Jim Jones Beliefs

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Throughout the centuries, humans strived for the best, whether that be for themselves or their group. Many have dreamed of utopias and tried to lead one of their own. A utopia is defined as a place where everything is perfect, an unattainable dream paradise that cannot be sustained. Oneida in the early 19th century and Jonestown in the 1960s and 1970s were utopian societies based in the U.S. led by John Humphrey Noyes and Jim Jones. The Oneida community and Jonestown were both led by troubled people, promoted unorthodox teachings and had strange practices to keep followers under their leaders' control Jim Jones, the founder of Peoples Temple, did not have an easy childhood but was skilled in the art of manipulation. He grew up in poverty …show more content…
Noyes was brought up in a typical, stable family of a educated politician and entered into priesthood after giving up studying law. He was introduced to the ideology of perfectionism. Perfectionism stated that it was possible to become pure and without sin in this lifetime to achieve salvation. He went into deep study of the Bible and eventually realized that he was perfect and enlightened and had to teach people about this. Noyes' main theory behind his community was that "exclusive" marriage was not what Jesus taught and that we should all love each other equally so no one can be jealous, he called his solution "complex marriage". The church elders did not approve of Noyes' heresy similar to how Jones was ridiculed for his interracial church in Indiana, they both had revolutionary ideas surrounding love and religion but did not fit with the existing social conditions at the …show more content…
When Jones began his church in Indiana, its core values were to treat everyone equally, a concept that many locals struggled with and Jones and his followers were not universally welcome. This was the reason why Jones moved it to rural California and later San Fransisco where the social environment was more accepting. He was well liked in San Fransisco where many political demonstrations were happening. The Peoples Temple was a large group of people that supported many of the equality issues at the time, this made them popular with the activists as they could be guaranteed a good turnout if they made a deal with Jones. Jones became paranoid about loosing his church's tax free status and began to build a compound far out of the reach of the American government in Guyana. Jones' message had changed from one of wanting to change his environment by promoting inclusiveness to running away to keep what was really going on under
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