Peoples Temple Collection; Box 14, Virtual Item 1, Q353-News and Commentary (Spring 1978)

Digital Record

Identifier: ms-0183_14.01

Staff Only

Digital Object (mixed_materials)

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Dates

Digitized: Spring, 1978 and late 1972

Creator

Jones, Jim (Jones, James Warren) (Person)
Peoples Temple (Organization)

Summary Note

Jones reads the news in the first part of the tape, lasting the entire first side and part way through the second. The tone and style of story suggest that Jones is engaging in "rip and read," that is, reading stories from wire services as they come into Jonestown. Several stories -- those of James Earl Ray, the CIA spy caught in an espionage scandal, the Croatian nationalists, and the Canadian bus crash among them -- are breaking stories, and Jones updates them as the tape goes on. The last half of the second side, over which the news portion of the tape had been recorded, is a sermon most likely from the fall of 1972, after newspaper columnist and Episcopal minister Lester Kinsolving had published the first of his articles criticizing Peoples Temple. The sermon contains many elements of a Jones address -- including references to his miracles, pleas to his members to follow his example, and descriptions of socialism as the only economic system -- but it also speaks to the passages in the Bible as positive and important messages for them to understand, albeit with the understanding which he alone can bring them. Full summary of the recording available at Alternative Considerations of Jonestown website, along with the tape transcript.

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