Mass Suicide of Peoples Temple Cult at Jonestown Turns 35- The Christian Post
The Christian Post reporter, Michael Gryboski posted this article on November 19, 2013 at 3:17PM. The link to the entire article is found here. There is more insight into Peoples Temple that is worth sharing in this article. He features the reflections and insights of Rebecca Moore. Ms. Moore is a Professor of Religion at San Diego State University and site manager for the Jonestown Institute. She is also a survivor who lost relatives at Jonestown. Ms. Moore has written extensively about Peoples Temple and Jim Jones. I found an article here where she was being honored for her work.
Mr. Gryboski begins with a brief overview of the events and then begins quoting Ms. Moore. I will take a few of her comments and make comparisons to my experience at Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). It is not my intent to reprint the entire article. Please, take time and enjoy it in its entirety.
From the article: Moore also told CP that it was “difficult to say what the legacy of Jonestown is,” as many messages could be taken from the tragic events.
“Certainly some people view it as symbolic of the danger of cults and new religions. I think it is evidence of the ability of good people to be led astray by their own aspirations to be good,” said Moore.
“It is painful to say this, but the victims were also the perpetrators in Jonestown. Jim Jones did not administer the physical abuse, the punishments, the tortures: it was the residents themselves who believed the rhetoric that they repeated, and thus perpetrated abuses on each other.”