fta: In the aftermath of the deaths of more than 900 followers of Jim Jones in Guyana 35 years ago this week, many Americans drank the Kool-Aid on Jonestown. A vague understanding arose that the carnage represented a cautionary tale about the dangers of fundamentalist Christianity. But Jim Jones preached “apostolic socialism” and stomped on the Bible in front of his flock. The Peoples Temple didn’t believe in Jesus. They believed in Jim. And Jim believed in communism, hence the commune Jonestown. “The temple was as much a left-wing political crusade as a church,” the Nation honestly reported at the time. “In the course of the 1970s, its social program grew steadily more disaffiliated from what Jim Jones came to regard as ‘Fascist America’ and drifted rapidly toward outspoken Communist sympathies.” Despite this, within Democratic circles pilgrimages to meet Father Jim became obligatory ....
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 17:55:18 +0000
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