Please excuse my English ways but i've just watched a documentary on the Jonestown cult and i was struck by the similarities between this cult and the the organisation. i know this has most probably been discussed a lot but i was just wondering, for my own reasons what other people think about this ? and if there are any similarities ? i'm just interested to read what others have to say on this as i've been concerned for a while that they may decide to do a similar thing.
JONESTOWN CULT
by billie jean 18 Replies latest jw friends
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BabaYaga
Oh, heavens yes, there has been much discussion on this subject.
So much so, in fact, that it has become a JWN cliche' to say something about not drinking the "Kool-Aid". That is a direct reference to the cyanine-laced Kool Aid that killed the masses at Jonestown.
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billie jean
Oh i never knew that,woops ! guess people wont want to post then, id better get searching
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BabaYaga
Ha! Nonsense... folks around here will post... won't we?
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In the meantime let me see if I can find any good ones for you.
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billie jean
Ok thanks that would be great
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BabaYaga
Try these:
Those are all threads on JWN even though it is a Google search, by the way. That is a search for this site only.
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billie jean
Thanks very much Baba Yaga, i shall go and have a read.
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Amazing
Billie Jean,
Jim Jones started out okay in the Midwest US, and then moved to San Francisco, where he continued to be a good functioning member of the community and a normal religious leader. In time he founded the People's Temple. As I was exiting the Watchtower, I read a good portion of a book by a couple who were well placed in the leadership of Jones organization. They were among the fortunate who were finally able to leave, at great financial loss to themselves. BY the time they left, Jones had begun to believe that he was God's Chosen One, and he demanded that members turn over all assets to the People's Temple - meaning to Jones. In my estimation, what they described is many times worse than the Watchtower Society. Jone's people ended up drinking the Cool Aid. If I were to try and measure the difference on scale of 1 to 10, I would consider Jim Jone's Peoples Temple an extremely dangerous "10" and the Watchtower a moderately unhealthy "4." I consider the Mormon's a 3 and declining to a relative benign 2 as they continue to moderate from a 5 to 7 in the 1800s. Whereas, most Churches, from Catholicism to Baptist, and everything in between, can be between a 0 and 1. I am not an expert by any means, but this is my rough scale that I have found to be about right, and I have promoted this scale for the last 17 years.
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Quandry
I have seen a television special about Jonestown. They were all so "happy" at first. They worked together, and were really close, like a "family."
Of course, they had to toe the line and adhere to the things Jim Jones said. Some began to have doubts........then it all went downhill.
It was horrible, but it does go to show how seemingly normal people can get sucked into things, like I was for over thirty years.............
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jamiebowers
My mom is still in, and a jw suicide pact is my worst fear. My dear "worldly" husband says it will never happen, because there's too much money to be made by the Watchtower by keeping the cult members alive, (well, at least most of them...the few who die over the blood issue are collateral damage).