Book Review: Slavery of Faith

BIOGRAPHICAL ENTRY

Wagner-Wilson, Leslie, Slavery of Faith, New York, Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, Inc., 2008, 205 pp.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF AUTHOR

Leslie Monique Wagner-Wilson is a survivor of the Jonestown, Guyana massacre. Led by pastor Jim Jones 918 members of People’s Temple Disciples of Christ Church were murdered on the morning of November 18, 1978. Wagner-Wilson credits the Spirit and her faith for her escape and her victory over life struggles over thirty years after the demise of Jonestown.

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

.

Chapter 1: The First Attempt: Leslie senses that something is wrong. She devises a plan of escape. She hides her glasses so that she will be allowed to go to Georgetown to get new ones. When she gets back home, her husband confronts her; showing her the old pair of glasses that he has found.

Chapter 2: Childhood Memories: Leslie and her sister Michelle live on a farm with their grandparents until their mother arrives with a white man named Richard Wagner and the girls go to live with them. Richard adopts the girls and a son, Mark, is born. Leslie is ten years old when the family moves to an ethnic community.

Chapter 3: And Times, They Are a Changing: Richard and Leslie divorce. The family moves to Acacia Lane in Santa Rosa, a small college town. Michelle gets involved in drugs. The Viet Nam War is full force. Leslie joins peace marchers and begins to drink wine. Leslie attends middle school. Leslie finds it hard to choose sides along racial lines because she comes from an interracial family and her brother Mark is biracial. One of Michelle’s friends tells her about a place called People’s Temple which has a drug treatment center for teenagers.

Chapter 4: Redwood Valley, Here We Come: The family begins to attend People’s Temple in Redwood Valley. It is a racially mixed congregation, and Jim Jones is pastor. In 1970 the family moves to Redwood Valley. Leslie is thirteen years old. Pastor Jones is called Father. The church believes in socialism because they are helping the poor people. Leslie travels to various cities doing evangelism and soliciting money for the church’s ministries. She holds several jobs, and meets her first boyfriend. The church begins to establish other churches in other cities.

Chapter 5: The Teacher and Lover: Leslie and Matthew date for more than one year and break up. She meets Joe and falls in love. She moves in with him and two other friends move in and become a part of their family. The Temple take a summer trip to Atlanta where Leslie is confronted with discrimination based on skin color for the first time. Joe attempts suicide because of pressure from Leslie’s mother. The church confronts Leslie because she spends too much money on material things. Leslie graduates, turns 18 and plans for marriage. Joe confesses having affairs with two other women. After they break up Leslie learns that she is pregnant.

Chapter 6: And Now There Are Three: Joe and Leslie reconcile and get married in the San Francisco Temple. They continue to work, and they have a son and name him Jakari. Leslie and Joe lose their jobs so Leslie moves to the city with her sister. She finds work at the Hilton. She becomes involved in night life and it is the beginning of her descent into hell.

Chapter 7: The Tables Had Turned: Leslie is 19 years old. She wants to get away from the church because of the abuse that the church inflicts on its members. The church is becoming a powerful political force deeply involved in Socialism. Leslie and Joe separate, and Joe keep their son Jakari. Leslie begins to party. She experiences the drug culture, and she is raped. The church is criticized and Jim moves to Guyana, taking Jakari with him. Feeling guilty, Leslie gives in to the churches demand that she move to Guyana.

Chapter 8: Going Over Yonder: Leslie moves to Jonestown where she is reunited with her son Jakari. She begins to feel good about herself because she is working for the common good. The climate is different. The work on the farm is hard. Leslie becomes interested in medicine and works in the medical clinic. Leslie and Joe see each other, sharing time together with Jakari. Finally, Joe and Leslie get back together.

Chapter 9: The Color of Socialism: Leslie experiences discrimination for the first time. The mass exodus from the states continues. This marks the point at which Leslie goes to Georgetown to get prescription for new glasses. Leslie’s disloyalty is discovered, and she experiences criticism and isolation from her family. There is lots of disease and sickness in the camp. Work is hard and Jim becomes more paranoia. White Nights begin with Jim telling the people that they might have to commit suicide. The Guyana government turns against the church. Everyone mistrust the others. Emotional and spiritual deprivation increases. Some plan to leave, but no one knows who to trust. Leslie begins to realize that her faith in God remains.

Chapter 10: Liberty or Death?: The Concerned Relatives join forces with Congressman Leo Ryan who comes to Jonestown to investigate the situation. Leslie with her son and her group escape and are rescued by Guyana policemen. Leslie learns that her husband, sister and brother, and mother are dead. The FBI, the State department, and Department of Treasury question survivors of Jonestown. They are returned to the states. Leslie stays with Joe’s parents in New Jersey, and then she goes to California to be with her grandparents.

