Churchmen Hunt Clues on Cult’s Lure for Blacks

Consultation on the Implications of Jonestown

The following special report was filed by Henry Soles, Jr., a black journalist minister, and television producer. He attended the conference described below (much of which was closed to outside news media) as a delegate and on assignment forCHRISTIANITY TODAY.

When cult leader Jim Jones’s dream of carving a Marxist utopia from the Guyana jungles ended in a nightmare of suicide and murder last November, shock waves ripped through the world religious community. United States church leaders tried to disassociate themselves from Jones and his pseudo-Christianity.

Black church leaders, however, were particularly bothered by the implications of Jonestown. The People’s Temple in San Francisco opened in 1971 in a rented building in a predominately black area. Jones’s followers, who at one time numbered 20,000, were estimated to be 80 percent black. Though Jones and virtually all of his ruling hierarchy were white (he often used the phrase “we blacks” in speeches to predominately black audiences), most of the Jonestown victims were black.

Because of this disturbing affinity among some blacks for Jones, more than 200 of the nation’s black leaders—mostly clergymen—attended a two-day conference last month, billed as “A Consultation on the Implications of Jonestown for the Black Church.”

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the National Conference of Black Churchmen (NCBC), cosponsors of the conference, invited the delegates, who traveled at their own expense, to San Francisco’s historic Third Baptist Church, reputedly the oldest black church west of the Mississippi. There the delegates explored the meanings of People’s Temple, Jim Jones, and the catastrophic deaths of hundreds of black people in Guyana for the mission, history, and self-understanding of the Black Church.

Keynote speaker for the conference was Kelly M. Smith, president of the NCBC—a group formed in the sixties by blacks mostly from mainline denominations who wanted a greater voice in church affairs. Smith made note of the fact that the People’s Temple hierarchy was virtually all white, and he labeled Jonestown “a tragedy perpetrated upon the black masses by unscrupulous and unprincipled white leadership.”

“This is not the first time,” Smith stated, “that trusting blacks have been led down a path of deception to their own destruction by persons who stand outside the black experience.”

Smith, assistant dean at Vanderbilt Divinity School, challenged the black church to “dress the wounds” caused by Jonestown, and to “address the issues … [to] pause and listen.”

And listen the delegates did. The parade of speakers included Guyana Information Minister Shirley Field-Ridley, who defended her country’s often-criticized handling of the tragedy. For the most part, however, speakers called attention to the “life-affirming nature” of the black church and the role it has played in addressing the concerns of blacks.

Scholars, primarily from the behavioral sciences, discussed the sociological, psychological, and theological context out of which cults grow. C. Eric Lincoln, Duke University sociology professor, analyzed the nature of cults, sects, and the institutional church. Interspersed between the major addresses and scholarly reports were inspirational sermons delivered in the traditional black preaching style.

During conference discussion, one question repeatedly surfaced: why did Jones exert such influence over black Americans and, in particular, blacks in the Bay area? During his heyday, Jones had been endorsed by a number of black leaders, including California lieutenant governor Mervyn Dymally and state legislator Willie Brown. In 1977, California Governor Jerry Brown attended a celebration of the late Martin Luther King’s birthday at People’s Temple, selected as the meeting site by sponsoring black community leaders. (Not all black leaders were sympathetic; for example, San Francisco pastor Roosevelt Brown stood outside People’s Temple every Sunday morning for six months pleading with members not to go in.)

Illusion Of Benificence

Hannibal Williams, pastor of San Francisco’s New Liberation Presbyterian Church, explained that Jones “created the illusion that he was the benefactor of the poor,” and thus attracted to his church the poor, the dispossessed, and the alienated—although a number of middle class blacks also followed Jones.

Williams, an early and fearless Jones critic, contended that he had been subjected to repeated threats of violence by Jones and Jones followers. He called Jones “the new plantation boss” who co-opted San Francisco civil rights groups by buying memberships for his followers in those groups, thereby creating his own power blocs. Williams believed Jones was “demon-possessed” and a “false prophet.”

