It only takes a few words to call back the memories from 30 years ago, all those nightmare images from the jungle sanctuary in Guyana.<\/p>\n
\u201cRevolutionary suicide\u201d may do the trick, especially when combined with that grim quotation from one survivor, \u201cThey started with the babies.\u201d But it was another Jonestown catch phrase that leapt into the national consciousness.<\/p>\n
Sherri Wood Emmons heard it when she accepted a job with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) only four years after the massacre.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t drink the Kool-Aid,\u201d said a friend, laughing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s understandable, I guess. We use humor to distance ourselves from things we don\u2019t understand, things that frighten us,\u201d noted Emmons, in her editorial introducing a DisciplesWorld journal issue marking the Jonestown anniversary. \u201cIt\u2019s easier to poke fun at people than try to understand them. Those crazies, we say, shaking our heads. They must have been nuts.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s a problem with America\u2019s three decades of sick laughter about 900-plus people drinking cyanide and fake fruit juice in honor of one man\u2019s vision of the Kingdom of God on earth.<\/p>\n
The Rev. Jim Jones really did flourish in the American heartland and begin his ministry in Indianapolis, of all places. In the early 1960s, his idealistic, multi-ethnic Peoples Temple was embraced with open arms by the Disciples of Christ, a mainstream church at the heart of the Protestant ecumenical establishment. When he moved his flock to California, he forged strong ties to George Moscone, Harvey Milk, Willie Brown and the San Francisco political establishment.<\/p>\n
And those Jones disciples? \u201cThey were living out their faith in wants that might shame some of us today,\u201d according to Emmons. \u201cAnd they were Disciples of Christ. As much as we might like to forget that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, Jones was a charismatic, talented minister whose work united rich and poor, black and white, young and old. That was before he started preaching socialism and saying he was the reincarnation of Jesus. That was before the sexual abuse, torture, drugs and violence.<\/p>\n
Why didn\u2019t anyone see who and what he was?<\/p>\n
After the tragedy unfolded, the headlines marched past day after day, with each bizarre revelation adding to the horror and confusion. The Jonestown news coverage made a strong impression on me because I was young journalist, just out of college, who wanted to become a religion-beat reporter.<\/p>\n
I kept waiting for mainstream journalists to dig into the religious roots of these tragic events, to explain what Jones believed and why his followers were so loyal. I waited a long time.<\/p>\n
This was an important religion story. Wasn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
Frustrated by why I was reading, and not reading, I called the dean of the religion reporters, the late George Cornell of the Associated Press. I remember the calm anger in his voice as he explained that few, if any, major news organizations had assigned religion specialists to help cover this shocking story that centered \u2014 for better and for worse \u2014 on the shocking demise of a pastor and his flock.<\/p>\n
For many journalists, Cornell explained, Jonestown was too important to be a religion story.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that a lot of newspaper people, a lot of journalists, grew up in a tradition where religion, at least the substance of religion, was out of the ballpark as far as newspapering is concerned,\u201d he told me. \u201cThey hesitate to cover religion because they see it as a private matter. They don\u2019t want it in the newspaper. Of course, this attitude could also be due to their ignorance of religion.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why it was hard to take Jones seriously during his rise. That\u2019s why it was hard to take him seriously after he died and took his followers with him. That\u2019s why it\u2019s easier to laugh or to look away.<\/p>\n
Jonestown was not an isolated case, explained Cornell. Anyone who wants to understand how the world works has to take religion seriously. But many journalists just didn\u2019t get it. This blind spot is real.<\/p>\n
That was true 30 years ago and it\u2019s true today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, look at every major flash point in the world,\u201d said Cornell. \u201cThere\u2019s almost always a religious element involved \u2014 and it\u2019s almost always a powerful one. \u2026 People just don\u2019t see where the hammer is falling \u2014 where the vital brew is brewing. Religion is usually mixed up in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It only takes a few words to call back the memories from 30 years ago, all those nightmare images from the jungle sanctuary in Guyana. \u201cRevolutionary suicide\u201d may do the trick, especially when combined with that grim quotation from one survivor, \u201cThey started with the babies.\u201d But it was another Jonestown catch phrase that leapt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,16,18,21,1],"tags":[1536,487,523,1544,720],"class_list":["post-776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-godbeat","category-mainline-churches","category-mass-media","category-politics","category-uncategorized","tag-godbeat","tag-journalism","tag-mainline","tag-politics","tag-religion-news"],"yoast_head":"\n