Chapter 11: Returning to Where it Began: Leslie and Jakari arrive in Sacramento. Leslie suffers from Post Traumatic and Survivor’s Guilt. She finds employment and moves from one relationship to another. Jakari lives with his great grandpa and grandma and they spoil him. Leslie is living with Scott and Jakari when she meets Nicholas and this leads to her break up with Scott.

Chapter 12: The 1980’s.: Leslie continues her relationship with Nicholas. He is AWOL from the military and becomes abusive, so Leslie breaks the relationship. Leslie continues a lifestyle of various jobs and relationships. She becomes addicted to cocaine and gets involved in a money scheme that lands her in jail. Grandpa commits suicide. She marries Thomas, but after their son is born they break up. Jakari, now in High school, test out as freshman level of college. Working with Jakari’s teacher Leslie is introduced to Islam.

Chapter 13: 1990’s: Leslie reconnects with family and friends of the past. Leslie moves the family to Atlanta. Leslie gives up Islam and begins to try to develop her relationship with God. She meets Dean a convicted felon who introduces her to some important people. Their relationship last three years, and it is a great loss when the relationship ends. Life continues to have its difficulties, but Leslie continues to develop her faith in God.

Chapter 14: Is It Over Yet?: Leslie and her family move back to California. Ten months later grandma passes. Leslie is summoned back to Atlanta by her lawyers to resolve the lawsuit about her broken ankle. She lives in assisted housing, first in a hotel, and then in a church provided shelter. Later she lives in Transitional housing with other families. She finds various places of employment. Then she moves back to California and marries Thomas, her youngest son’s father. She gets her real estate license. Jakari moves to California, and her oldest daughter goes to college in New York. Her marriage to Thomas is in trouble.

Chapter 15: Peace at Last: Leslie starts on a deeper spiritual journey. Thomas refuses to get involved and he files for divorce. Leslie writes letters to her two older children and takes a flight back to Atlanta. There she writes the manuscripts to this book. She researches the names of those who died in Jonestown. She asks that the names of the deceased are read aloud and remembered.

CRITICAL EVALUATION

Slavery of Faith reveals the life of a thirteen year old coming of age in the heart of Peoples Temple Disciples of Christ Church where Pastor Jim Jones started out leading the congregation to work to improve their community. Eventually, he exhorted the people to consider him divine. From Indianapolis, Indiana to California to Jonestown, Guyana the church moved about. In Jonestown the followers suffer hunger, suicide drills, sleep deprivation, drugging, and humiliation. Leslie attempts to escape Jonestown with her two year old son. The people drank poison and 918 followers died November 18, 1978. Slavery of Faith chronicles Wagner-Wilson’s return to the U.S. under a veil of secrecy and fear. She survives survivor’s guilt, drug addiction, a family suicide. Her journey through psychological and spiritual jungles brings her to a place of redemption.

Chapter 1 begins with a description of the church in Guyana. Chapter 2 returns to childhood memories. As one reads through the first four chapters ones gets a picture of Leslie’s early childhood. Grandpa and Grandma are described as the central influences in Leslie and her sister Michelle’s life. Although grandpa is an influential person in the church, Leslie gives no description of how church and worship of God is shaping her life. Later, in Jonestown Leslie prays to God. Michelle becomes addicted to drugs and a friend tells her about People’s Temple that has a drug program.

Leslie describes life in the church in terms of its political roll in America. Although the church carries the name of Christ, there is no mention of Christ being the source of spiritual life. Christian morality and ethics are apparently absent in the church marked by Pastor Jim being called Divine and Father. He openly brags about his sexual exploits. One senses that discipleship is explained in Socialism and communal living. Jim Jones masterfully manipulates the people using scare tactics, abuse, and brainwashing, and even the call for death by suicide.

This book show how easy it is for people to get caught up in a situation in which they are easily deceived because of their sense of need. It shows the side of human nature in which people need to belong. People lose their sense of self worth and self esteem as they allow themselves to surrender their true desires and their beliefs for the sake of being accepting in the group.

After returning to the states Leslie continues to live an unstable lifestyle. There is a sense of need that is met in various relationships and drugs as she suppresses her memory of Jonestown. All alone she expresses a belief in God, but there is no evidence that Leslie is aware of that God has anything to say about how she lives her life. Throughout the book, Leslie seems unaware that her lifestyle and life choices are at the root of her problems.

Leslie’s greatest need is to remember the Jonestown experience. This book project is the means by which she allows herself to escape the darkness of her suppression of the memory of what took place on that dreadful November day. Leslie does not go into many details about Jim and the church. Her goal is to give an account of her own life. How did her early childhood lead to her becoming a member of People’s Temple? How did life in the church further contribute to her lifestyle? Why did Leslie find it hard to be open with others about her life as a member of People’s Temple? Leslie informs us that time and faith given to her by the Spirit helped her to recover from her struggles, and this allows her to remember Jonestown and the people that lost their lives that fateful November day.

The value of this book for Christians is that it shows the need for one to develop their relationship to Christ and their need to strive to become true disciples of Jesus Christ.