According to Amos Brown, pastor of the Third Baptist Church, Jones’s attraction grew because “the black church in the Bay Area didn’t have the economic and political clout that Jones amassed through chicanery and public relations.” Indeed, Brown pointed out, Jones had staunch allies in the local press, among the white business establishment, and local politicians.

SCLC president Joseph Lowery supported Brown’s argument. He noted that “whiteness still represents a symbol, a seat of power,” and that “the resources available to white leadership are not available to black leadership.”

Calling Jonestown “the ultimate manifestation of the depersonalization of black people,” Pacific School of Religion psychologist Archie Smith said many blacks gravitated to People’s Temple because they found group support and social involvement.

According to some observers, Jones had wanted to become the undisputed kingpin of San Francisco’s black community. To accomplish this, he first needed to win the allegiance of pastors of the city’s largest black churches. One of his tactics in wooing them was to send stacks of flattering letters to the pastors.

For the most part, this plan backfired. Only a handful of San Francisco black pastors fell in behind Jones. The vast majority warned their members to shun People’s Temple. While many parishioners heeded their pastors’ advice, others joined People’s Temple anyway. Many blacks were attracted by Jones’s much-reported “fake healings.”

An elderly black woman gave the conference delegates an impassioned account of her experience with Jones and bogus healings. She met Jones shortly after he set up operations in San Francisco. Jones had informed her that she had cancer, though doctors found no such condition. He prayed for a cure, while holding one hand on her head and the other over her mouth. The woman said Jones pretended to pull from her mouth a cancerous tumor, but what she discovered was a “marinated chicken liver.” Upset by this fake miracle, the woman said she began spreading the word that Jones was a false prophet.

Speakers’ attacks on Jones prompted one complaint during a question and answer period. One conferee (who, it was later found, was a People’s Temple member) said the speakers completely overlooked the good Jones did.

Affirming Black Symbols

But the black church, itself, also came in for criticism. San Francisco State University professor Raye Richardson, a sister of a Jonestown victim, blasted the black church as a “tool of whites.” She accused it of “joining hands with the state, and of not validating black women.” Richardson said that her sister once described “the peace and serenity” of Jonestown, and said that Jones used black symbols to affirm black values—something, Richardson said, many black churches don’t do.

Her remarks sparked a ringing defense of the black church from H.H. Brookins, a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He acknowledged that “black religion is sometimes misused and distorted,” but said the church “has a life instinct … Jones had a death instinct.”

Like conference organizers and many delegates, Brookins blamed government negligence for much of the Jonestown tragedy. “Did officials simply look the other way because most of the people involved were black people?”

A milder criticism of the black church was voiced by Kelly Smith. He said that too many times “when our community has needed a prophetic voice, we have provided a pathetic echo. Like our white counterparts, we, too, have often neglected to fight for our people. Jonestown challenges us to rise up to the fullness of our potential.”

Bay area pastor Don Green described the two-day meeting as “educational and inspiring.” Green, member of the Bay Area Black Pastors’ Ecumenical Conference, the hosts, said local pastors had been spurred to aid the families of Jonestown survivors and to meet for discussion of the issues relevant to the poor and blacks in the Bay area. Conference organizers promised that a conference report would be distributed to the delegates’ respective denominational headquarters. They hoped the conference proceedings would stimulate dialogue among local congregations regarding the implications of Jonestown.

Meanwhile, Bay area clergymen from various church groups filed a joint suit against People’s Temple. They sought to free funds to pay burial expenses for Jonestown victims and to reimburse families of survivors, who have already paid large amounts for funeral expenses.

What, then, should be the mission of the black church in light of Jonestown? To enrich the life and fellowship of the church as the family of God, said Lowery and Smith, and “expand the churches’ resources to deal with the poor and the helpless.” Lowery urged the delegates to “put on the shoes of sensitivity to human need” and to preach one gospel that is “both spiritual and social, and both evangelical and prophetic.”

Before his demise, Jones frequently predicted an impending fascist-inspired race war between blacks and whites. But at the close of the San Francisco conference, Lowery’s message to black churches was one of healing: he called for a holistic gospel that would minister to the needs of all society.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.