Peoples Temple

==San Francisco Temple==
{{Main|Peoples Temple in San Francisco}}

[[File:Jim Jones, 1977.jpg|thumb|upright|Rev. Jim Jones receives a Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian award at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, January 1977.]]
The move to San Francisco permitted Jones to be more open with his true political and theological leanings.<ref name="hall161">{{cite book |author=Hall, John R. |title=Gone from the Promised Land: Jonestown in American Cultural History |publisher=Transaction Publishers |location=New Brunswick, New Jersey |year=1987 |isbn=978-0887381249|page= 161}}</ref> By spring 1976, Jones openly admitted even to outsiders that he was an atheist.<ref>Jones, Jim in conversation with John Maher. [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27498 "Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 622."] ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University. {{cite web |url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/Tapes/Tapes/TapeTranscripts/Q622.html |title=Transcript Q 622 |access-date=2011-02-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205062545/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/Tapes/Tapes/TapeTranscripts/Q622.html |archive-date=February 5, 2011 }}</ref> Despite the Temple's fear that the [[Internal Revenue Service]] (IRS) was investigating its religious [[tax exemption]], Marceline admitted to ''[[The New York Times]]'' in 1977 that her husband, taking inspiration from [[Mao Zedong]], was trying to achieve social change by mobilizing people through religion.<ref name="NYT1126" /> She admitted that, "Jim used religion to try to get some people out of the opiate of religion" and had slammed the Bible on the table yelling, "I've got to destroy this paper idol!"<ref name="NYT1126" />

With the move into San Francisco, the Temple more strenuously emphasized that its members live communally.<ref name="raven256">Reiterman 1982. p. 256.</ref> It stressed physical discipline of children first, and then adults.<ref name="raven259">Reiterman 1982. p. 259.</ref> The San Francisco Temple also carefully vetted newcomers through an extensive observation process.<ref name="raven164" />

The Temple distinguished itself from most new religious movements with its overtly political message.<ref name=autogenerated2>Reiterman 1982. p. 280.</ref> It combined those genuine political sympathies with the perception that it could help turn out large numbers of votes to gain the support of a number of prominent politicians.<ref>Reiterman 1982. pp. 266–267 & 280.</ref> Jones made it known after he moved to San Francisco that he was interested in politics, and legal changes in the way San Francisco elections were held strengthened the power of neighborhood groups and civic organizations such as the Temple.<ref name="ReferenceA">''Los Angeles Herald Examiner'', "The Political Pull of Jim Jones", November 21, 1978 {{page needed|date=May 2021}}</ref><ref name="raven263">Reiterman 1982. p. 263.</ref>

After the Temple's voter mobilization efforts proved instrumental in state Senate President [[George Moscone]]'s run for [[mayor of San Francisco]] in 1975, he appointed Jones as Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission.<ref name="kinsolving">Kinsolving, Kathleen and Tom. [http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/p/peoplestemple/madman.htm "Madman in Our Midst: Jim Jones and the California Cover Up."]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101231015534/http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/p/peoplestemple/madman.htm |date=December 31, 2010 }} 1998. Steven Alan Hassan's Freedom of Mind Center. Retrieved October 14, 2010.</ref><ref name="pbs">[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/filmmore/pt.html ''Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple'']. PBS.org. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090314080911/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/filmmore/pt.html |date=March 14, 2009 }}</ref> Jones and the Temple received the support of California political figures such as Moscone, Governor [[Jerry Brown]], Congressman [[Mervyn Dymally]], state Assembly Speaker [[Willie Brown (politician)|Willie Brown]], Assemblyman [[Art Agnos]], and Supervisor [[Harvey Milk]].<ref name="Layton 1999, p. 105">Layton 1999, p. 105.</ref> Willie Brown visited the Temple numerous times and spoke publicly in support of Jones, even after investigations and suspicions of cult activity.<ref>Dooley, Nancy and Tim Reiterman. "Jim Jones: Power Broker." ''San Francisco Examiner''. August 7, 1977.</ref><ref name="Layton 1999, p. 105"/> Jones and Moscone met privately with Presidential nominee Jimmy Carter's then-running mate, U.S. Senator [[Walter Mondale]] in San Francisco days before the [[1976 United States presidential election|1976 presidential election]].<ref>Reiterman 1982. p. 302.</ref> Jones also met [[First Lady of the United States|First Lady]] [[Rosalynn Carter]] on multiple occasions, including a private dinner, and corresponded with her in letters.<ref>Reiterman 1982. p. 304.</ref><ref name="q799">Jim Jones, [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27588 "Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 799."] ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University. {{cite web |url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/Tapes/Tapes/TapeTranscripts/Q799.html |title=Transcript Q799 |access-date=2008-04-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501040958/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/Tapes/Tapes/TapeTranscripts/Q799.html |archive-date=May 1, 2011 }}</ref>

