Peoples Temple

Peoples Temple, American new religious movement led by Jim Jones (1931–78) that came to international attention after more than 900 of its members died at its compound, Jonestown, in Guyana, in a massive act of murder-suicide on November 18, 1978. Jones founded the religious community in the 1950s amid trends of American Protestant revivalism, growing interest in communism and socialism, and opposition to racial segregation, all of which shaped Peoples Temple’s theology and politics. Yet by the 1970s Jones had become increasingly paranoid and authoritarian, abusive toward his followers, and messianic and apocalyptic in his theology. These developments in his leadership style and outlook culminated in the mass murder-suicide that ended the movement and earned it notoriety in the media and popular understanding as a messianic “suicide cult.”

Early formation

Jones founded Peoples Temple informally in the 1950s as an independent congregation in Indianapolis. In 1955 Jones and his followers split from a Pentecostal congregation and established an independent church called Wings of Deliverance, which was soon known as Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church, later shortened to Peoples Temple. Jones was inspired by the ideal of a just society that could overcome the evils of racism and poverty. At that time racial segregation was common across the United States. Many church congregations tended to be either all-white or all-Black, but Peoples Temple was intentionally racially integrated. Although Jones was white, he attracted mostly Black followers to the group with his vision of an integrated congregation. In 1960 Peoples Temple affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and four years later Jones was ordained within that denomination.

Beliefs and communal practices

Peoples Temple developed within the Pentecostal and revivalist currents of mid-20th-century American Protestantism, including the Assemblies of God and the Latter Rain revival. Jones was also heavily influenced by political ideals of communism and socialism, especially shared property and communal living. In Indianapolis, Peoples Temple operated a free restaurant and assisted with housing for older and ill people as part of its social mission.

Discover how ordinary objects work, and expand your understanding of the familiar.

SIGN UP

" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">

Thank you for signing up!"

Back to homepage

By clicking "Sign Up", you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Britannica Quiz

Don’t Drink the Punch Quiz

Jones mixed these social concerns with faith healing and an enthusiastic worship style drawn from the Black church and Pentecostalism. Peoples Temple’s religious practices included claims of psychic knowledge and miraculous faith healing, although the displays of supernatural prowess were staged. In the late 1950s Jones was also influenced by George Baker (Father Divine), a prominent Black religious leader who led a socially progressive community and whose followers lived communally and worshipped their leader—a style of leadership that Jones would later emulate and take to the extreme.

By the 1970s the movement promoted what Jones called “apostolic socialism,” a form of socialism influenced by the Marxist liberation theology popular among Roman Catholic clergy in Latin America at the time. He preached an idea of complete equality that he presented as based on the lives of the Apostles and claimed would be capable of creating heaven on earth. Members were expected to pursue this socialist utopian ideal through racial integration, shared possessions, and communal living. Although the movement was founded in Christianity, Jones began preaching an anti-Bible message, criticizing the Bible for justifying slavery, promoting violence, and subjugating women. In its place Jones advanced a message focused on social issues and leaning toward humanism. In private messages he claimed to be an atheist or an agnostic who was using religion for political ends.

Expanded reach, consolidated authority

In 1965 Jones warned of an imminent nuclear holocaust and led the movement to Ukiah, California, where members became active in both Protestant ecumenical circles and state politics. Local leaders joined the church, and Peoples Temple became one of the leading Protestant congregations in northern California. Although predominantly Black, the group began attracting more liberal white members. Branch congregations opened in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the agricultural settlement Jonestown in Guyana was founded in 1974. Media attention was often favorable. In 1975 Religion in Life magazine named Jim Jones among the top 100 clergymen in the United States, and in 1976 the Los Angeles Herald named him humanitarian of the year. But with increased media attention came increased scrutiny. Peoples Temple was accused in the media of financial fraud, physical mistreatment of members, and abuse of children in its care. Meanwhile, Jones, who adopted the name “the Prophet,” apparently became obsessed with the exercise of power. He held a tight grip on the movement and its followers. Media reports also highlighted Jones’s fraudulent claims to supernatural knowledge and healing abilities.

Guyana and mass suicide

Amid these mounting accusations, in 1977 Jones led hundreds of the group’s members to Guyana. The land for Jonestown had been leased by the movement in 1974, ostensibly to create a racially integrated socialist community removed from American capitalism and from the nuclear catastrophe that Jones had predicted. The majority of the settlement’s inhabitants were Black. At Jonestown communal life was accompanied by increasingly severe control over members: Passports and money were confiscated, and residents were manipulated through threats of blackmail, beatings, and death. The movement also conducted rehearsals for a ritual mass suicide.

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE

On November 14, 1978, U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan of California arrived in Guyana with a group of reporters at the behest of Concerned Relatives, a community of former Peoples Temple members and current members’ families who submitted disturbing reports that congregants were being held at Jonestown against their will. The visit apparently went well; however, as Ryan’s party and 14 defectors from the compound prepared to depart from an airstrip near Jonestown, Jones ordered the group assassinated. Ryan and four others (three reporters and one defector) were killed.

Fearing that those who had escaped might bring in authorities, Jones activated his suicide plan, called the “White Night.” On November 18 he commanded his followers to drink cyanide-adulterated punch, an order that many of them obeyed but that some were coerced into obeying. Some were injected with cyanide, and some were probably poisoned involuntarily. Jones died of a gunshot wound to the head, possibly self-inflicted. In addition to the people who died by murder and suicide in the Jonestown Massacre, those poisoned in the compound included pets, farm animals, and even fish in ponds. Guyanese troops reached Jonestown the next day, and the death toll of Peoples Temple followers was eventually placed at 913, including 304 who were younger than 18. (Some death tolls include the five people killed at the airstrip, bringing the total number of deaths to 918.) The members of the group who had remained in California later formally disbanded.

The event was one of the largest mass deaths in American history, and it set off shock waves throughout the media and popular culture as people reckoned with images and reports of the mass murder-suicide and Jones’s leadership. Following the tragedy at Jonestown, Peoples Temple was identified in the media as a cult, and Jones was depicted as the epitome of an evil cult leader. Although numerous scholarly and popular studies of Jonestown have been written, the effort to understand this religious group and the tragedy continues.