Peoples Temple

==In California==

===Moving Peoples Temple===
{{Location map many |California
|label=Los Angeles
|label_size=100
|lat=34.045 
|long=-118.281
|marksize=9
|label2=San Francisco
|label2_size=110
|lat2=37.778  |long2=-122.421
|mark2size=11
|mark2=Blue pog.svg
|label3=Ukiah
|label3_size=100
|pos3=top
|lat3=39.152  |long3=-123.207
|mark3size=9
|label4=Bakersfield
|label4_size=80
|pos4=right
|lat4=35.368  |long4=-119.018
|mark4size=7
|label5=Fresno
|label5_size=80
|pos5=right
|lat5=36.740  |long5=-119.786
|mark5size=7
|label6=Sacramento
|label6_size=80
|pos6=right
|lat6=38.580  |long6=-121.491
|mark6size=7
|label7=Santa Rosa
|label7_size=60
|pos7=top
|lat7=38.438  |long7=-122.712
|mark7size=7
|width=240 |float=right
|caption=Some of the Peoples Temple's locations in California.
}}

Jones returned from Brazil in December 1963 to find Peoples Temple bitterly divided. Financial issues and a much smaller congregation forced Jones to sell the Peoples Temple church building and relocate to a smaller building nearby.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=122}} To raise money, Jones briefly returned to the revival circuit, traveling and holding healing campaigns.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=122}} After dealing with the issues at Peoples Temple, and possibly in part to distract from them, he told his Indiana congregation that the world would be engulfed by nuclear war on July 15, 1967, leading to a new socialist [[Garden of Eden|Eden]] on Earth, and that the Temple must move to [[Northern California]] for safety.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=94}}<ref name="NYT1126"/>

With Jones's return, the majority of his congregation gradually returned to Peoples Temple, improving their financial situation.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=94}}<ref name="NYT1126">Lindsey, Robert. November 26, 2005. "Jim Jones-From Poverty to Power of Life and Death." ''[[New York Times]]''. pp. 1, 20.</ref> During 1964 Jones made multiple trips to California to locate a suitable location to relocate. In July 1965, Jones and his followers began moving to their new location in [[Redwood Valley, California]], near the city of [[Ukiah, California|Ukiah]].{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=96}} Jones's assistant pastor, Russell Winberg, strongly resisted Jones's efforts to move the congregation and warned members of Peoples Temple that Jones was abandoning Christianity.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=96}}

Winberg took over leadership of the Indianapolis church when Jones departed. About 140 of Jones's most loyal followers made the move to California, while the rest remained behind with Winberg.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=96}}

In California, Jones was able to use his education degree from Butler University to secure a job as a history and government teacher at an adult education school in Ukiah.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=98}} Jones used his position to recruit for Peoples Temple, teaching his students the benefits of Marxism and lecturing on religion.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=99}} Jones planted loyal members of Peoples Temple in the classes to help him with recruitment. His efforts were successful, and Jones recruited 50 new members to Peoples Temple in the first few months.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=99}} In 1967, Jones's followers coaxed another 75 members of the Indianapolis congregation to move to California.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=101}}

In 1968, the Peoples Temple's California location was admitted to the Disciples of Christ. Jones began to use the denominational connection to promote Peoples Temple as part of the 1.5 million member denomination. He played up famous members of the Disciples, including [[Lyndon Johnson]] and [[J. Edgar Hoover]], and misrepresented the nature of his position in the denomination. By 1969, Jones increased the membership in Peoples Temple in California to 300.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=126}}

===Apostolic Socialism===
Jones developed a theology that was significantly influenced by the teachings of the Latter Rain movement, William Branham, Father Divine, and infused with Jones's personal communist worldview.{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=52}}{{sfn|Collins|2017|p=182}} Jones referred to his belief as "[[Apostolic succession|Apostolic]] Socialism".{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=60}} Following the relocation of Peoples Temple to California, Jones began to gradually introduce the concepts to his followers.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=i,97}}{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=60}} According to [[religious studies]] professor [[Catherine Wessinger]], Jones always spoke of the [[Social Gospel]]'s virtues, but chose to conceal that his gospel was actually communism until he began to do so in sermons at the Temple in the late 1960s.{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|pp=32-37}}

