People's Temple

Peoples Temple Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Classification	Utopian/social change church movement
Orientation	Eclectic Pentecostal with Christian socialist and communist elements / Theosophical / New Thought / New Christian Movement
Leader	James Warren "Jim" Jones
Region	Defunct (Formerly Indianapolis, California, Guyana)
Founder	James Warren "Jim" Jones
Origin	1955 Indianapolis, Indiana
Separated from	Sommerset Methodist Church
Members	3,000-5,000 (peak in 1970s)
Ministers	James Warren "Jim" Jones

The Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ, commonly shortened to Peoples Temple, was a new religious movement founded in 1955 by Jim Jones in Indianapolis, Indiana. Jones used the Peoples Temple to spread a message which combined elements of Christianity with socialist politics, with an emphasis on racial equality.

The group moved to California in the 1970s and established several locations throughout the state, including its headquarters in San Francisco. At its peak, the Temple boasted 20,000 members and connections with left-wing political figures.

The Peoples Temple is best known for the events of November 18, 1978, in Guyana, when 909 Americans with a total of 918 people died in a mass murder/suicide at its remote settlement, informally called "Jonestown", as well as the murders of Congressman Leo Ryan and members of his visiting delegation in nearby Port Kaituma. The mass suicide and killings at Jonestown resulted in the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act prior to the events of September 11, 2001.

Before forming a church, Jim Jones had become enamored by communism and frustrated by the harassment communists received in the U.S. This, among other things, provided a seminal inspiration for Jones; as he himself described in a biographical recording,

I decided, how can I demonstrate my Marxism? The thought was, infiltrate the church. So I consciously made a decision to look into that prospect.

...
Wikipedia