Jones used his position at the Housing Authority to lead the fight against the eviction of tenants from San Francisco's [[I-Hotel|International Hotel]].<ref name="raven282">Reiterman 1982. pp. 282–283.</ref> The Temple further forged an alliance with San Francisco's Black community newspaper, the ''Sun Reporter'' publisher [[Carlton Benjamin Goodlett|Dr. Carlton Goodlett]] and it received frequent favorable mentions in that paper.<ref name="raven265">Reiterman 1982. p. 265.</ref> It also received frequent favorable coverage from ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' columnist [[Herb Caen]] and other local newspaper and television reporters.<ref name="raven285">Reiterman 1982. pp. 285, 306, 587.</ref>

[[File:TEMPLE-10.jpg|thumb|Peoples Temple members included the elderly as well as youth. Hazel Dashiell, with Mark Fields at an anti-eviction rally in San Francisco's Chinatown, 1977.]]

However, the Temple aroused police suspicion after Jones praised the [[Symbionese Liberation Army]], a radical [[San Francisco Bay Area|Bay Area]] group, and the SLA's leaders attended San Francisco Temple meetings.<ref name="raven236">Reiterman 1982. p. 236.</ref> Further suspicions were raised after the defection of Joyce Shaw and the mysterious death soon after of her husband, Bob Houston.<ref name="raven299">Reiterman 1982. pp. 299–300.</ref>

In 1974 a fire broke out at Peoples Temple's San Francisco location. Without evidence Jones speculated that members of the [[Nation of Islam]] may have started the fire. Jones sent several of his followers to a nearby mosque to issue a warning to their group. This began a period of heightened tensions between Peoples Temple and the Nation of Islam.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=281}} Gradually, Jones worked to improve relations with the Nation of Islam, culminating a joint "Spiritual Jubilee" rally held at the [[Los Angeles Convention Center]] in May 1976. He used the event to garner positive publicity, and the joint rally was attended by many of his closest political acquaintances. At the rally, Jones called for peace and unity saying, "if the Peoples Temple and the Nation of Islam can get together, anyone can." Jones ended by pledging support to the Muslim community and declared his desire for [[Wallace Muhammad]] to run for President of the United States.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=282}}

While the Temple forged media alliances, the move to San Francisco also opened the group to media scrutiny. When Jones and hundreds of Temple members moved to the Temple's [[Guyana]] settlement following media investigations, Mayor Moscone issued a press release stating that his office would not investigate the Temple.<ref name="ReferenceA" /><ref name="moore143">Moore, Rebecca. ''A Sympathetic History of Jonestown''. [[Lewiston, New York]]: [[Edwin Mellen Press]] {{ISBN|978-0889468603}}. p. 143.</ref> During this time, Milk spoke at Temple political rallies<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080603115639/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919893-1,00.html "Another Day of Death."] ''Time''. December 11, 1978.</ref> and wrote a letter to [[President of the United States|President]] [[Jimmy Carter]] after the investigations began, in which he accused Timothy Stoen, who by that point had defected from the Temple and was attempting to extricate relatives from Guyana, of telling "bold-faced lies".<ref>Coleman, Loren, ''The Copycat Effect'', Simon & Schuster, 2004, p. 68 {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>Fishwick, Marshall, ''Great Awakenings: Popular Religion and Popular Culture'', Routledge, 1994, p. 73 {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref name="milk_let">Milk, Harvey. [http://www.brasscheck.com/jonestown/milk.jpg ''Letter Addressed to President Jimmy Carter, Dated February 19, 1978'']. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429202656/http://www.brasscheck.com/jonestown/milk.jpg |date=April 29, 2011}}</ref>