Jonestown and the Disciples of Christ

Come on, you guys, I’m getting lonely out here. We’ve got a requirement to post to this blog….where are all of you? With or without you, I’m moving forward—although it would be nice to get some push back.

I regularly read Disciples World, the monthly publication of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the sister denomination to mine, United Church of Christ. In the November issue, the cover articles are about the Jonestown Massacres. For those of you too young to remember, thirty years ago, Rev. James Jones, an ordained minister of the Disciples, led a congregation of about 1,000 people into a jungle outpost in Guyana, South America. There, what began as a utopia of a diverse, interracial congregation dedicated to serving the poor, homeless, and those in need of medical care became a nightmare in which over 900 people died in a “revolutionary suicide” to use Jones’ term by purposely (and some against their will) ingesting poisoned Kool-Aid.

There have been many ethical questions that have faced the denomination in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy. And those of us who are old enough to remember the awful incident will probably never be able to rid our retinas of the photos of the dead lying together, holding each other.

Like my denomination, the Disciples have no hierarchy, no bishop, or pope to oversee individual congregations. Jesus is the head of the church. A local church can call anyone to be their pastor and the Disciples have no authority to remove such a pastor…even one not ordained by the Disciples.

The Jonestown situation was very complex. There were prominent politicians involved, there was the actual substantial service to the poor by the congregation, and there were reports of increasing bizarre behavior by Rev. Jim Jones. But the denomination was unable to confront Jones with the issues because he was in South America. The denomination’s rules require a pastor to review the charges against him/her prior to being held in discussion about the issues. Jones was not coming back to the California/Nevada regional conference. Therefore, no charges were ever discussed.

I think the outcome of this whole dreadful story is interesting. In this issue, the Disciples recognize that their ideal of congregational freedom was at the root of the tragedy. Yet, they met afterward and decided not to change their policies. They still have no way to police ministers that go over the edge. And the same is true in my own denomination. The Disciples acknowledge in this issue of Disciples World that the same thing could happen again. I suppose it could in my own denomination.

So the ethical issue becomes, when does a nominative belief (congregational liberty) become potentially hurtful? Does the denomination curtail a nominative belief in order to prevent an outlaw relational belief by a rogue pastor? How does a denomination (which is always diverse) make a decision about a normative belief that is so potentially risky and that has proven to be disastrous?

Readers of the issue will assuredly register their ethic opinions in the December issue. What is your opinion?