{"id":14082,"date":"2013-02-17T21:51:09","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T21:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=14082"},"modified":"2020-01-15T09:49:08","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T17:49:08","slug":"kinsolving1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=14082","title":{"rendered":"The Prophet Who Raises the Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Rev. Lester Kinsolving
\nExaminer<\/em> Religion Writer
\n[Sunday, September 17, 1972, Page 1]<\/p>\n

REDWOOD VALLEY — A man they call The Prophet is attracting extraordinary crowds from extraordinary distances to his People\u2019s Temple Christian (Disciples) Church in this Mendocino County hamlet.<\/p>\n

His followers say he can raise the dead.<\/p>\n

The PTC (D) Church\u2019s mimeographed newsletter recently described the resurrection of a Los Angeles man.<\/p>\n

And one director of the Temple claims that The Prophet has returned life to \u201cmore than 40 persons\u2026people stiff as a board, tongues hanging out, eyes set, skin graying, and all vital signs absent.\u201d<\/p>\n

His congregations, mostly black, believe The Prophet possesses other, equally amazing powers. They come from all over the West \u2013 from as far away as San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles \u2013 to the Temple, 7 miles north of Ukiah.<\/p>\n

The weekend flock is gathered by the Temple\u2019s fleet of 11 ex-Greyhound buses for services that often run from 11 in the morning until 11 at night, broken only for communal meals prepared by Temple cooks. Congregations number over a thousand and attendance at weekly services is similarly impressive.<\/p>\n

The Prophet (or Prophet of God, as he prefers to call himself) is the Rev. Jim Jones, 41, the part-Cherokee former pastor of the People\u2019s Temple Christian Church in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Utopian Community<\/strong><\/p>\n

So powerful was the appeal of The Prophet\u2019s ministry reportedly designed to create a Utopian community along the lines of the early Christian church that when he decided to move west seven years ago, a goodly number of his Indianapolis congregation came along.<\/p>\n

No less than 165 Indianapolis Temple-ites \u2013 including several teenagers \u2013 moved to Redwood Valley with the Rev. Mr. Jones in 1965. The Temple\u2019s total participating memberships today is 4,711, according to one of its directors.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrand total income\u201d is said to have been $396,000 for the year ending June 30, 1972, while \u201cgrand total paid out\u201d is put at $343,000. Permanent funds: $260,000.<\/p>\n

The resurrection cited in the Temple newsletter transpired inside an ex-Christian Science Church building in Los Angeles \u2013 the latest in a series of PTC (D) Church real estate transactions. And the Temple is presently in final stages of acquiring an auditorium to house the proposed San Francisco People\u2019s Temple \u2013 just across Geary Boulevard from the Japanese Trade Center.<\/p>\n

Other holdings: A 40-acre children\u2019s home, 3 convalescent centers, and 3 college dormitories. Other operations: A heroin rehabilitation center and, in the words of one of the Temple\u2019s three attorneys, \u201cour own welfare system.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rev. Mr. Jones\u2019s influence in the Ukiah area is apparently just as strong as his impact on the congregations who jam his temple (with its 41-foot indoor swimming pool) to overflowing. Not only is The Prophet a part-time teacher in the local school system, he has also served as foreman of the Mendocino County Grand Jury.<\/p>\n

He has stated to his flock:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have won over the sheriff\u2019s office and the police department.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has certainly won over the assistant prosecuting attorney of Mendocino County, Timothy O. Stoen \u2013 who is one of the Rev. Mr. Jones\u2019s five assistants, a member of the Temple\u2019s board of directors \u2013 the man who claims \u201cover 40\u201d resurrections for The Prophet.<\/p>\n

But the Rev. Mr. Jones has not won the hearts of all the locals. Four years ago, the Ukiah Daily Journal carried a story bannered, \u201cLocal Group Suffers Terror in the Night.\u201d<\/p>\n

It described menacing phone calls to The Prophet in the middle of the night \u2013 sometimes featuring the sound of heavy breathing, sometimes outright threats: \u201cGet out of town if you don\u2019t want to get blown out of your classroom window.\u201d<\/p>\n

Highly Respected<\/strong><\/p>\n

A large newspaper ad (8 columns, nearly full page) appeared in the Journal a month later as \u201can open letter to Rev. Jones, his family and his church members,\u201d deploring \u201cthe unseemly words and actions of a small segment of this community.\u201d<\/p>\n

