 days, despite the repeated pleas and guarantees of law enforcement. In the end he chose instead to kill himself and all his followers within the compound.
The cult leader’s behavior had little if anything to do with 'biblical prophecy' and his 'work' was really more about criminal violations of gun laws and sexual abuse than the 'Book of Revelation.'
However, 'apologists' like Wessinger apparently ignore such facts in favor of speculation based upon specious, but supposedly 'politically correct' views, instead of reality."
You'll see Ross interviewed in the documentary. If Wessinger shows up, we'll know there's something amiss.
Oh yes, and that leaves the hours, 9:00 to 11:00 p.m.--what notorious cult show might be sandwiched between the twin terrors of the Manson Family and the Branch Davidians?? Why, it's yet another "witnessing," like Waco, entitled "Witness To Jonestown."
Thaaaaat's right, people. The Good Reverend and his Temple of--at least, of course, til the very end--Good Works. After this program ran last year, one of my readers, "Dave," had this to say about MSNBC's distorted reporting:
"I observed all the same criminal omissions. The most glaring being the way they always present the People Temple's accommodation of old people and children as 'humanitarian' and ignore that it was the primary source of income. (California child welfare and social security checks were coming in at the rate of $65,000 per month)....."
Dave also had some rather harsh criticism of a certain religious studies professor that runs a particular "institute" all about Jonestown and the People's Temple cult. Except it's not a cult!!, sayeth Dr. Rebecca Moore, of San Diego State University.
"Moore and her ilk," charged Dave, "have reduced the label for these destructive, con-games-on-a-massive-scale to the word 'cult' and have then dismissed the word.
She should be ashamed of herself.
As a religious scholar, she needs to know that putting cults and the worship of God on the same plane diminishes religion. Period."
And here's an utterly amazing coincidence: Blue Ribbon Jonestown Apologist Becky juuuuuust so happens to be a real good buddy of our Koresh Booster, Cathy Wessinger. In fact, they both co-edit the insidious "New Religious Movements"(translation--CULTS) propaganda journal, "Novo Religio."
The lady scholars get a little help from a third flaming cult apologist named Douglas Cowan. He runs the online "Religious Movements Homepage Project," currently under renovation. Cowen is celebrated for his crafty embellishments of virtually any and all cults, no matter how ruthless or rapacious.
That's probably why Becky and Cathy have Cowan helping to co-pilot their barge, U.S.S. Apologia. In a 2004 academic paper, Cowen announced the very destructive Scientology "has an image problem."
I've lived on both coasts of the United States as well as Central America (where I became bilingual), and traveled to over two dozen countries. This afforded me an enriched perspective as a writer and teacher. "Incandescent Planet" and "Jonestown Apologists Alert" provide choice cuts from the human landscape, featuring politics, popular culture, and the senseless saga of a doomed cult.
I'm certain you'll find an abundance of well-seasoned food for thought. Let's eat.
And one more thing, she says, needs to be cleared up -- he was not a monster.
In a 2006 interview, Jones, Jr. commented about his father's "functional" side when being asked about Director Stanley Nelson's twisted whitewash "documentary," entitled "Jonestown: Life and Death of Peoples Temple." Jones(R) is seen standing here with the scowling master of cult apologist cinema, Lord Nelson. 
A toddler, screaming that her throat is on fire, heart racing uncontrollably, world around her spinning. She can barely breath.
