Seductive Poison, by Deborah Layton: My Analysis on Reverend Jim Jones' Motivations

Seductive Poison by Deborah Layton: My Analysis of Reverend Jim Jones

Seductive Poison

By Deborah Layton

This isn’t the type of book that I would usually write a review or summary for, since I mostly write about investing, stock trading, and political and economic history. But I really started paying attention to this book at the first mention of the word socialism, and then really started looking at a subplot to this book at the first mention of Karl Marx‘s Communist Manifesto.

This isn’t a criticism of socialism, communism, or Marxism, these are just my observations of what I’ve been able to gather, strictly from this book and no other sources.

If you’re looking for an actual summary of this book or a review, this isn’t it. This is more like a side story that was only hinted at in this book. This is also just my unedited ramblings that I’m posting so that I can come back and remember what I was thinking when I read this book. 

Karl Marx and Marxists believe that the evolution from capitalism to socialism is inevitable, but it will be brought on by a revolution, and that revolution will have leaders (almost like prophets) to lead the oppressed against the oppressors. Did Reverend Jim Jones think he was one of the revolutionaries that would bring this change?

Reverend Jim Jones Preaching to His Followers

What I was trying to decipher while reading this was what was Jim Jones’ motivation for starting the People’s Temple.

It might have been political power, which he did achieve through all of his political connections including befriending and holding a rally for First Lady Rosalyn Carter. He also had great connections with the California Governor as well as the mayor of San Francisco (and future mentor to Kamala Harris) Willie Brown. 

“Within four years the Reverend Jim Jones has become one of the most politically potent religious leaders in the state’s history. His estimated twenty thousand voters, largely in San Francisco and Los Angeles, give his Peoples Temple more clout than local unions.”

Other motivations might have been for the women. Spoiler alert: He had sex with many of the young women in his temple. 

Seductive Poison: Jim Jones Motivations

He might have been motivated by money. He had his members donate millions of dollars and assets to his temple. Although I find this as an unlikely motivation based on this book because it doesn’t sound like he lived very lavishly. 

The sickest part of Jim Jones, in my opinion, was the way he punished people, especially kids. I wonder if he did these punishments because he enjoyed imposing his will on people, or if he really thought it would help him remain in control through complete obedience.

“The Box was a small underground cubicle to which even children would be sentenced if they had thought or done something Father thought punishable. It was six by four feet, dark, hot, and claustrophobic. Poor Jeff had been kept inside for ten days. People kept there were given nothing but much to eat and drink. There was also the Well, a punishment used especially for children. They would be taken to the Well in the dark of night, hung upside down by a rope around their ankles, and dunked into the water again and again while someone hidden inside the Well grabbed at them to scare them. The sins deserving such punishment included stealing food from the kitchen, expressing homesickness, failing a socialism exam, or even natural childish rebelliousness.”

Maybe growing up in a poor family caused him to grow disdainful of upper class people. Karl Marx, although he was part of the upper class bourgeoisie, taught that capitalism is a system built on the backs of laborers and was exploited by the upper class. Jim Jones was possibly motivated by a sense of social justice.

Karl Marx

I’m not sure the motivation, but I have a feeling, somewhere at a young age, Jones was indoctrinated into Marxist thinking. I think he developed a sense that he was destined to be one of the great Socialist leaders like Stalin, Lenin, or Mao.

Jim Jones said that he was Vladimir Lenin reincarnated (Lenin was the founder of the Russian Communist Party and leader of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia).

“We believe in reincarnation. Jim was Lenin in his last life, as he explained to me when I joined… He was a socialist and fought for the equality of all the people of Russia. Don’t you see? Jim has always been a fighter, a revolutionary. He has come back here, one last time, to bring people out of religion, into enlightenment. He is trying to teach us that socialism is God.”

Reverend Jim Jones

The People’s Temple was seen from the outside as a religious sect. But Reverend Jim Jones himself admits that the religious aspect of the church is just a cover for the socialist agenda he was trying to push. Calling his temple a religion allowed him so many benefits and he did seem like a very smart and cunning man. As a religion, the People’s Temple didn’t have to pay taxes. They also had more freedom with which they could do and say without the government being able to look into them because of the Freedom of Religion in the Constitution. 

“The First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to investigate religious organizations, even when, as was the case with the Peoples Temple, they deliberately seek political power to shield their immoral and illicit practices from investigation ... You understand, then, that if you were to ever leave the Cause, you would be arrested. We are not really a church, but a socialist organization. We must pretend to be a church so we’re not taxed by the government.”

The Communist Manifesto was one of the forced readings inside the “religion”. The members were also given weekly socialism exams. 

“We memorized portions of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, and sang “The Internationale” (Marxist “Theme Song”) at the close of each evening devotion.”

“And Father says that’s how it has to be till we are all equal in our understanding of Leninism. Don’t worry, you’ll fall into step soon enough… I had already been informed of the Marxist socialism classes on Tuesday and Thursday nights with tests on Sundays.”

 

“Apostolic Socialism” was Jim Jones’s personal flavor of Socialism. He combined elements of communal living, community sharing, and equality regardless of race or social positions. Jones was excluded from this aspect of his Apostolic Socialism because he was the chosen one to lead his flock. 

“Jim had explained to me how he and I needed to help the poor, how those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought into enlightenment – Socialism.”

These are my thoughts on Jim Jones’s motivation to run the People’s Temple. He was obviously a narcissist, but I don’t think that is motivation in itself to put in the work to start and run a “religious group”. His paranoia and drug use are likely culprits of how his story ended. 

I didn’t read anything else about this story or about his background before writing this so I may be way off, but I’ll never know unless someone comments below and schools me on the ways of Reverend Jim Jones…


Check out my review of The Communist Manifesto if this topic interests you:

The Communist Manifesto Summary
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