Jones taught that "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment", which he defined as socialism.{{sfn|Layton|1998|p=53}} Jones asserted that traditional Christianity had an incorrect view of God. By the early 1970s, Jones began deriding traditional [[Christianity]] as "fly away religion", rejecting the [[Bible]] as being a tool to oppress women and non-whites.{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=37}} Jones referred to traditional Christianity's view of God as a "[[Sky deity|Sky God]]" who was "no God at all".{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=37}} Instead, Jones claimed to be following the true God who created all things.{{sfn|Chidester|2004|pp=56-57}}

Jones taught that ultimate reality was called the "Divine Principle", and this principle was the true God. Jones equated the principle with love, and he equated love with socialism. Jones asserted he was a savior sent by the true God, to rescue humanity from their sufferings.{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=37}}{{sfn|Chidester|2004|pp=53-56}} Jones insisted that accepting the "Divine Principle" was equivalent to being "[[Crucifixion of Jesus#Christology of the crucifixion|crucified with Christ]]".{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=61}}

Jones increasingly promoted the idea of his own divinity, going so far as to tell his congregation that "I am come as God Socialist."{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=i,97}}{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=60}} Jones carefully avoided claiming divinity outside of Peoples Temple, but he expected to be acknowledged as god-like among his followers. Former Temple member Hue Fortson Jr. quoted him as saying:

<blockquote>What you need to believe in is what you can see.... If you see me as your friend, I'll be your friend. As you see me as your father, I'll be your father, for those of you that don't have a father.... If you see me as your savior, I'll be your savior. If you see me as your God, I'll be your God.<ref name="pbs.org">{{cite news|year= 2007|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/jonestown/|title= Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple|location= US|publisher= [[PBS]] [[American Experience]]|access-date=2020-06-20}}</ref></blockquote>

Further attacking traditional Christianity, Jones authored and circulated a tract entitled "The Letter Killeth", criticizing the [[Authorized King James Version|King James Bible]], and dismissing [[James VI and I|King James]] as a slave owner and a [[capitalism|capitalist]] who was responsible for the corrupt translation of scripture. Jones claimed he was sent to share the true meaning of the gospel which had been hidden by corrupt leaders.{{sfn|Chidester|2004|pp=65-67}}<ref>{{cite web|author=Jones, Jim|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=14110|title= The Letter Killeth (original material reprint)|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple|publisher= San Diego State University|year=2018}}</ref>

Jones rejected even the few required tenets of the Disciples of Christ denomination. Instead of implementing the [[sacraments]] as prescribed by the Disciples, Jones followed Father Divine's [[holy communion]] practices. Jones created his own [[baptism]]al formula, baptizing his converts "in the holy name of Socialism".{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=126}}

While in the United States, Jones remained fearful of the public discovering the full extent of his communist views.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=132}} He believed that if the true nature of his views became widely known, he would quickly lose the support of political leaders and even face the possibility of Peoples Temple being ejected from the Disciples of Christ. Jones also feared losing the church's tax-exempt status and having to report his financial dealings to the [[Internal Revenue Service]].{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=132}} Jones took care to always couch his socialist views in religious terms, such as "apostolic social justice".{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=132}} "Living the Acts of the Apostles" was his euphemism for living a communal lifestyle.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=133}}

