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Jonestown Residents Attack the "Concerned Relatives"

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Q736
Q736: Jonestown Residents Attack the "Concerned Relatives"
April 17
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The Peoples Temple leadership in Jonestown - including Jim Jones - holds a press conference via a ham radio transmission to San Francisco, where reporters are gathered. Responding to charges made by Concerned Relatives, Harriet Sarah Tropp reads a prepared statement that condemns the actions of the Concerned Relatives organization, as well as the media attacks on the church. The statement also extols the Jonestown settlement as a beautiful place, a socialist collective, a place with a solid medical department for seniors, and an opportunity for society's malcontents to start again. Her description of Jonestown concludes that it is "a community for a significant number of people, now over 1000, who have been hurt, angered, alienated and victimized by adverse conditions that prevail in the decaying inner cities of advanced Western societies."
Tropp specifically rejects the charge that relatives cannot visit. "Within three to four weeks, several relatives and parents who are not members [of Concerned Relatives] will be visiting here... We do not ask that people who come agree with us. However, these relatives are not coming with an intention to harass, and so they are very welcome." At the urging of Jones, Tropp adds that what they object to are visits from members the "small committee" which talks about "kidnapping and mercenaries." Later - again at the prompting of Jones - Tropp speaks of the freedom of movement for Temple members between Jonestown and Georgetown.
The prepared statement concludes with the criticism of "some statement, supposedly issued officially by Peoples Temple, but whose authorship we here are unaware of, to the effect that we prefer to resist harassment and persecution, even if it means death." Instead of disavowing the anonymous statement, though, she denounces the people who would use it against the community. "Since it is clear that the persons who are actively plotting to destroy our organization have neither integrity nor courage, we are not at all surprised that they would find it offensive." She quotes Patrick Henry and Martin Luther King, who "reaffirmed the validity of ultimate commitment," and concludes: "It is not our purpose to die. We believe deeply in the celebration of life... But under these outrageous attacks, we have decided to defend the integrity of our community and our pledge to do this."
Even as the leadership speaks of self-destruction, the reporters - and possibly relatives? - in San Francisco are eager to hear the voices of community members. The ones who speak are those who have relatives in the Concerned Relatives organization, and one by one, they condemn the group and the involvement of their family members. As one young man says, "Anyone who wants to tear this down is a sadist, a criminal or a neo-Nazi. They've got to be out of their minds."
Reading from prepared texts, the Jonestown relatives speaks of the evils of their kin, accusing them of adultery, child molesting, drug use, alcohol abuse, gambling, and mental illness. For these reasons, the Jonestown relatives don't want anything to do with their kinfolk back home. As one woman says of her father, "I have absolutely no desire to see him, and I want him to leave me alone."
Jonestown Institute
  • Spirit Lab: New Religious Thought in the Golden State
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