Brett Keane Show - Atheist Preacher Jim Jones Kills 1000 Atheists

Brett Keane Show - Atheist Preacher Jim Jones Kills 1000 Atheists. Jim Jones, founder of the Peoples Temple (a group that began as a Christian church affiliated with the Disciples of Christ), privately identified as an atheist or agnostic by the mid-1970s. He admitted using religion as a tool to promote Marxism and socialism, stating things like: "Jim used religion to try to get some people out of the opiate of religion" (per his wife in a 1977 New York Times interview) and claiming his congregation was "90% atheist." Publicly, he styled himself as a preacher, performed faith healings, and later claimed personal divinity (e.g., "I come as God Socialist"). His ideology blended socialist/communist principles with apocalyptic rhetoric, not traditional theism. The Peoples Temple and Its Followers. The Peoples Temple started with Christian elements but evolved into a political movement emphasizing racial equality and communal living. Many members, especially early African American recruits, came from Christian backgrounds seeking social justice. By Jonestown's end, Jones downplayed religion in favor of socialism, but the group retained cult-like devotion to him personally—not atheism as a core belief. Followers were not uniformly or predominantly atheists; devotion centered on Jones as a messianic figure promising utopia. The Jonestown Tragedy on November 18, 1978, in Jonestown, Guyana, 918 people died (909 in Jonestown itself from cyanide poisoning, plus others at related sites; some counts cite 913-918 including airstrip killings). This included over 300 children. Jones orchestrated it as "revolutionary suicide" amid paranoia over investigations (including a visit by U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan, whom Temple members assassinated). Many victims were coerced or murdered (injected forcefully or guarded at gunpoint), not voluntary suicides. The rounded "1000" in the phrase is an exaggeration; the actual toll was under 920.