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Wed, May 29, 2019
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If the walls of Woodmont, headquarters of the Peace Mission movement could talk, they would tell how Jim Jones of Jonestown fame came to visit Mother Divine at Woodmont with a large number of his followers. In the late spring of 1971, having achieved new heights in Peoples Temple business expansion and much success as a traveling evangelist, Jones, who had visited Woodmont before when Father Divine was alive, contacted Mother Divine and asked to visit her at the Woodmont mansion.
Jim Jones chose about two hundred of his most dedicated followers to accompany him on the trip. He explained that Father Divine had failed and that he died before completing his life’s work. Jones had long ago come to understand that it was now his calling to lead the Peace Mission down the same “socialist” path followed by Peoples Temple.
Peoples Temple buses took almost three days to make the cross-country trip. According to Jeff Guinn in The Road to Jonestown, Jim Jones and Peoples Temple, stops along the way were made only for gas and bathroom breaks. When they arrived in Philadelphia, Temple members were housed in Peace Mission apartments although Jones himself stayed at Woodmont. Later, Jones and the members were taken on a tour of the property and treated to a banquet where the dessert was ice cream shaped like flower petals. Mother Divine invited Jones to make a few remarks; he praised the ministry and memory of Father Divine. By all accounts it was a pleasant evening.
The Temple visitors stayed a second day, during which Jones spent time talking with Mother Divine. Jones, however, was dissatisfied. That night there was another gathering for dinner, a barbeque with all the trappings and Jones stood up to speak again. This time his tone was critical. He condemned the Peace Mission and its luxurious trappings, and told the assembly that Father Divine had “conferred his mantle” on Jim Jones. “His spirit has come to rest in my body,” he said.
Mother Divine took offense and ordered Jones and his people to leave the Woodmont estate.
Ginn writes:
The drive back to Mendocino County was tense. When they arrived, Jones gathered the followers who’d made the trip and explained that what had happened at Woodmont was not his fault. Mother Divine had been enthusiastic about merging their ministries under Jones’ leadership, so much so that, after maneuvering so they were alone, she tore open her blouse and insisted that they have sex. Jones refused—‘She flaunted her sagging breasts in my face but I wasn’t tempted.’ This was why she had ordered him and his followers to leave Woodmont.
When Father Divine was alive, both he and Mother Divine knew that Jim Jones had his eye on Woodmont. According to Lori Garcia, wife of Tommy Garcia, the adopted son of Mother and Father Divine, Jones wanted to take over the Peace Mission movement when Father Divine passed away. According to Lori Garcia, her husband Tommy was present at least two times when Jones and his group visited Woodmont. The first was at a banquet but the second time the group visited Mother Divine took Tommy aside and said,
“It is not safe for you to be here,” and had a bodyguard take him to another Peace Mission building. At the other meetings between Jones and Mother and Father Divine, Jones often spoke in churches in Center City Philadelphia. At one rally in 1977, after his eviction from Woodmont, he spoke to a large group of followers on North Broad Street. At that time several followers spoke about cancer and bone-related miracle cures they had received from Jones. There were hymns and then Jones himself, his charismatic voice rousing the crowd into a frenzy of ‘Amens,’ would address the people.
At the 1977 rally, Jim Jones said:
It is written; the love of money is the root of all evil. Love of money is the root of all evil. That’s marvelous. Said that they got the Ku Klux Klan here in Philadelphia now too, and they’re wanting equal time because of Roots. That’s- That’s the thing. That’s all they can see out of Roots, out of our precious people that suffered and bled and died, and then they made us think we made it.
While there was no solid Ku Klux Klan presence in Philadelphia in the 1970s, there were scattered attempts at organizing KKK marches and parades in the Philadelphia suburbs and in the neighboring town of West Chester, formerly called Turk’s Head. These marches were usually small and occurred without incident but in the city of Philadelphia itself the KKK”s presence was more rumor and innuendo than actual fact. The mention of the made-for-TV movie, Roots, however, is an accurate portrayal of the mood of the city in 1977, when race-related issues and concerns were becoming hot topics in the press. Jones’ captivating preaching style had the rollicking cadence of an old time Baptist preacher mixed with the verbal acuity of a Spoken Arts poet. The power and energy in his voice had a sort of messianic fire that held listeners spellbound.
It is doubtful that any of Jones’s Philadelphia listeners in 1977 were aware that as a young kid growing up in Indiana, Jones would kill cats and small animals and then force the kids in the neighborhood to attend the funeral services he would arrange for the dead pets. It is also doubtful that Jones’s Philadelphia followers were aware that Peoples Temple was a gay-affirming church, unlike the bulk of black churches in Philadelphia at the time.