Jones frequently warned his followers of an imminent apocalyptic genocidal race war and nuclear war. He claimed that Nazi [[fascist]]s and white supremacists would put people of color into concentration camps. Jones said he was a messiah sent to save people by giving them a place of refuge in his church. Drawing on a prophecy in the [[Book of Revelation]], he taught that American capitalist culture was irredeemable "[[Whore of Babylon|Babylon]]".{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=33}}{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=59}} Explaining the nature of sin, Jones stated, "If you're born in capitalist America, [[Racism in the United States|racist]] America, fascist America, then you're born in sin. But if you're born in socialism, you're not born in sin."<ref name="q1053">{{cite web|author=Jones, Jim|year= 1999|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27318|title= Q1053-4 Transcript|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple|location=US|publisher=San Diego State University}}</ref> He taught his followers the only way to escape the supposed imminent catastrophe was to accept his teachings, and that after the apocalypse was over, they would emerge to establish a perfect communist society.{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=33}}{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=59}}

Historians are divided over whether Jones actually believed his own teachings, or was just using them to manipulate people.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|pp=123-124}} Jeff Guinn said, "It is impossible to know whether Jones gradually came to think he was God's earthly vessel, or whether he came to that convenient conclusion" to enhance his authority over his followers.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|pp=123-124}} In a 1976 phone conversation with John Maher, Jones admitted to be an [[Agnosticism|agnostic]] and an [[Atheism|atheist]].<ref name="jonestown.sdsu.edu">{{cite web|author=Jones, Jim|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27498|title=Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 622|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple|publisher=San Diego State University}}</ref> Marceline admitted in a 1977 ''New York Times'' interview that Jones was trying to promote Marxism in the U.S. by mobilizing people through religion, citing Mao Zedong as his inspiration: "Jim used religion to try to get some people out of the opiate of religion."<ref name="NYT1126" /> She told the reporter that Jones had once slammed the Bible on the table yelling "I've got to destroy this paper idol!"<ref name="NYT1126" /> Jones taught his followers that the ends justify the means and authorized them to achieve his vision by any means necessary.{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=61}} Outsiders would later point to this aspect of Jones's teachings to allege that he did not genuinely believe in his own teachings and that he was "morally bankrupt" and only manipulating religion and other elements of society "to achieve his own selfish ends".{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=56}}

Jones began using illicit drugs after moving to California, which further heightened his paranoia.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=132}} Jones increasingly used fear to control and manipulate his followers in California. Jones frequently warned his followers that there was an enemy seeking to destroy them. The identity of that enemy changed over time from the Ku Klux Klan, to Nazis, to redneck vigilantes, and finally the American government.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=132}} He frequently prophesied that fires, car accidents, and death or injuries would come upon anyone unfaithful to him and his teachings. He constantly told his followers that they needed to be crusaders in promoting and fulfilling his beliefs.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=132}}

Through his tactics, he successfully implemented a communal lifestyle among his followers that was directed by him and his lieutenants who were part of a committee called the Planning Commission.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=133}} Jones, through the Planning Commission, began controlling all aspects of the lives of his followers. Members who joined Peoples Temple were required to turn over all their assets to the church in exchange for free room and board. Many members working outside of the Temple were also required to turn over all their income to be used for the benefit of the community. Jones directed groups of his followers to work on various projects to earn income for the People Temple and set up an agricultural operation in [[Redwood Valley]] to grow food. Jones organized large community outreach projects, taking his followers by bus to perform work community service across the region.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=167}}

The first known cases of serious abuse in Peoples Temple arose in California as the Planning Commission carried out discipline against members who were not fulfilling Jones's vision or following the rules.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=172}} Jones's control over the members of Peoples Temple extended to their sex lives and who could be married. Some members were coerced to get [[abortion]]s.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=156-163}} Jones began to require sexual favors from the wives of some members of the church.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=172}} Jones also raped several male members of his congregation.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=176}}

Members who rebelled against Jones's control were punished with reduced food rations, harsher work schedules, public ridicule and humiliations, and sometimes with physical violence. As the Temple's membership grew, Jones created a security group to ensure order among his followers and to ensure his own personal safety. The group purchased security squad cars and armed their guards with rifles and pistols.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=203-204}}

