Jonestown Anniversary

Tomorrow will mark the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown tragedy. On November 18, 1978 918 people died in Guyana, most of them residents of the People's Temple compound in Jonestown. I was in college at the time, attending Northwest Christian College (now Northwest Christian University). NCC is a Disciples related college, and I remember the President of our college reading a statement that attempted to disassociate the Disciples from Jones. Although there was tension between Disciples regional leaders in Northern California and the church there was little that could be done, especially after Jones had left the San Francisco Bay area and settled in Guyana.

The November issue of Disciples World covers this tragedy, because at the time of this tragedy People's Temple was a Disciples of Christ congregation. In 1978 it listed between 2000 to 3000 members and contributed about $35,000 to Disciples units and causes in 1977. That was in 1978 dollars, so the amount was huge. It was an interracial congregation -- though predominantly black.

The Disciples, my denomination has struggled with with what to do in cases like this. Congregations have extraordinary autonomy. Clergy can be denied standing in the denomination, but congregations are not required to call clergy with standing. It is part of our frontier ethos, our commitment to freedom.

Katherine Willis Pershey has written an excellent article entitled: "Jim Jones and the Disciples: Could it happen again?" Katherine, a Disciples clergyperson herself, tells the story of Jones' early ministry and how this charismatic person drew together a church and impressed outsiders with his commitment to social justice. In the end, however, the story moved in a very different direction, as he came to believe not in God but in himself. Tragedy followed and the denomination was left not knowing what to do. It considered developing policies that would discipline or remove congregations, but did not act upon them. They did, however, seek to implement ways of keeping better tabs on clergy -- both before ordination and after.

Katherine concludes with this statement:

Could it happen again?

There will never be another Jim Jones. There will never be another Jonestown. It was a perfect storm of demonic proportions that lead to the largest loss of American civilians in a non-natural disaster until the events of September 11, 2001.

Yet one thing hasn’t changed in 30 years: The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is still rendered vulnerable by the very freedom it cherishes.

This is the question we ask at a number of levels. The whole debate over the Patriot Act is similar to this one. How do we balance freedom and safety? Katherine concludes that we Disciples remain vulnerable. But is this a bad place to be in? What would the solution be?

I will post some more tomorrow, but this is an anniversary that needs to be taken seriously.