The mid-1970s was a traumatic time for gay rights organizations in the city. The Reverend Melvin Floyd, a former Philadelphia cop who had established Neighborhood Crusades, Inc. with offices on West Queen Lane in Germantown, dedicated his life to ministering to gangs and troubled youth, most notably in the black community. He also fought against street crime, absentee fathers and drug dealing. He was famous in the city for his one-of-a-kind van, which was outfitted with a stuffed dummy’s torso sitting up in a coffin on the van’s roof. The corpse-dummy was supposed to represent the danger and stupidity of taking drugs. Floyd was a controversial but powerful figure in the black community in the 1970s but gay activists often referred him to as a bigot and a homophobe when it came to gay rights. In 1976, one year before Jim Jones gave his 1977 talk on North Broad Street, Floyd was awarded the prestigious Philadelphia Bar Association Award, The Edward Bok Philadelphia Award for his neighborhood activism. The award explains the ambiguity many Philadelphia leaders at the time felt about gay rights.
Much of Floyd’s activism included his opposition to the first Philadelphia gay rights bills that were being proposed in City Council. The bills called for a ban against the discrimination of homosexuals in housing and employment. Rev. Floyd testified at an early City Council meeting and said, “The one thing about everything else that can destroy that kind of manhood is to come up with a generation or generations of homosexual black males.”
Floyd was not alone in his opposition to what was often referred to as “the legitimatization of homosexuality into law.” A multiplicity of churches and religious organizations set up tables near Philadelphia City Hall and promoted the signing of petitions to stop gay rights from being enshrined into law. City Council Bill 1275 was one such bill that never made it out of committee; the suppression of the bill caused an eruption of angry protestors in City Council chambers, mainly lesbians who belonged to an activist group called DYKETATICS. The city was fairly well polarized on the gay rights issue with some church groups, mainly black, telling passersby through bullhorns that the sin of homosexuality caused homosexuals to have rotten teeth.
This prejudice, of course, was in direct opposition to the philosophy of Peoples Temple.
In “A Queer Look at Jonestown,” Irene Monroe wrote about the Peoples Temple for the LA Progressive:
As an “open and affirming” church that welcomed LGBTQs in the era of the Florida sunshine homophobe poster-girl Anita Bryant and her “Save the Children” campaign, the Peoples Temple was a safe and sacred sanctuary. The Peoples Temple marched in Gay Pride and embraced a social gospel of radical inclusion. Jones had a sizeable LGBTQ following that kept growing, as did his African American audience. The LGBTQ community followed Jones and expanded in numbers at each church he had from Indiana, Ukiah, and San Francisco to Guyana. LGBTQ parishioners were involved in every aspect of church life, governance, and activities.
Over a period of several months I conducted many interviews with Lori Garcia. One of the topics that most interested me was how her husband, Tommy Garcia, a boy born in Los Angeles, wound up in Woodmont as the adopted son of Mother and Father Divine. Lori Garcia was forthcoming when speaking to me about how an anonymous little brown boy from Los Angeles wound up in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania.
But that is another story.
Jim Jones chose about two hundred of his most dedicated followers to accompany him on the trip. He explained that Father Divine had failed and that he died before completing his life’s work. Jones had long ago come to understand that it was now his calling to lead the Peace Mission down the same “socialist” path followed by Peoples Temple.
Peoples Temple buses took almost three days to make the cross-country trip. According to Jeff Guinn in The Road to Jonestown, Jim Jones and Peoples Temple, stops along the way were made only for gas and bathroom breaks. When they arrived in Philadelphia, Temple members were housed in Peace Mission apartments although Jones himself stayed at Woodmont. Later, Jones and the members were taken on a tour of the property and treated to a banquet where the dessert was ice cream shaped like flower petals. Mother Divine invited Jones to make a few remarks; he praised the ministry and memory of Father Divine. By all accounts it was a pleasant evening.
The Temple visitors stayed a second day, during which Jones spent time talking with Mother Divine. Jones, however, was dissatisfied. That night there was another gathering for dinner, a barbeque with all the trappings and Jones stood up to speak again. This time his tone was critical. He condemned the Peace Mission and its luxurious trappings, and told the assembly that Father Divine had “conferred his mantle” on Jim Jones. “His spirit has come to rest in my body,” he said.
Mother Divine took offense and ordered Jones and his people to leave the Woodmont estate.
Ginn writes:
The drive back to Mendocino County was tense. When they arrived, Jones gathered the followers who’d made the trip and explained that what had happened at Woodmont was not his fault. Mother Divine had been enthusiastic about merging their ministries under Jones’ leadership, so much so that, after maneuvering so they were alone, she tore open her blouse and insisted that they have sex. Jones refused—‘She flaunted her sagging breasts in my face but I wasn’t tempted.’ This was why she had ordered him and his followers to leave Woodmont.
When Father Divine was alive, both he and Mother Divine knew that Jim Jones had his eye on Woodmont. According to Lori Garcia, wife of Tommy Garcia, the adopted son of Mother and Father Divine, Jones wanted to take over the Peace Mission movement when Father Divine passed away. According to Lori Garcia, her husband Tommy was present at least two times when Jones and his group visited Woodmont. The first was at a banquet but the second time the group visited Mother Divine took Tommy aside and said,
“It is not safe for you to be here,” and had a bodyguard take him to another Peace Mission building. At the other meetings between Jones and Mother and Father Divine, Jones often spoke in churches in Center City Philadelphia. At one rally in 1977, after his eviction from Woodmont, he spoke to a large group of followers on North Broad Street. At that time several followers spoke about cancer and bone-related miracle cures they had received from Jones. There were hymns and then Jones himself, his charismatic voice rousing the crowd into a frenzy of ‘Amens,’ would address the people.
