The Mass-Suicide in Cult Known as The People’s Temple in Jonestown, Guyana

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“Don’t drink the Kool-Aid.!” is a well-known saying that generally means to completely buy into an idea or system whether good or bad. While this is an interesting quote, it has a terrible back story behind it. This phrase is a reference to the 1978 mass-suicide of over 900 people from a cult known as The People’s Temple in Jonestown, Guyana led by Jim Jones. Jim Jones created The People’s Temple, a civil rights group, which gained popularity in Redwood, California. The Peoples Temple began as something good and devolved into something tragic that will remain a dirty stain in history to this day. I chose to study the leadership of Jim Jones because of his drastic change from being a leader with such charisma and good intentions to a manipulative sociopath.
Background
James Warren “Jim” Jones was born on May 13, 1931 in Lynn, Indiana. Jim Jones grew up in a very racially segregated area of Indiana and in a broken home. Jones’s father was a poor influence from an early age. His father was an injured WWI veteran, a drunk and alleged member of the Ku Klux Klan which left the burden of caring for the family to his mother. His mother provided for the family by working in a factory to put food on the table. Jones was a very strange child, in interviews from the documentary Jonestown: The life and Death of the Peoples Temple (Nelson 2007), child hood friends claimed he was obsessed with death. One person said that he was even caught multiple times holding funerals for small animals that had died.
From an early age Jones was exposed to religion, specifically the Pentecostal sect of Christianity. With no father figure to look up to he turned to the pastors in his church for a role model. Watching the local pastors speak moved Jones; he id...

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... were against gods will and immoral. Jones also abused his followers physically and emotionally. Jones inability to treat his problem affected his capacity to effectively serve his followers and reach the goals he set for his congregation. The most extreme example of unethical behavior is when he issued his followers to kill Congressman Leo Ryan from leaving Jonestown, Guyana in order to prevent some of his followers from leaving and the potential for government interference with his commune. Jones was able to manipulate his followers into believing that his congregation would change the world but his inability to act ethically and effectively led to his downfall.
Intemperate Leadership
Intemperate leadership is defined as “The leader lacks self-control and is aided and abetted by followers who are unwilling or unable effectively to intervene” (Kellerman, p.42).

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