===Urban expansion===
{{Main|Peoples Temple in San Francisco}}
[[File:Peoples Temple.jpg|thumb|upright|Peoples Temple headquarters, 1859 Geary Blvd., San Francisco, 1978]]
Because of limited expansion in the Redwood Valley-[[Ukiah, California|Ukiah]] area, it eventually seemed necessary to move the church's seat of power to an urban area.<ref name="raven164" /> In 1970, the Temple began holding services in [[San Francisco]] and [[Los Angeles]].<ref name="kilduff">Kilduff, Marshall and Phil Tracy. [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=14025 "Inside Peoples Temple."] ''New West Magazine''. August 1, 1977 (hosted at Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University). {{cite web |url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/PrimarySources/newWestart.htm |title=Jonestown |access-date=2006-10-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101217064220/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/PrimarySources/newWestart.htm |archive-date=December 17, 2010 }}</ref> It established permanent facilities in those cities in 1971 and 1972, respectively.<ref name="raven164">Reiterman 1982. p. 164.</ref> In San Francisco, the Temple occupied a former [[Scottish Rite]] temple at 1859 Geary Boulevard in the [[Fillmore District, San Francisco|Fillmore District]]. At the time, the Fillmore district was a majority Black neighborhood and a stronghold of Black culture on the West Coast.<ref>Chidester, David. 1988. Salvation and Suicide: An Interpretation of the Peoples Temple and Jonestown. Bloomington: Indiana University</ref> In Los Angeles, the Temple occupied the former building of the [[First Church of Christ, Scientist (Los Angeles)|First Church of Christ, Scientist]] at 1366 S. Alvarado Street.<ref>Chidester, David. 1988. Salvation and Suicide: An Interpretation of the Peoples Temple and Jonestown. Bloomington: Indiana University</ref>

By 1972, the Temple called Redwood Valley the "mother church" of a "statewide political movement".<ref name="raven164" /> From the start, the Los Angeles facility's primary purposes were to recruit members and to serve as a waystation for the Temple's weekly bus trips across California.<ref name="raven164" /> The Temple set up permanent staff in Los Angeles and arranged bus trips there every other week.<ref name="raven164" /> The substantial attendance and collections in Los Angeles helped support the Temple's inflated membership claims.<ref name="raven164" /> The Los Angeles facility was larger than San Francisco's.<ref name="raven164" /> Its central location at the corner of Alvarado and Hoover Streets permitted easy geographic access for a large black membership from [[Watts, Los Angeles|Watts]] and [[Compton, California|Compton]].<ref name="raven164" />

Recruiting drives in Los Angeles and San Francisco helped increase membership in the Temple from a few hundred to nearly 3,000 by the mid-1970s.<ref>Reiterman 1982. p. 156.</ref> Later, when the Temple's headquarters shifted from Redwood Valley to San Francisco, the Temple convinced many Los Angeles members to move north to its new headquarters.<ref name="raven164" />

===Organizational structure===

Although some descriptions of the Peoples Temple emphasize Jones's [[autocracy|autocratic]] control over its operations, in reality, the Temple possessed a complex leadership structure with decision-making power unevenly dispersed among its members. Within that structure, Temple members were unwittingly and gradually subjected to sophisticated [[mind control]] and [[behavior modification]] techniques borrowed from post-revolutionary [[People's Republic of China|China]] and [[North Korea]].<ref name="raven280">Reiterman 1982. pp. 163–164.</ref> The Temple tightly defined psychological boundaries that "enemies", such as "traitors" to the Temple, crossed at their own peril.<ref name="raven280" /> While the secrecy and caution Jones demanded in recruiting led to decreased overall membership, they also helped him foster hero-worship of himself as the "ultimate socialist".<ref name="raven280" />