At the 1977 rally, Jim Jones said:
It is written; the love of money is the root of all evil. Love of money is the root of all evil. That’s marvelous. Said that they got the Ku Klux Klan here in Philadelphia now too, and they’re wanting equal time because of Roots. That’s- That’s the thing. That’s all they can see out of Roots, out of our precious people that suffered and bled and died, and then they made us think we made it.
While there was no solid Ku Klux Klan presence in Philadelphia in the 1970s, there were scattered attempts at organizing KKK marches and parades in the Philadelphia suburbs and in the neighboring town of West Chester, formerly called Turk’s Head. These marches were usually small and occurred without incident but in the city of Philadelphia itself the KKK”s presence was more rumor and innuendo than actual fact. The mention of the made-for-TV movie, Roots, however, is an accurate portrayal of the mood of the city in 1977, when race-related issues and concerns were becoming hot topics in the press. Jones’ captivating preaching style had the rollicking cadence of an old time Baptist preacher mixed with the verbal acuity of a Spoken Arts poet. The power and energy in his voice had a sort of messianic fire that held listeners spellbound.
It is doubtful that any of Jones’s Philadelphia listeners in 1977 were aware that as a young kid growing up in Indiana, Jones would kill cats and small animals and then force the kids in the neighborhood to attend the funeral services he would arrange for the dead pets. It is also doubtful that Jones’s Philadelphia followers were aware that Peoples Temple was a gay-affirming church, unlike the bulk of black churches in Philadelphia at the time.
The mid-1970s was a traumatic time for gay rights organizations in the city. The Reverend Melvin Floyd, a former Philadelphia cop who had established Neighborhood Crusades, Inc. with offices on West Queen Lane in Germantown, dedicated his life to ministering to gangs and troubled youth, most notably in the black community. He also fought against street crime, absentee fathers and drug dealing. He was famous in the city for his one-of-a-kind van, which was outfitted with a stuffed dummy’s torso sitting up in a coffin on the van’s roof. The corpse-dummy was supposed to represent the danger and stupidity of taking drugs. Floyd was a controversial but powerful figure in the black community in the 1970s but gay activists often referred him to as a bigot and a homophobe when it came to gay rights. In 1976, one year before Jim Jones gave his 1977 talk on North Broad Street, Floyd was awarded the prestigious Philadelphia Bar Association Award, The Edward Bok Philadelphia Award for his neighborhood activism. The award explains the ambiguity many Philadelphia leaders at the time felt about gay rights.
Much of Floyd’s activism included his opposition to the first Philadelphia gay rights bills that were being proposed in City Council. The bills called for a ban against the discrimination of homosexuals in housing and employment. Rev. Floyd testified at an early City Council meeting and said, “The one thing about everything else that can destroy that kind of manhood is to come up with a generation or generations of homosexual black males.”
Floyd was not alone in his opposition to what was often referred to as “the legitimatization of homosexuality into law.” A multiplicity of churches and religious organizations set up tables near Philadelphia City Hall and promoted the signing of petitions to stop gay rights from being enshrined into law. City Council Bill 1275 was one such bill that never made it out of committee; the suppression of the bill caused an eruption of angry protestors in City Council chambers, mainly lesbians who belonged to an activist group called DYKETATICS. The city was fairly well polarized on the gay rights issue with some church groups, mainly black, telling passersby through bullhorns that the sin of homosexuality caused homosexuals to have rotten teeth.
This prejudice, of course, was in direct opposition to the philosophy of Peoples Temple.
In “A Queer Look at Jonestown,” Irene Monroe wrote about the Peoples Temple for the LA Progressive:
As an “open and affirming” church that welcomed LGBTQs in the era of the Florida sunshine homophobe poster-girl Anita Bryant and her “Save the Children” campaign, the Peoples Temple was a safe and sacred sanctuary. The Peoples Temple marched in Gay Pride and embraced a social gospel of radical inclusion. Jones had a sizeable LGBTQ following that kept growing, as did his African American audience. The LGBTQ community followed Jones and expanded in numbers at each church he had from Indiana, Ukiah, and San Francisco to Guyana. LGBTQ parishioners were involved in every aspect of church life, governance, and activities.
Over a period of several months I conducted many interviews with Lori Garcia. One of the topics that most interested me was how her husband, Tommy Garcia, a boy born in Los Angeles, wound up in Woodmont as the adopted son of Mother and Father Divine. Lori Garcia was forthcoming when speaking to me about how an anonymous little brown boy from Los Angeles wound up in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania.
But that is another story.
