Jim Jones at a Protest in San Francisco in 1977
Photo Credit: Nancy Wong (CC-By-SA 3.0)
November 18th marked the thirty sixth anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana where over nine hundred men, women, and children were either murdered or committed suicide. This unspeakable horror was the work of a Marxist religious crackpot named Jim Jones. How was it that this guy was able to con over a thousand people to leave the US and form a community in South America, and then to convince most of them to commit mass suicide?
Fionna Steel writes “For many, the possibility that one man could manipulate so many people to such a great extent is incomprehensible.” And so it is. But people have an inherent and deep spiritual need that they frequently fill with something other than Jesus Christ. One way or another, that will end badly.
This is Brian Myers of Caffeinated Thoughts Radio with your Caffeinated Thought of the Day.
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Brian Myers
He and his wife Debbie have been married thirty-eight years and have four children and twelve grandchildren. His passions are politics, history, theology, economics, business, and basketball!
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I didn’t know Jim Jones was a Marxist. That explains why he went to San Francisco when he did for his victims. San Francisco is a city full of extremely lonely people, in denial of Christ, with a slew of problems.
Jonestown was to be a Socialist Utopia, they sang the Soviet National Anthem every day. The book Raven is an excellent (but very graphic) biography of JJ.