Moving Peoples Temple 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. To raise money, Jones briefly returned to the revival circuit, traveling and holding healing campaigns. 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
Eden on Earth, and that the Temple must move to
Northern California for safety. 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. 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. 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. 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. Jones used his position to recruit for Peoples Temple, teaching his students the benefits of Marxism and lecturing on religion. 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. In 1967, Jones's followers persuaded another 75 members of the Indianapolis congregation to move to California. 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.
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. Jones referred to his belief as "
Apostolic Socialism". Following the relocation of Peoples Temple to California, Jones began to gradually introduce the concepts to his followers. According to
religious studies professor
Catherine Wessinger, Jones always spoke of the
Social Gospel's virtues, but chose to conceal that his gospel was communist until he began to do so in sermons at the Temple in the late 1960s. Jones taught that "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment", which he defined as socialism. 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. Jones referred to traditional Christianity's view of God as a "
Sky God" who was "no God at all". Instead, Jones claimed to be following the true God who created all things. 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. Jones insisted that accepting the "Divine Principle" was equivalent to being "
crucified with Christ". Jones increasingly promoted the idea of his own divinity, going so far as to tell his congregation that "I am come as God Socialist." 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: 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. Further attacking traditional Christianity, Jones authored and circulated a tract entitled "The Letter Killeth", criticizing the
King James Bible, and dismissing
King James as a slave owner and a
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. 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
baptismal formula, baptizing his converts "in the holy name of Socialism". While in the United States, Jones remained fearful of the public discovering the full extent of his communist views. 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. Jones took care to always couch his socialist views in religious terms, such as "apostolic social justice". "Living the Acts of the Apostles" was his euphemism for living a communal lifestyle. Jones frequently warned his followers of an imminent apocalyptic genocidal race war and nuclear war. He claimed that Nazi
fascists 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 "
Babylon". Explaining the nature of sin, Jones stated, "If you're born in capitalist America,
racist America, fascist America, then you're born in sin. But if you're born in socialism, you're not born in sin." 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. Historians are divided over whether Jones actually believed his own teachings, or was just using them to manipulate people. 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. In a 1976 phone conversation with John Maher, Jones admitted to be an
agnostic and an
atheist. 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." It established permanent facilities in those cities in 1971 and 1972, respectively. In San Francisco, the Temple occupied a former
Scottish Rite temple at 1859 Geary Boulevard in the
Fillmore District. At the time, the Fillmore district was a majority Black neighborhood and a stronghold of Black culture on the West Coast. In Los Angeles, the Temple occupied the former building of the
First Church of Christ, Scientist at 1366 S. Alvarado Street. 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. The Temple tightly defined psychological boundaries that "enemies", such as "traitors" to the Temple, crossed at their own peril. 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. Membership quickly ballooned from 50 to over 100. 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., and the Mertles Committee, which undertook activities against defectors
Al and Jeannie Mills. 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. Jones always rode in bus number seven, which contained armed guards and a special section lined with protective metal plates. Donations were mailed in from all over the continental U.S., Hawaii, South America, and Europe.
Size and scope , 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. However, 5,000 individual membership card photos were located in Temple records after its dissolution. Regardless of its official membership, the Temple also regularly drew 3,000 people to its San Francisco services alone. 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. The Temple also maintained a branch, college tuition program, and dormitory at
Santa Rosa Junior College. 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. During the 1970s, the church owned and ran at least nine
residential care homes for the elderly, six homes for
foster children, and a state-licensed ranch for
developmentally disabled persons. The Temple elite handled members' insurance claims and legal problems, effectively acting as a client-advocacy group. For these reasons, sociologist
John R. Hall described the Temple as a "charismatic bureaucracy", 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. 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." Temple members picketed the
Examiner, harassed the paper's editor, and threatened both the
Examiner and the
Star with
libel suits.
Defections Some defections occurred, most especially in 1973, when eight young members known as the "Gang of Eight" defected together. Because the Gang of Eight were aware of threats to potential defectors, they suspected Jones would send a search party to look for them. The Gang of Eight drove three trucks loaded with firearms toward
Canada, avoiding
U.S. Highway 101. While the Temple did not execute the suicide plan Jones described, it did conduct fake suicide rituals in the years that followed. ==San Francisco Temple==