As For Me and My House...
"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" Joshua 24:15. An incredible proclamation for the leader of a home, a temple, well, any place really. The first time I was exposed to these words uttered by Jones was in Purple Disco Machine's My House though. I knew about the Jones tragedy in Jonestown, and no televangelist after him seemed to own up to the fact that he was their predecessor - the model they would embody, the Charismatic, the Faith Healer, The Charlaton with a Messiah Complex that rivaled David Koresh.
The People’s Temple was founded in 1955 by Jim Jones in Indianapolis, Indiana as an interracial, progressive Christian church. It initially aligned with the Disciples of Christ, a Protestant denomination, and promoted social justice, racial integration, and community activism. The Temple established social programs, including food pantries, medical clinics, senior housing assistance, and drug rehabilitation programs. He preached apostolic socialism, describing himself as the “prophet” of a socialist utopia.
Jones moved The People's Temple to Ukiah, California in 1965 under the idea that the church would be safe from a nuclear holocaust in California. Interestingly enough, a mere three years later, Charlie Manson and The Family were arrested in Ukiah. Same small town with two madmen who claimed to be Messiahs to their flocks. The spiritual/energetic weirdness of Ukiah producing TWO of the biggest cult leaders of the 20th century. Coincidence?
The headquarters of People's Temple would relocate again in 1972 to San Francisco - afterward, it would expand congregations to Seattle and Los Angeles. The church even gained support from the likes of Harvey Milk, Willie Brown, and Rosalynn Carter. Jones would exploit real injustices to amass power - the cult leader playbook (MAGA are you listening?)
Jones would later isolate his flock at Jonestown Guyana precisely like one of his cult leader heir- apparent, David Koresh at Mt. Carmel in Waco, Texas. Koresh was Jim Jones with a Bible and a stockpile of guns. Before Koresh though, there's the entire televangelist movement - and Jim Jones was, dear reader, a PIONEER in the genre.
Before we dive into how Jones heavily influenced the establishment of televangelists and the Mega Church phenomenon we know today - I'd like to say I know a little something about televangelists - my mother watched them incessantly. My mother insisted that we were at our little Southern Baptist Church whenever the doors were open. Wednesday night - there. Sunday and Sunday night choir practice - there. Revival and Vacation Bible School - you better believe dear reader we were in attendance. At least there were two years we could be Girl Scouts - that at least brought about some normalcy.
At home, it was Jimmy Swaggert, PTL (The Bakkers), Jerry Falwell, and the 700 Club (Pat Robertson) even the likes of Benny Hinn would make an appearance on our tv. Whenever these charlatans aired, it was on at our house. I do not want to know how much money over the years she sent these ministries. I get nauseous even thinking about it - I thought they were ridiculous, clowns. Once, when my mother wanted to tape some sermon of Swaggert - my sister ran around the house dancing and singing "Phenomenon" by the Muppets. They were all clowns on our television after all, so why not? A funny thing happened when we ruined that recording with our dancing and singing of the Muppets, my mother laughed hysterically instead of flying into a rage. It's one of my best memories surrounding the religiosity of my upbringing- mocking the ever-living shit out of Swaggert and his so-called ministry whilst simultaneously making my mother laugh. I hope she's laughing out there wherever she is. Grace is an incredible gift, dear reader, give it and receive it.
So I knew the clowns on TV, but before that, there was a live episode. We were at one of the many Revivals our church had over the years. I remember this pastor (maybe I was 7 or 9?) and he was screaming his sermon all red-faced and utterly ridiculous. I remember asking my mother "What's he screaming about?" She went on about the fire of god, blah blah. All I could think about was not only how stupid his big red face was but how he was making a mockery of real spirituality with that disgraceful spectacle. I was baptized at 6 - yes 6 under my own volition. I went forward before the congregation and was baptized. At that age, there was nothing I could have ever done that would've made me a sinner so egregious that I would need to make a public confession on an altar. NONE. It was abuse, pure and simple - but I still remember that beautiful stained glass image of Christ behind the pulpit. The good shepherd - that meant something to me more than that stupid confession, and so I was baptized. Baptized in the middle of a cow pasture not some fancy indoor baptismal - I have never forgotten that. Afterward, the parishioners in attendance said I stuck my left leg up out of the water and were all laughing about that - I'm the one that's laughing now. That move, completely out of reflex, I simply did it I now know was to acknowledge my descent into the lower realms with one leg tethered to the heavens - not unlike my Padrino, Odin. Anyway back to Jones and how influenced the sleazy TV preachers of my youth.
The "Show Must Go On" mentality Jones harnessed well with incredibly crafted sermons like a TV show—high-energy performances, dramatic miracles, and emotional crescendos. If you listen to the YouTube link above (It's an excerpt of FBI tapes of Jones) he crescendos with "I’m living in the actual conscious presence of God in the earth plane!" PURE PERFORMANCE - but I do like that sentence, I tip my hat to the bastard for that piece of eloquence. Anyhow, faith healers like Benny Hinn, Oral Roberts, and Ernest Angley later would all use the same performance tactics. Tammy Faye Bakker’s entire televangelist persona (big, exaggerated emotions, over-the-top crying, making faith an emotional experience) was straight out of Jones’ playbook.
Let's talk about the faith healer spectacle for a minute - Jones “healed” people in front of audiences—with pre-planted sick congregants or fake cancers (i.e., raw chicken livers passed off as tumors). Televangelists copied this—healing the “sick” on TV, slapping people on the forehead to make them collapse. Jones proved that if people believe in the miracle they think they just witnessed, reality doesn’t matter—an illusion of divine power is enough.
I'll repeat it again - an illusion of divine power is enough. The People’s Temple began as a radical experiment in unity and ended in absolute control and mass death with cyanide kool-aide. The journey from hope to horror is critical to understanding America’s history of cults, politics, and power.
I leave you with one of my favorite poets, Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading "Keep Off."
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
