---

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 18, 1993                   TAG: 9304200398
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

---

METHODISTS SPURNED JIM JONES

THE MARCH 28 edition of the Roanoke Times & World-News carried an insightful article by Cody Lowe about cults. The article was based upon Lowe's interview with Radford Prof. Rick Slavings. In it the statement was made: "Jim Jones, the former Methodist minister who led the Jonestown cult, did the most cunning thing."

I wish to take exception to the reference to Jones as being a former Methodist minister. Methodists have had our share of errant clergy, but Jones was not one of them. True, he had Methodist roots, but when he came before the annual conference examining committee, he was refused ordination. It was then that he turned to the Disciples of Christ Church. He was ordained in Indianapolis in 1964 by the Broadway Christian Center, a Disciples service project.

Of course, it can be further said that the Guyana colony of Jonestown was totally unrelated to the Disciples denomination. REV. JAMES W. REYNOLDS SALEM

---