Pat Robertson Dies

@bijouxbroussard Like so many, he likely started out far differently. I see this happen often on a less visible level. I also know that James Jones started out doing some wonderful things.

@originnone I saw Jim Jones speak in SF in the mid-70s when I went with some neighbors to a "new church" they’d discovered. I had no interest in going back, but apparently he spoke to a need they had and they went along when his followers relocated to Guyana. They’re resting in a cemetery over in Oakland now. I was away at college when they all died. Jim Jones was the son of a Klansman in Indiana, but was to draw so many blacks to his cult. Over 900 people died with him. I remember my grandmother saying sadly, "In the end, he made his papa proud…" 🥺

@bijouxbroussard Yeah, you and I talked about it. I've actually told many people your story. I was in Indiana at the same time he was there...didn't know he was the son of a klansman, but I knew he did a lot of good for poor people and preached a lot about equality (at least that's what I've read). like many, he let it go to his head....at least that's what I've read.....

@bijouxbroussard You've seen him live? Wow! It hit close to home for my family, who knew some of the victims' families.

Rosalie Wright left her home in Belmont, moved into the Stanford Court Hotel in San Francisco and bought a Beretta .380 semi-automatic pistol. The 35-year-old editor of New West magazine was threatened by the Peoples Temple against publishing an expose of Jim Jones. Phone calls at 2 a.m. to Wright’s home warned her: “Don’t do it.”

But Wright, who took firearm instruction at Coyote Point in San Mateo, ran the magazine story that detailed how guards patrolled the aisles during temple services on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco. New West told about the temple newspaper ‘Peoples Forum’ exalting socialism and forecasting a government takeover by American Nazis. And about former temple members talking of “regimentation, fear and self-imposed humiliation.”

Upon seeing the expose, Jim Jones decided to move his cult to Guyana. Sixteen months later, they were all dead, along with Leo Ryan, our Congressman, Ryan. In the 1972 election, he was the nominee of both the Democratic and Republican parties.

He posed as an inmate, at Folsom prison, to push for prison reform. Personally confronted hunters clubbing baby seals to death in the Arctic Circle. So, it was natural for him, to go to Guyana personally, when his San Mateo constituents asked him to intrvene.

Drinking the Kool Aid. People should have learned 43 years ago, but MAGA proves they did not.

@Northwest I know some young people who don't know what drinking the kool aid means.

@bijouxbroussard Christianity recruits people to atheism and the Pagan path.

They'll have to fence off Robinson's grave. It will become a permanent open air latrine.

@bijouxbroussard You are such an intetesting person. Your stories really fascinate me.

@Northwest You people have such a more interesting life than I do. It makes SW worthwhile.

@Pitchblue An accident of birth...

@Northwest The James Jones saga is a fascinating one to study, as I have exhaustingly...I have a weird interest in cults. But in the end Jones was just a narcissistic egotist who sexually exploited women. Just another a$$hole when push comes to shove.

@originnone Maybe Trump should have his followers all drink some cool-aid with the same result 😁