It pledged that \u201cyou are not only welcome in this valley but are highly respected\u201d \u2013 and was signed by nearly 200 residents. But the harassment did not abate.<\/p>\n

For this reason, The Prophet travels with impressively armed body guards. Attendants at services wear pistols in their gun belts.<\/p>\n

These guardians are necessary, explains one of the church\u2019s attorneys, Eugene B. Chaikin, because, \u201cWe have suffered threats and vandalism. Our local law enforcement agency has requested that we have trained persons carry firearms, and we have reluctantly acquiesced to the Sheriff\u2019s instructions on this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is little question of The Prophet\u2019s influence on the Ukiah Daily Journal \u2013 for when The Examiner inquired about the People\u2019s Temple and its charismatic pastor some months ago, Journal editor George Hunter immediately reported the inquiry to the office of prosecuting attorney.<\/p>\n

\u2018Jim, The Prophet\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thus relaying the news to the precincts of Timothy O. Stoen, assistant prosecuting attorney and assistant to The Prophet. Stoen promptly wrote to The Examiner to say, among other things, the Rev. Mr. Jones \u201cgoes by the self-effacing title of \u2018Jim Jones.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Subsequently, Stoen explained that \u201cour church bulletin writers are somewhat zealous\u201d \u2013 but that\u2019s the way they see it.\u201d Stoen seems enthusiastic himself, though he prefers to call The Prophet just plain \u201cJim.\u201d Here is an excerpt from a Stoen letter to The Examiner received five days ago:<\/p>\n

\u201cJim has been the means by which more than 40 persons have literally been brought back from the dead this year. When I first came into the church, I was the conventional skeptic about such things. But I must be honest:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen Jim revive people stiff as a board, tongues hanging out, eyes set, skin graying, and all vital signs absent. Don\u2019t ask me how it happens. It just does.<\/p>\n

\u201cJim will go up to such a person and say something like, \u2018I love you\u2019 or \u2018I need you\u2019 and immediately the vital signs reappear. He feels such a person can feel love in his subconscious even after dying.<\/p>\n

\u201cJim is very humble about his gift and does not preach it.\u201d As a matter of fact, Stoen writes, \u201cThe Prophet eschews publicity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional Powers<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Stoen continued] \u201cWhenever there is publicity, the extremists seem to show themselves. Jim has simply been hurt enough\u2026. Jim Jones is NOT concerned for his own safety. His real concern is to prevent harm to his children and others in his church family who might be hurt for what he himself has stood for\u2026\u201d The Temple\u2019s newsletter, however, is not the least bit shy about publicizing either his power to bring back the dead or his \u201cadditional powers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In exhibiting these powers to an unnamed woman in Los Angeles, the Prophet reportedly identified all the names of her relatives, the brands in her refrigerator, the cost of her insurance policy, and the exact price \u2013 \u201dTO THE PENNY\u201d \u2013 of all the books she had purchased \u201cyears ago!\u201d<\/p>\n

Stoen\u2019s written affirmation of the self-effacement of The Prophet did not include any explanation for the three tables just outside the main entrance of the People\u2019s Temple.<\/p>\n

\u2018Credibility\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

These tables are loaded with either photographs, or neck pieces and lockets \u2013 all bearing the image of the Rev. Mr. Jones, and on sale at prices running from $1.50 to $6.00.<\/p>\n

Attorneys Stoen and Chaikin have repeatedly contacted The Examiner, by phone calls, letters, and even via messenger \u2013 Sharon Bradshaw of the Mendocino County Probation Department \u2013 because, as Stoen puts it:<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople\u2019s Temple does, frankly, have a remarkable human service ministry and is devotedly supported by extensive numbers of people. It is extremely important to us to keep our credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Prophet, as Stoen describes him, is \u201csupremely and totally dedicated to building an ideal society where mankind is united, life (human and animal and plant) is cherished, and the joys of nature and simplicity are esteemed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furthermore, he adds, the Rev. Mr. Jones \u201creceives 400 letters a day\u201d and has adopted 6 children of assorted races. He \u201cwears only used clothing and takes in abandoned animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, his sturdy sentries lend the temporal assurance that the Temple of The Prophet is the best-armed house of God in the land.<\/p>\n

END OF PART ONE<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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