International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 1, No. 1, 2010 43
so people who died because of Jonestown (R.
Moore, 2004: 61). She determined that “one
hundred thirty-one (131) were children under the
age of 10 234 were between the ages of 10 and
19...,” which means that “more than one-third
were under 20” (R. Moore, 2004: 64–65).
(Presumably, Moore included nineteen-year-olds
so that her findings would encompass all
teenagers, but the exclusion of eighteen- and
nineteen-year-olds would have allowed her to
speak more clearly about the number of children
who died.)23 In addition, “two hundred eleven
(211) people were 60 and older, with three-
fourths of this segment being black females” (R.
Moore, 2004: 65). From these figures, “twenty
percent of the members were over 60 years of
age…. Over a third of the population—36
percent—were infants, children, and teenagers”
(Sawyer, 2004: 169–170). (Moore’s bar graph
that presents ages makes it difficult to be
precise, but apparently around ninety people
who died at Jonestown were in their seventies
and around twenty-five were in their eighties.
One or two people appear to have been in their
nineties [R. Moore, 2004: 66). In sum, half or
more of the people who died at or related to
Jonestown were of ages (young and old) at
which responsible adults should have been
giving them varying degrees of care. Instead, the
presumed caregivers killed them.
The inescapable reality that adults (often
parents) murdered hundreds of children in the
final moments of Jonestown has caused
problems for scholars who wish to give
interpretations of Jonestown that challenge
anticult images of Jones as the brainwasher who
destroyed the critical minds of his followers.
Respected religious-studies professor Catherine
Wessinger, for example, wrote the introduction
to Mary McCormick Maaga’s study that
attempted “to restore the humanity of the
individuals who were a part of People’s Temple”
(Maaga, 1998: xx). (The book’s front cover
contains four pictures, each with a child or
children and an adult in normal, almost always
23 Here I follow Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child, which defines “a child” as “every human being
below the age of eighteen years unless under the laws applicable to
the child, majority is attained earlier” (United Nations, 1989:
Article 1).
happy, poses.) Toward this goal, Wessinger
offered:
Most Jonestown residents agreed that
their ultimate concern was worth killing
and dying for. The transcript of the last
Jonestown meeting [reproduced as an
appendix in Maaga’s book] provides
evidence of peer pressure, persuasion,
psychological coercion—by the whole
group, not solely by Jim Jones—but
there is no evidence that physical force
was used to make people commit
suicide. (Wessinger in Maaga, 1998: xi–
xii)
Immediately, however, Wessinger seemingly
contradicts herself in a qualifying footnote:
I am saying that, contrary to the media
myth, we have no evidence that there
was any physical coercion to join the
mass suicide. The witnesses are dead.
There is testimony of surviving
witnesses of people willingly going to
participate in the mass suicide. Certainly
the children did not choose to die.
Probably a number of elderly people did
not have a choice. Dissidents in
Jonestown were drugged and kept
confined. These people do not choose to
die. Able-bodied people could have
escaped the suicide easily and some
chose to do so. My primary point here is
that mass suicide could not have been
carried out without the agency of the
able-bodied adults. (Wessinger in
Maaga, 1998: xii n. [italics in original])
In other words (and not even challenging her
claim that able-bodied members easily could
have escaped rifle-carrying guards [see
Chidester, 2003: 154]), at the very least the
group used physical coercion probably to kill
dissidents and the elderly and certainly to
murder the children.
In essence, the children of Jonestown suffered
what surely has to be the cruelest and most
severe form of child abuse—murder, committed
by their poisoning parents. A surviving letter
from Jonestown member Annie Moore
(deceased sister of Jonestown scholar Rebecca
so people who died because of Jonestown (R.
Moore, 2004: 61). She determined that “one
hundred thirty-one (131) were children under the
age of 10 234 were between the ages of 10 and
19...,” which means that “more than one-third
were under 20” (R. Moore, 2004: 64–65).
(Presumably, Moore included nineteen-year-olds
so that her findings would encompass all
teenagers, but the exclusion of eighteen- and
nineteen-year-olds would have allowed her to
speak more clearly about the number of children
who died.)23 In addition, “two hundred eleven
(211) people were 60 and older, with three-
fourths of this segment being black females” (R.
Moore, 2004: 65). From these figures, “twenty
percent of the members were over 60 years of
age…. Over a third of the population—36
percent—were infants, children, and teenagers”
(Sawyer, 2004: 169–170). (Moore’s bar graph
that presents ages makes it difficult to be
precise, but apparently around ninety people
who died at Jonestown were in their seventies
and around twenty-five were in their eighties.
One or two people appear to have been in their
nineties [R. Moore, 2004: 66). In sum, half or
more of the people who died at or related to
Jonestown were of ages (young and old) at
which responsible adults should have been
giving them varying degrees of care. Instead, the
presumed caregivers killed them.
The inescapable reality that adults (often
parents) murdered hundreds of children in the
final moments of Jonestown has caused
problems for scholars who wish to give
interpretations of Jonestown that challenge
anticult images of Jones as the brainwasher who
destroyed the critical minds of his followers.
Respected religious-studies professor Catherine
Wessinger, for example, wrote the introduction
to Mary McCormick Maaga’s study that
attempted “to restore the humanity of the
individuals who were a part of People’s Temple”
(Maaga, 1998: xx). (The book’s front cover
contains four pictures, each with a child or
children and an adult in normal, almost always
23 Here I follow Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child, which defines “a child” as “every human being
below the age of eighteen years unless under the laws applicable to
the child, majority is attained earlier” (United Nations, 1989:
Article 1).
happy, poses.) Toward this goal, Wessinger
offered:
Most Jonestown residents agreed that
their ultimate concern was worth killing
and dying for. The transcript of the last
Jonestown meeting [reproduced as an
appendix in Maaga’s book] provides
evidence of peer pressure, persuasion,
psychological coercion—by the whole
group, not solely by Jim Jones—but
there is no evidence that physical force
was used to make people commit
suicide. (Wessinger in Maaga, 1998: xi–
xii)
Immediately, however, Wessinger seemingly
contradicts herself in a qualifying footnote:
I am saying that, contrary to the media
myth, we have no evidence that there
was any physical coercion to join the
mass suicide. The witnesses are dead.
There is testimony of surviving
witnesses of people willingly going to
participate in the mass suicide. Certainly
the children did not choose to die.
Probably a number of elderly people did
not have a choice. Dissidents in
Jonestown were drugged and kept
confined. These people do not choose to
die. Able-bodied people could have
escaped the suicide easily and some
chose to do so. My primary point here is
that mass suicide could not have been
carried out without the agency of the
able-bodied adults. (Wessinger in
Maaga, 1998: xii n. [italics in original])
In other words (and not even challenging her
claim that able-bodied members easily could
have escaped rifle-carrying guards [see
Chidester, 2003: 154]), at the very least the
group used physical coercion probably to kill
dissidents and the elderly and certainly to
murder the children.
In essence, the children of Jonestown suffered
what surely has to be the cruelest and most
severe form of child abuse—murder, committed
by their poisoning parents. A surviving letter
from Jonestown member Annie Moore
(deceased sister of Jonestown scholar Rebecca