In the 1970s, the Temple established a more formal hierarchy for its socialistic model.<ref name="raven156">Reiterman 1982. pp. 156–159.</ref> At the top were the Temple's staff, a select group of predominantly college-educated white women that undertook the Temple's most sensitive missions.<ref name="raven156" /> They necessarily acclimated themselves to an "[[Consequentialism|ends justify the means]]" philosophy.<ref name="raven156" /> The earliest member was Sandy Bradshaw, a socialist from [[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]], [[New York (state)|New York]].<ref name="raven156" /> Others included Carolyn Layton, a communist since the age of 15 who had a child with Jones; Sharon Amos, who worked for the social services department; Patty Cartmell, Jones's secretary; and Teri Buford, a [[U.S. Navy|Navy]] brat turned [[pacifism|pacifist]].<ref name="raven156" /> The group was often scorned as elitist within the egalitarian Temple organization and viewed as [[secret police]].<ref name="raven156" />

The Temple's Planning Commission was its governing board.<ref name="raven160">Reiterman 1982. pp. 160–163.</ref><ref name="Lewis2003-11-19">Lewis, Mike. [http://www.seattlepi.com/local/148941_jonestown19.html "Jones disciple recovers from, recalls painful past."] ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer''. November 19, 2003. {{webarchive |url=https://archive.today/20130202055343/http://www.seattlepi.com/local/148941_jonestown19.html |date=February 2, 2013}}</ref> Membership quickly ballooned from 50 to over 100.<ref name="raven160" /><ref name="Lewis2003-11-19" /> During the week, members convened for meetings in various Redwood Valley locations, sometimes until dawn.<ref name="raven160" /> The Planning Commission was responsible for the Temple's day-to-day operations, including key decision-making, financial and legal planning, and oversight.<ref>Dickerson, Toby. {{cite web |url=http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/Jonestwn.html |title=''Peoples Temple (Jonestown)'' |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908190148/http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/Jonestwn.html |archive-date=September 8, 2006 |url-status=dead }}. The Religious Movements Homepage Project. University of Virginia. February 5, 2005.</ref> The Commission sat over various other committees, such as the Diversions Committee, which carried out tasks such as writing huge numbers of letters to politicians from fictional people mailed from various locations around the U.S.,<ref>Layton 1999, p. 62.</ref> and the Mertles Committee, which undertook activities against defectors [[Jeannie Mills|Al and Jeannie Mills]].<ref name="hall178">Hall 1987, pp. 178–184</ref>

A group of rank-and-file members, whom outsiders called the "troops", consisted of working-class members who were 70–80% black. They set up chairs for meetings, filled offering boxes, and did other tasks.<ref name="raven156" /> Many of them were attracted to the Temple's quasi-socialist approach both because of the Temple's political education offers and because the Temple's highly passionate congregations still maintained the familiar forms of evangelical prayers and black gospels.<ref name="raven156" /> Jones also surrounded himself with several dozen mostly white, privileged members in their twenties and thirties who had skills in law, accounting, nursing, teaching, music, and administration.<ref name="raven156" /> This latter group carried out public relations, financial duties, and more mundane chores while bringing in good salaries from well-paying outside jobs.<ref name="raven156" />

===Recruiting, faith healings, and fund raising===
The Temple used ten to fifteen [[Greyhound Lines|Greyhound]]-type bus cruisers to transport members up and down California freeways each week for recruitment and fundraising.<ref name="raven166">Reiterman 1982. pp. 166–168.</ref> Jones always rode in bus number seven, which contained armed guards and a special section lined with protective metal plates.<ref name="raven166" /> He told members that the Temple would not bother scheduling a trip unless it could net $100,000, and the Temple's goal for annual net income from bus trips was $1 million.<ref name="raven166" />

Beginning in the 1970s, the bus caravan also traveled across the U.S. quarterly, including to [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref name="raven166" /> In June 1973, [[United States House of Representatives|Representative]] [[George Brown, Jr.]] entered a lengthy and laudatory description of the Temple into the ''[[Congressional Record]]''.<ref name="raven166" /> ''[[The Washington Post]]'' ran an August 18, 1973, editorial-page item stating that the 660 Temple visitors were the "hands down winners of anybody's tourists of the year award" after spending an hour cleaning up the [[United States Capitol|Capitol]] grounds.<ref name="raven166" />

