I never knew all this about these people, or Jones. Hmmmm.
The real, or more largely accurate, story about the Peoples Temple’s long history and goals is coming out with the wider release of their tapes and documents.
They were rather radical communists and atheists that had used the old Pentecostal recruiting methods Jim had observed in his rural Indiana childhood to recruit newbies to the cause. They also employed organized weekly bus trips to places where they conducted fake faith healings for the locals and sold “blessed” prayer cloths to try to raise money. While this was overtly dishonest, especially given their atheist beliefs, they pretty brazenly employed an ends-justify-the-means decision-making process. If selling fake hopes or even beating members to enforce discipline would make their utopian vision for humanity more likely in 100 years, then it was worth doing. People being out a little money or hurting a bit was a small price to pay, so the reasoning goes.