{"id":60617,"date":"2014-07-02T18:52:09","date_gmt":"2014-07-02T18:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=60617"},"modified":"2019-02-22T16:04:12","modified_gmt":"2019-02-23T00:04:12","slug":"q966-summary","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=60617","title":{"rendered":"Q966 Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n

To return to the Tape Index, click here.<\/a>
\nTo read the Annotated Tape Transcript, click here<\/a>.
\nTo read the Tape Transcript, click here<\/a>. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1<\/a>, Pt. 2<\/a>).<\/p>\n

FBI Catalogue<\/strong>\tJones Speaking <\/p>\n

FBI preliminary tape identification note:<\/strong> None <\/p>\n

Date cues on tape:<\/strong>\tLikely 1973<\/p>\n

People named:<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

People in attendance at Peoples Temple service<\/em>
\nJack Beam
\nPamela Bradshaw
\nThe Cobb family
\nKathleen Ellis
\nDanny Phillips
\nThe Phillips family
\nLorraine Smith
\nRichard Tropp<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Sister Davis
\nFisher
\nHenry
\nJoey
\nDr. Kleinast
\nMarvin
\nSister Morris
\nSister Nabors (sings)
\nRon
\nSister Sneed
\nSister White<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Bible verses cited:<\/strong> \t<\/p>\n

(Editor’s note<\/strong>: The verses below appear in order of biblical reference, not as they appear in Jim Jones\u2019 address. For a complete scriptural index to the sermons of Jim Jones, click here<\/a>.)<\/i><\/p>\n

    \u201cYou said God works in mysterious ways, so he sure as shit is today, I\u2019ll telling you.\u201d (Isaiah 45:15 [New King James version] \u201cTruly, O God of Israel, our Savior, you work in mysterious ways\u201d; [King James version] \u201cVerily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour\u201d)<\/p>\n

    \u201cThat bullshit too, you go home and read Matthew 24 and Mark 13, and you\u2019ll see that all that stuff about false signs and wonders and false Christ, it had to take place in one generation. Said, before this generation pass, all these things would be done. So it didn\u2019t even keep its promise. King James lied. It didn\u2019t\u2013 The moon was supposed to stop giving us light, which it didn\u2019t have in the first place, the sun was supposed to go out, and the stars were supposed to fall on the earth within 20 years. You read Mark 13, the whole chapter, and Matthew 24, and nobody\u2019ll be able to call me a false Christ. In the first place, I ain\u2019t come in nobody\u2019s name. They said, he\u2019s come in Christ\u2019s name. The shit I have.\u201d (Matthew 24 and Mark 13)<\/p>\n

    \u201cShe\u2019d come to church when she felt like it, and stay at home when she felt like it, bring a little food in here, thinking she was doing me a service.\u201d (John 16:2, \u201cThey shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.\u201d)<\/p>\n

    \u201cI been hearing about what your God\u2019s gone do, he\u2019s gonna come down in the twinkling of an eye, and the dead in Christ are gonna rise and gonna jump up through the grave.\u201d (1 Corinthians 15:51-53, \u201cBehold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.\u201d)<\/p>\n

    \u201cI\u2019ll be a savior, I\u2019ll save you to the uttermost and lift you out of all this shit.\u201d (Hebrews 7:25, \u201cWherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.\u201d)<\/p>\n

    \u201c[T]hey said all good things come from God. Nobody has to tell me that. \u2018Cause I know all good things are good, that\u2019s why I believe in them, just good is good. And I\u2019m good.\u201d (James 1:17, \u201cEvery good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.\u201d)<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe got something put heaven to shame. No damn streets of gold, who in the hell wants slide ass round on streets of gold, I don\u2019t know.\u201d (Revelation 21:21, \u201cAnd the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.\u201d)<\/ol>\n

    Summary:
    \n<\/strong>
    \nAs in other tapes of Temple services, Jim Jones switches off the recording function during the actual collection of the offerings on this tape, made in the Los Angeles church in the early 1970s. Even discounting those edits \u2013 and acknowledging that Jones touches on a few other topics during the service, such as his assertion to have worked as a grave-digger when he was a young man \u2013 this 40-minute tape is little more than a lengthy, stream-of-consciousness pitch for financial support for the Temple, its current work, and its future away from the United States. <\/p>\n

    Jones reminds his congregation what they have in terms of the Temple\u2019s facilities \u2013 \u201ca children\u2019s home, four senior citizen homes, four college dormitories, forty acres, 25 acres in food, \u2026 community center, animal shelter\u201d \u2013 and the integrity of the transportation they need to get back and forth to Redwood Valley and San Francisco to take advantage of those facilities. He talks about the nutritional and health services he provides to his congregants. After asking the people whom he has brought back from the dead if they saw angels or a \u201cpearly white city\u201d during their time away \u2013 to which a smattering of voices replies \u201cNo\u201d \u2013 he promises that \u201cI can make this world a place for you that you\u2019ll be happy in, if you\u2019ll just work with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Working with him requires money, he says, and he goes through a number of ways to ask for it. He takes several collections \u2013 not unique to this service \u2013 after saying that so far it\u2019s been the \u201clowest<\/em> offering\u2019s ever been taken on Sunday morning.\u201d He tells stories of what other people have done to bring money into the church, ranging from a woman in her seventies who sells peanut brittle to passersby, to a prostitute who says she\u2019s willing to sell her body and turn over the proceeds \u201cfor this cause\u201d (Jones declined her offer). <\/p>\n

