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“No man may take my life from me; I lay my life down.”

—Jim Jones

In a paraphrase of John 10:18, Jim Jones uses the words of Jesus to try to convince the community of the virtues of suicide. The problem with such a connection is that Jesus laid down his life for others. Jones was seeking to convince people to lay down their lives for/with him. While he doesn’t explicitly say this, Jones knew that his days were numbered due to a variety of health issues and he didn’t want to die alone. I believe that Jones’ fear is what caused the entire tragedy. He was out of control. When Jesus said these words, he was in control. If we are to give our lives, we must have our lives to give. Jesus gave what he had. Jones didn’t. He was trying to take life. The tragedy of Jonestown is that the people had already given their lives away. When the suicide came, there was nothing left. There was no way to resist. Hold tight to that which is only yours to give.

Amen.

Jonestown Crowd: Yeah!

Jim Jones: So, to sit here and wait for the catastrophe that’s going to happen on that airplane (it’s gonna be a catastrophe). . . Almost happened here, almost happened, the congressman was nearly killed here . . . But you can’t steal people’s children.