When Pope's talk shop

From "Heaven's Gate", if you didn't know.

No, I didn't know. Somewhere around here I have a toon I did: a kid with a tee shirt that said. "My parents committed suicide at heaven's gate and all I got was this lousy tee shirt".

By-the-way, "Heaven's Gate" above is in reference to the movie (that's Christopher Walken, or possibly Jon Voight, I'm too lazy to check at the moment) that was considered an enormous hundreds of millions of dollars failure that destroyed a studio, but in retrospect was a pretty good movie.

Was Jim Jones compound called Heaven's Gate? It's been a while.

Yup, PiousIgnatious has it correct.

Jimmy Boy's compound was Jonetown.

Heaven's Gate was the one in San Diego that committed suicide when the Hale-Bopp comet rolled through. Their website's still up.

Ah, yes. There was some Oregon (where I live) connection to Heaven's Gate. Well I think they were all wearing Nike shoes, but beyond that. They may have done much of their early recruiting here.

Thanks, Pious Ignatious.

Heavens Gate, prior to their suicides, IIRC, the guys mutilated their genitals. Some BS about purification from sin. I'd pass.

Jonestown, OTOH, Jones understood new disciples are born as well as converted. How many of the children he gathered, like in most questionable cults, is up for debate

You're very knowledgeable about cults for a stand-up comic. (Do I have that right?)

I studied journalism in high school, so learned to try and have some idea of a lot of subjects. Just noticed above auto correct put gathered instead of fathered. I was a newly married man when Jonestown happened. It was impossible for the average American to avoid it. So, while not there, I probably assimilated more information, and retained it, than most. I read whatever strikes my fancy. Religion? I can argue either way. I have family that are in the ministry, considered it for a short time, myself before I left the church. One thing I noticed was cults are run by charismatic men that end up using them for their own lusts.

Yeah, I remember Jonestown being all over the news, even before the mass suicide. I've read the newspapers since I was a kid and have several magazine subscriptions; mostly history and archaeology but I particularly treasure my subscription to The Economist for current events. I have a religion minor (along with history major and sociology minor) and was a believer but fell out of the church when my faith in science overpowered it. Still respect Jesus' teachings, just don't abide the paganistic aspects of miracles and ritual and don't like conservative interpretations given the faith nowadays. I was never a particularly pious person regardless.