The Temple distributed pamphlets in cities along the route of these fundraising trips bragging of Jones's prowess at "spiritual healing" without mentioning the Temple's Marxist goals.<ref name="raven166" /> Stops included large cities such as [[Houston]], [[Detroit]], and [[Cleveland]].<ref name="raven166" /> Temple members pretended to be locals and acted as [[shill]]s in the various faked healings and "revelations".<ref name="raven166" /> Local viewers did not realize they were in the minority in the audience.<ref name="raven166" /> The weekly take from offerings and healing services was $15,000 to $25,000 in Los Angeles and $8,000 to $12,000 in San Francisco.<ref name="raven169" /> There were smaller collections from trips around the "mother church" in Redwood Valley.<ref name="raven169" />

The Temple also set up Truth Enterprises, a direct mailing branch that sent out 30,000 to 50,000 mailers monthly to people who had attended Temple services or written to the Temple after listening to Temple radio programs.<ref name="raven169">Reiterman 1982. pp. 169–171.</ref> Donations were mailed in from all over the continental U.S., Hawaii, South America, and Europe.<ref name="raven169" /> In addition to receiving donations, the Temple sold trinkets, such as pieces of Jones's robes, healing oil, Temple rings, key chains, and lockets.<ref name="raven169" /> In peak periods, mailer revenue grossed $300 to $400 daily.<ref name="raven169" /> This figure even surprised Jones.<ref name="raven169" />

Although Jones had earlier asked Temple members to destroy photos of him because he did not want members worshiping him as Catholics "worshiped plaster statues", Jeannie and Al Mills (who would later defect) convinced Jones to sell anointed and blessed photos to raise money.<ref name="raven169" /> Jones worried that "they're gonna get me for [[mail fraud]] someday."<ref name="raven169" /> In 1973, the Temple also formed Brotherhood Records, a subsidiary [[record label]] that produced music from the Temple's "large interracial youth choir and orchestra".<ref name="kilduff42">Kilduff, Marshall and Ron Javers. ''Suicide Cult:  The Inside Story of the Peoples Temple Sect and the Massacre in Guyana''. Bantam Books, New York, 1978. {{ISBN|978-0553129205}}. p. 42.</ref>

===Size and scope===
[[File:Members of Peoples Temple attend an anti-eviction rally at the International Hotel, San Francisco - January 1977.jpg|thumb|Peoples Temple members attend an anti-eviction rally at the [[International Hotel (San Francisco)|International Hotel, San Francisco]], January 1977.]]
Despite exaggerated claims by the Temple of 20,000 or more members, one source claims its greatest actual registered membership was around 3,000.<ref>Hall, John R. "The Impact of Apostates on the Trajectory of Religious Movement: The Case of the Peoples Temple", in [[David G. Bromley]] (ed.) ''Falling from the Faith: Causes and Consequences of Religious Apostasy''. Sage Publications, 1988. {{ISBN|978-0803931886}}. p. 234.</ref> However, 5,000 individual membership card photos were located in Temple records after its dissolution.<ref>[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35899 'The Opposition, The Returned, Crisis & White Nights'], Jonestown Institute, San Diego State University, May 2008. {{cite web |url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/JTResearch/opposition.htm |title=The Opposition |access-date=2008-06-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501041949/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/JTResearch/opposition.htm |archive-date=May 1, 2011 }}</ref> Regardless of its official membership, the Temple also regularly drew 3,000 people to its San Francisco services alone.<ref>{{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 =166}}</ref> Of particular interest to politicians was the Temple's ability to produce 2,000 people for campaign work or attendance in San Francisco on only six hours' notice.<ref name="NYT1126" />

By the mid-1970s, in addition to its locations in Redwood Valley, Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Temple had established [[Multi-site church|satellite congregations]] in almost a dozen other California cities.<ref name="raven280" /> Jones mentioned locations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Ukiah, [[Bakersfield, California|Bakersfield]], [[Fresno, California|Fresno]], and [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]].<ref>Jones, Jim, [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27537 ''FBI Tape Q 683''], Jonestown Institute, San Diego State University {{cite web |url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/Tapes/Tapes/TapeTranscripts/Q683.html |title=Transcript Q683 |access-date=2008-06-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501041952/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/Tapes/Tapes/TapeTranscripts/Q683.html |archive-date=May 1, 2011 }}</ref> The Temple also maintained a branch, college tuition program, and dormitory at [[Santa Rosa Junior College]].<ref>Layton 1999, p. 53.</ref><ref>{{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|pages= 90–91}}</ref>

