http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_JonesJames Warren "Jim" Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was the American founder of the Peoples Temple cult. On November 18, 1978, most Peoples Temple members committed mass suicide by drinking poison in their isolated agricultural intentional community called Jonestown, located in the country of Guyana. Jones was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head among the 914 corpses there.
Jim Jones was born in Crete, Indiana, to James and Lynetta Thurman Jones. His father was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Jones graduated from high school in Richmond, Indiana. He became a preacher in the 1950s. He sold pet monkeys door-to-door to raise the money to found his own church <1> that would be named Wings of Deliverance. He later renamed his church the Peoples Temple, located in Indianapolis. He gained respectability when he became an ordained minister in 1964 in the mainstream Christian denomination Disciples of Christ. The church was exceptional for its equal treatment of African Americans and many of them became members of the church. He started a struggle for racial equality and social justice, which he dubbed apostolic socialism. Jones authored a booklet, called "The Letter Killeth" pointing out what he felt were the contradictions, absurdities, and atrocities in the Bible, but the booklet also stated that the Bible contained great truths. <1> He claimed to be an incarnation of Jesus, Akhenaten, Buddha, Lenin, and Father Divine and performed supposed miracle healings to attract new members. Members of Jones' church called Jones "Father" and believed that their movement was the solution to the problems of society and many did not distinguish Jones from the movement. The group gradually moved away from mainstream Christianity.
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