The article “ The Devil in Mr. Jones” by Jonathan Z. Smith focuses on Jim Jones, a man who created a large and thriving community where on the surface he preached equality and between genders and races, but in reality failed to achieve this harmonious vision. Jones’ thesis utters that if you want to understand Jonestown, you have to look at humanity because refusing to understand Jonestown was refusing to fully commit yourself to the study of religion. The author reinforces “Nothing is foreign to me” through recognition of the ordinary humanness Jonestown’s White Night victims. To begin, after watching the short film about Jonestown, I found it a funny coincidence that Post Malone released his new album “beerbongs and bentleys” including a song called “Jonestown”. The interlude of Malone’s song repeats …show more content…
The issue arises when we take other people and see them differently since you cannot pathologize the 914 people who drank the cyanide beverage. Smith says we need to focus on what we do not necessarily like, which in turn opens up nuanced interpretations. Contrarily, by turning Jones into a monster and those into Jonestown into fanatics, you are isolating the topic of religion. In an article called “Drinking The Kool-Aid: A Survivor Remembers Jim Jones”, Teri Buford O'Shea answers the following question: “You want people to remember the good parts of Jonestown. What were the good parts?” O’Shea admits that Jim Jones did not represent the good in Jonestown, however it was the people, who in reality, were not inherently bad. She says, “They came from every walk of life, from the very well educated to the uneducated. Some had lots of money. Some were living off of Social Security, and some didn't even have that.” The problem remained with Jim Jones’ luring methods as he constantly pinpointed what the innocent inhabitants needed and then brought them in