At the same time, Jones and his church earned a reputation for aiding the cities' poorest citizens, especially racial minorities, drug addicts, and the homeless. The Temple made strong connections to the California state welfare system.<ref>Hall 1987, pp. 81–82</ref> During the 1970s, the church owned and ran at least nine [[residential care home]]s for the elderly, six homes for [[foster children]], and a state-licensed {{convert|40|acre|m2|adj=on}} ranch for [[developmentally disabled]] persons.<ref>Hall 1987, p. 82</ref> The Temple elite handled members' insurance claims and legal problems, effectively acting as a client-advocacy group. For these reasons, sociologist John Hall described the Temple as a "charismatic bureaucracy",<ref>Hall 1987, p. 95</ref> oriented toward Jones as a charismatic leader, but functioning as a bureaucratic social service organization.

===Kinsolving series===
In 1972, the ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]'' and the ''[[Indianapolis Star]]'' ran the first four parts of a seven-part story on the Temple by [[Lester Kinsolving]], its first public exposé.<ref name="reiterman211">Reiterman 1982. pp. 211–214.</ref> Kinsolving reported on several aspects of church dealings, its claims of healings, and Jones's ritual of throwing Bibles down in church, yelling, "This black book has held down you people for 2,000 years. It has no power."<ref>Kinsolving, Lester. "Sex, Socialism, and Child Torture with Rev. Jim Jones." ''San Francisco Examiner''. September 1972.</ref> Temple members picketed the ''Examiner'', harassed the paper's editor, and threatened both the ''Examiner'' and the ''Star'' with [[libel]] suits.<ref name="reiterman211" /> Both papers canceled the series after the fourth installment.<ref name="reiterman211" /> Shortly thereafter, Jones made grants to newspapers in California with the stated goal of supporting the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]].<ref>Reiterman 1982. pp. 302–304.</ref>

===Defections===
Some defections occurred,<ref>Reiterman 1982. pp. 225–227.</ref> most especially in 1973, when eight young members {{ndash}} known as the "Gang of Eight" {{ndash}} defected together.<ref name="raven224">Reiterman 1982. p. 224.</ref> Because the Gang of Eight were aware of threats to potential defectors, they suspected Jones would send a search party to look for them.<ref name="raven224" /> Their fears proved correct: Jones employed multiple search parties, including one which scanned highways from a rented airplane.<ref name="raven225">Reiterman 1982. p. 225.</ref> The Gang of Eight drove three trucks loaded with firearms toward [[Canada]], avoiding [[U.S. Highway 101]].<ref name="raven224" /> Because they feared taking firearms over the U.S.–Canada border, the group traveled instead to the hills of [[Montana]], where they wrote a long letter documenting their complaints.<ref name="raven225" />

Former Temple member Jeannie Mills later wrote that Jones called thirty members to his home and forebodingly declared that, in light of the mass defection, "in order to keep our apostolic socialism, we should all kill ourselves and leave a note saying that because of harassment, a socialist group cannot exist at this time."<ref name="paranoia" /> Jones became furious, waving a [[pistol]] at the Planning Commission and referring to the Gang of Eight as "[[Trotskyite]] defectors" and "[[Coca-Cola]] revolutionaries".<ref name="raven226">Reiterman 1982. p. 226.</ref> While the Temple did not execute the suicide plan Jones described, it did conduct fake suicide rituals in the years that followed.<ref name="paranoia">[https://web.archive.org/web/20090114212817/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919897-1,00.html ''Paranoia And Delusions''], Time Magazine, December 11, 1978</ref>