    He rails against the members of the church who hold onto their money for other causes or other people, or who make no provision for what will happen with their money upon their death. \u201cSome of you are gonna die with your money, and somebody gonna take your damn money, and you worked for it, you worked to build a better world of light, you wanted some happiness\u2026 and you keep your damn money when you can help. It\u2019s a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Along the way, he defends himself against charges that he is lining his own pockets. Everything he does, he says, everything he has, it\u2019s \u201c[a]ll in the people\u2019s name. This church, in your name. Go down and look at the county [record].\u201d Moreover, all the money he collects goes to church programs, since the buildings themselves are paid for. \u201cEvery damn brick, and every nail, and every pane of glass has been paid for, and a whole new modern kitchen, so don\u2019t you talk to me about taking money. Hell, I\u2019m sweating<\/em> to get money to build and to help the people. It\u2019s ridiculous. I\u2019ve got no more than I had when I started.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Despite his defiance and his earnest pleas, there is a playfulness in this sermon, a banter with the congregation, that doesn\u2019t often appear. There is a purpose to it, though: he\u2019s testing the newcomers to the church to see how much they can take. He knows why they\u2019re there \u2013 they want to get healed \u2013 and even though they might disagree with what he says about other preachers and their Cadillacs, or what he says about the coming concentration camps<\/a> in the United States, or how he dismisses the protection that their Skygod can give them, \u201c[n]obody can disagree with what I do when I heal.\u201d<\/p>\n

    He seems to want to drive them out, only to turn around and try to draw them back in. \u201cGo help them people,\u201d he says in an aside after one statement of defiance. \u201cGo help them. Testify to them, they\u2019re gonna walk out on life here.\u201d Later, he mocks the newcomers themselves: \u201cyou\u2019re gonna go out and talk<\/em> about me, and you\u2019re settin\u2019 there smilin\u2019 like you\u2019re a damn hypocrite. If you don\u2019t like it, why don\u2019t you walk out? Why don\u2019t you just walk out? \u2018Cause you know damn well, I\u2019m the one who\u2019ll heal you when you need to get healed.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The real challenge he presents, though, is the language he uses throughout the second half of the tape, and his laughter over what he\u2019s doing. \u201cI been cussin\u2019 for 50 years,\u201d he says over applause and cheers, \u201cand goddamn it, I\u2019m not gonna quit<\/em> till I get goddamn good and ready.\u201d But if they can take his healings, they can take his cussing. \u201cI\u2019m a goddamn cussin\u2019 healer, that\u2019s what I am.\u201d <\/p>\n

    Still, he says he knows what he\u2019s doing. \u201cSay, what are you trying\u2019 to do?\u201d he asks himself rhetorically. \u201cI want to get rid of all those people, all those silent Christians that never said anything when our people were suffering, while we were in slave chains, while we were being lynched by angry mobs and never got a jail sentence, you didn\u2019t mind calling yourself a Christian, well, goddamn your ass, I don\u2019t need you anyway.\u201d <\/p>\n

    And it is in this vein that the tape ends: \u201cIt pleases me to cuss\u2026 I\u2019m gonna get it out till I get rid of everybody I was supposed<\/em> to. Rejoice, goddamn it to hell, rejoice.\u201d<\/p>\n

    FBI Summary:<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

    Date of transcription: 7\/6\/79<\/p>\n

    In connection with the Federal Bureau of Investigation\u2019s investigation into the assassination of U.S. Congressman LEO J. RYAN at Port Kaituma, Guyana, South America, on November 18, 1978, a tape recording was obtained. This tape recording was located in Jonestown, Guyana, South America, and was turned over to U.S. Officials in Guyana and subsequently transported to the United States.<\/p>\n

    On June 23, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B110-7R31. This tape was found to contain the following:<\/p>\n

    A recording of JIM JONES telling the people that he is good and can heal anyone. Also, that he is gentle as a lamb.<\/p>\n

    Differences with FBI Summary:<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

    The summary is accurate and meets the FBI\u2019s purposes.\t<\/p>\n

    Tape originally posted July 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you. To return to the Tape Index, click here. To read the Annotated Tape Transcript, click here. To read the Tape Transcript, click here. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1, Pt. 2). FBI Catalogue Jones Speaking FBI preliminary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":27996,"menu_order":642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-60617","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/60617","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60617"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/60617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86080,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/60617\/revisions\/86080"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}