Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple Page #3

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you worked about

twenty hours a day.

My week kind of ran like this,

Id work my regular job on Mondays,

you know, eight to five.

Then, Id work on files.

There were people

who ran rest homes.

There were animals to be taken care of.

There were the publications.

Everybody had a job.

Wednesday night wed have

a meeting in Redwood Valley

and Id go to the meeting for,

until probably 10 or 10:30.

We turned our paychecks over

every time we got paid.

And then we got an allowance,

five dollars a week.

And Friday, Id go to work

and Id get off of work,

and Id hop on the bus

or drive the bus to San Francisco.

If I had to go to the doctor,

it was taken care of.

If I had to go to the dentist,

it was taken care of.

If I needed clothes,

that was taken care of.

And often on Saturday night,

wed have planning commission meetings

until 2 or 3 in the morning.

We would always try to let

each other know the next day,

Well, how long did you sleep?

Oh, I slept two hours.

You only slept two?

Well, I slept an hour-and-a-half.

And then Sunday,

wed have a Sunday morning service

and then around one oclock

hop on the buses, drive up,

drop people off in San Francisco,

and drive up to Redwood Valley.

The longest I ever stayed awake

was six days,

and thats with no coffee,

no nothing.

It changed over the years,

but it was always busy.

Being in an environment where youre

constantly up, youre constantly busy,

and youre made to feel guilty if you

take too many luxuries like sleeping...

you tend to

not really think for yourself.

And I did allow Jones

to think for me

because I figured that

he had the better plan.

I gave my rights up to him.

As many others did.

Edie.

Fingers, are your fingers numb

in your right hand?

Reach the fingers out

that are bothering you.

Now, is the pain gone?

There was a senior citizen

and we nicknamed her Power.

He would have her to come up

in the midst of one of his meetings,

and she used to say,

The man got power.

The man got power, yall.

And the whole place

would just go wild.

Take your glasses off.

Lets just dare in our faith.

Now look at my face.

I love you,

the people love you,

most importantly

Christ loves you.

What do you see?

- One finger.

- One finger!

One of the most

incredible healings, to me,

was this little old lady

and she was in a wheelchair.

Jim said, Darlin,

you know, today is your day.

Were going to,

youre going to get healed today.

He said, Were going to,

were going to heal those legs of yours.

Youre going to walk again.

And the whole auditorium

went totally crazy.

Come forth, my dear.

Stand up. Take that step.

Bless your heart. Take that step.

And she takes this

real slow, shaky step.

She said, I can feel it.

He said, Yes, I know you can feel it.

Now take your other leg and do it.

And so another real slow, shaky step

and he says, Now

I want you to walk toward me.

Move forward. Move forward.

Move forward, darlin. You can do it.

And she starts taking forward steps.

And pretty soon she is walking.

And she starts walking up

one of the aisles.

And pretty soon shes running.

Well, by this time the whole congregations

running down these aisles with us,

were all just running around the aisles,

just hoopin and hollerin up a storm.

Later, I found out

that this person

that I had seen healed

and cried with

was really one of the secretaries,

made up to look crippled and blind.

Never shall forget

what Hes done for me.

Oh, what Hes done for me.

Oh, what Hes done for me.

Oh, what Hes done for me.

I never shall forget

what Hes done for me.

For those people that hadnt

grown up in the apostolic world,

Jim would say, you know,

I know this is different for you.

But for people to come from

extremely religious backgrounds,

so that I can bring them forward

to the message

thats so important

for all of us today

and that is activism,

then I need to speak

on each persons level.

He said, A lot of you people,

you Christian people coming in,

youre so hung-up on this Bible.

He said, This black book

has held down black people

for the last two-hundred years.

He said, But Im going to

show you this has no power.

So he leaned way back

like a football player and he flung it.

And when he flung it and let it go,

the place got dead quiet like.

And he waited

until it hit the floor, POW!

When it hit the floor, he stood

and he looked back and forth.

He said, Now, did you see any lightning

come from the sky and strike me dead?

Youre gonna help yourself,

or youll get no help!

Theres only one hope of glory

Thats within you!

Nobodys gonna come out of the sky!

Theres no heaven up there

Well have to make heaven

down here!

And he said, What you need to

believe in is what you can see.

He said, If you see me as your friend,

Ill be your friend.

As you see me as your father,

Ill be your father,

for those of you

that dont have a father.

He said, If you see me as your savior,

Ill be your savior.

He said, even so, If you see me

as your God, Ill be your God.

People lifted Jim

to a level of adoration

because many believed that

he had healed them of cancer.

Many believed

that he had saved their son

or daughter from an automobile accident.

There were many reasons

for many people

to admire, love,

excuse, overlook

much of what Jim did.

I had been in the Temple

for just a few months.

I was sent backstage

in Los Angeles to...

to get something for somebody,

I dont remember what.

And Jones happened to be

coming out of his room and he said,

Hi Tim, how are you doing? How is it going?

How do you like everything so far?

And, Oh, I like it a lot.

And, you know, its really cool.

I dont remember exactly.

And he reached up and kind of patted

the back of my neck, and he said,

Ill f*** you in the ass

if you want.

And I just kind of stammered,

No. You know, No.

And he said, Well, you know,

if you ever want that, thats okay,

just let me know

and well do that.

Jim said that

all of us were homosexuals,

everyone except... He was the only

heterosexual on the planet.

And that the women were all lesbians

and the guys were all gay.

And so anyone that showed

any interest in sex was just compensating.

What he explained to each of us,

and in sermons, was that

sexual relationships

were very selfish

and they took away

from the focus of the church,

and that was to help others.

Jim was not celibate.

Nobody knew that until perhaps

it was their time to find out.

What he spoke from the pulpit

wasnt what he did behind the scenes.

I remember one night,

one of the brothers had stood up and said,

You know, I think everybody

that wants Father to screw them in the butt,

you need to take an enema first.

Im telling you the truth man,

Im telling you the truth.

And then the question went on,

Well, how many of you in here

have had him to do that?

And whether they were lying

or just following suit,

hands of the men

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