Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America

by Moore, Rebecca

• ISBN13: 9780253216557
• ISBN10: 0253216559
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-02-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

The Peoples Temple movement ended on November 18, 1978, when the children in Jonestown were put to death by adult members, most of whom then took their own lives. Only a handful lived to tell their story. As is well known, Jim Jones was white, but most of his followers were black. Despite that, little has been written about the Peoples Temple from the point of view of the black experience in America. In ten essays, all but two specially commissioned for this volume, scholars from various disciplines address this gap in the scholarship on the Peoples Temple. Twenty five years after the tragedy at Jonestown, they assess the impact of the black religious experience on Peoples Temple.The book begins with an essay that helps frame the discussion that follows by defining the parameters of black religious studies while pointing to the diversity of paths taken by practitioners of black religion. The next two essays, written soon after Jonestown, present early assessments of Peoples Temple in historical perspective and in relation to the Black Church in America. The following piece examines the demographics of the Peoples Temple. Other essays examine the social context of the movement's latter years, Jones' preaching style, his theology and its relationship to his recruitment of black members, and his appropriation of black revolutionary rhetoric. The final essay sums up the Peoples Temple as a "church."

Author Biography

Rebecca Moore, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at San Diego State University, has published widely on Peoples Temple and Jonestown and maintains a website on Peoples Temple. Anthony B. Pinn is the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University, and is the author of Varieties of African American Religious Experience. Mary R. Sawyer is Professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University, and the author of Black Ecumenism: Implementing the Demands of Justice.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	xi
Peoples Temple as Black Religion: Re-imagining the Contours of Black Religious Studies	1	(27)
Anthony B. Pinn
Daddy Jones and Father Divine: The Cult as Political Religion	28	(19)
C. Eric Lincoln
Lawrence H. Mamiya
An Interpretation of Peoples Temple and Jonestown: Implications for the Black Church	47	(10)
Archie Smith Jr.
Demographics and the Black Religious Culture of Peoples Temple	57	(24)
Rebecca Moore
Peoples Temple and Housing Politics in San Francisco	81	(22)
Tanya M. Hollis
To Die for the Peoples Temple: Religion and Revolution after Black Power	103	(20)
Duchess Harris
Adam John Waterman
Jim Jones and Black Worship Traditions	123	(16)
Milmon F. Harrison
Breaking the Silence: Reflections of a Black Pastor	139	(19)
J. Alfred Smith
America Was Not Hard to Find	158	(8)
Muhammed Isaiah Kenyatta
The Church in Peoples Temple	166	(28)
Mary R. Sawyer
Contributors	194	(2)
Index	196