{"id":14008,"date":"2013-02-17T21:50:47","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T21:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=14008"},"modified":"2014-03-21T15:53:44","modified_gmt":"2014-03-21T15:53:44","slug":"aug77statement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=14008","title":{"rendered":"Peoples Temple Statement of August 21, 1977"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Peoples Temple made an effort to prevent publication of the <a href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=14025\"><em>New West<\/em><\/a> article, and when those efforts failed, launched a campaign to discredit its critics and to refute their claims. It also sought to remind its supporters of what the missions of the church were, and how dedicated its members were to following them.<\/p>\n<p>One document in this campaign was a statement of August 21, 1977,\u00a0 released about three weeks after the New West edition hit the newsstands and even as many Temple members were on their way to Guyana. The statement attacks the enemies of the Temple as engaging in \u201cunsubstantiated charges, exaggerations, misrepresentations, half-truths, and outright lies,\u201d and as participating in a \u201cwell-coordinated conspiracy\u201d much like those which brought down other organizations. It also presents \u201cour\u00a0Guyana project\u201d as\u00a0 \u201ca bustling, cooperative community of several hundred [which] has developed recreational, educational, medical and other community facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While subsequent statements from Jonestown concerning the conspiracy against it would be much more political, the statement includes much religious language. It offers itself as a \u201cwitness for the truth of Jesus Christ\u2019s mission on earth,\u201d it struggles to live the Christian example of a \u201ccommunity without class or racial distinctions and discrimination.\u201d and it aligns itself with the Christ who brought a \u201crevolutionary faith\u201d to the world and who suffered persecution from the existing order.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo we are not surprised by the attacks upon our church,\u201d the statement says near the end, and then concludes with a defiant, \u201cWe shall not be moved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Temple Statement of August 21, 1977<\/strong>, RYMUR 89-4286-2035, pp. 42-43<br \/>\n<span class=\"tabbed\"><a href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/03-10-Aug77Statement.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"tabbed\"><a href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=14009\">Text<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Array<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":14024,"menu_order":12,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14008","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14008"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58517,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14008\/revisions\/58517"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}