By Melissa Antoinette Garza
I’ve always been interested in Jonestown. Two months ago, I actually purchased a book called “The Suicide Cult: Inside Story of the People’s Temple Sect and the Massacre in Guyana” which was a firsthand account written by journalist Marshall Kilduff, who barely escaped with his life. I had been on vacation visiting my in-laws (the best family in the world) in Georgia when my husband Stephen, his brother Joey and I went to a used bookstore called “The Book House.” It’s a place we frequent when I’m down there and highly suggest to the avid reader. I love Amazon, but nothing beats going into a bookstore and reading the backs to find out what each is about.
Interestingly enough, in my book there was an original receipt from an airport dated July of 1979. I was born that year so I sort of envisioned someone buying it as my mother was 8 months pregnant with me.
Within the book, Kilduff with the reader struggles to understand the happenings at Jonestown. Similarly, the documentary “Witness to Jonestown” struggles with the same. Kilduff is actually interviewed within the production along with survivors, family members of victims, the media who went and Stephan Jones – Jim Jones son.
I think on the surface one may think the reason Jonestown stands out when looking at cults is due to the mass suicide. The event though extremely tragic isn’t as unique or curious as the motives of the leader and the way in which it all began.
Jim Jones was a charismatic preacher who started giving sermons when he was just a child. He provided funerals to the pets of friends. During the 50s, 60s and 70s when civil rights tensions were at their peak, he believed in integration despite threats of violence. He was the first in his county to be a white family to adopt an African American child. He welcomed all and spoke of a utopian society where everyone was an equal. He took in widows, seniors, and the disabled. People that were thrown away by society and reformed criminals were welcomed all the same.
People joined in droves and soon he had thousands of members. He had political power so much so that politicians would call on him for help. Much of the media looked the other way during scandals where former members spoke of abuse and faked healings. When the congregation went to Guyana, Jim Jones paranoia peaked. He began using drugs and when one of his closest allies defected things got worse. Soon, stories were out stating that Jones would give everyone Kool-Aid without sugar and have them drink it down – only to then tell them it was poisoned and they’d die. These were tests of loyalty.
It’s difficult to comprehend how someone can seemingly be so good on the outside and have moments of genuine goodness only to act in ways which are inhumane and eventually insanely evil.
Life is so much easier when we can look at someone and put them in a bucket. When someone is either good or bad, nice or evil, hero or villain – life is so much simpler. It is only when those who commit the most vile acts show moments of sincere kindness, that the mind has difficulty. It is only because one with a human conscience desires to compliment those who act in a ‘moral’ way especially when that sense of morality necessitates an unpopular stand against the normal. When those same individuals of decency act in way which is not only immoral but detestable, the conscience has difficulty reconciling the two.
The great thing about “Witness to Jonestown,” is that it doesn’t hide from this quandary. It almost celebrates it by exploring every aspect of Jones character. The good and the evil are on display for the world to see which is the most powerful way to display the struggle of those in Jonestown. One can easily say that they would never succumb to a madman, but what if the man wasn’t always mad? What if the man saved you from poverty, racism, war, jail and death? That is the type of decisions those in Jonestown needed to make.
I would suggest one reads both the book and sees the documentary as both are excellent introductions to the occurrences of Jonestown. After all, those who do not remember the lessons of yesterday are doomed to repeat the same mistakes today.
Scared Stiff Rating 8/10
