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In Reply to: Jonestown Revisited posted by Peabody on November 24, 2006 at 16:29:24:
is to an excellent review of the new documentary on Jim Jones and his cult. When all that was happening didn't Berg defend Jones in some of his writings?
*Berg did write something indicating that Jones and the followers were put into some sort of corner by Ryan and co. and CIA was out to get them. He seemed to blame the suicides on the pressure from without and indicated he had more to say on it but I don't remember ever seeing more. Could be because Berg had already started writing letters for people on different levels within. Some people got letters for Leaders Only and there were levels of what leaders got to read what info. I would love to see if anyone had any Leaders Only letters or can remember the content of some and discuss them.
Who said this, Berg or Jones? - "Jesus Christ had the most revolutionary teachings...and we feel nobody has really tried Christianity too effectively, or the Judeo-Christian tradition."
* Jones is quoted as saying that but of course Berg said similar things.
As a former member of the COG/Family, do you agree with these comments by former followers of Jones:
"Nobody joins a cult."
* Yes. I believe that people who were recruited to destructive cults back then were not aware of what they were getting into. Even now it can be the case because people don't pay that much attention to the "cult" buzzword unless someone they know gets involved in one or they have been in one themselves. And of course, cults in existence today deny they are a "cult". They call themselves "churches" or "new religious moments".
"Nobody joins something they think is going to hurt them"
* I agree with this too. I believe there is systematic conditioning and the person recruited sees the ideals and values the people in the cult present. Plus those groups many of us could easily identify as a cult now would actually refute how they are portrayed as a "cult" by the media and use "expert" evaluations, "positive" media etc to contradict it. Also, destructive cults tend to focus on youth to convert and youth don't have life experience behind their belt or the best of judgement when they are in a life stage where their ideals are high, their disillusionment with the real world is easily exploited, their backgrounds in some cases of coming from abusive households are replaced with a supposed "loving and accepting" environment, not much different from what a pimp has to offer a girl on the streets.
"When you live in a dysfunctional family, you think it's normal."
* Yes, this is true too when a person comes from a dysfunctinal family. The cult may actually seem better by comparison. Certainly they don't know the nature of the beast by what it seems to be in the beginning. Once those people got to Guyana they were in too deep. The isolation, guards etc. made it very hard to escape or get away.
In the family, separating families was a biggie and often was a reason people hung on when they might otherwise have left. That and no identified safe place to go to.
Do you agree with some former members of TF (and even some current ones) that the following assertion from the Jones documentary is true with regard to Berg & The Family?
"Some former church members still insist that the Peoples Temple had the makings of something great and world-changing, had Jones not taken it in a dark, megalomaniacal and self-destructive direction."
Knowing what I know about Berg and Jones now, no. I don't think it was destined for greatness ever because of the strict obedience to leadership, meaning one ultimate leader who was deviant from the get go. Even though they did branch out to a seeming greatness compared to a local church for instance, the pathology in the leader at the top would be destructive even as the group is growing.
The pathology can never be grand.
Even Tom Cruise is losing big time for his tight associations to Scientology and in spite of how influential that cult is, way more than TF, people in society at large view it as weird because, well, IT IS, BLANCHE, IT IS. :P
