<Tr> <Th> Members </Th> <Td> 3,000--5,000 (over 20,000 claimed but not substantiated) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Ministers </Th> <Td> James Warren "Jim" Jones </Td> </Tr> <P> The Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ, commonly shortened to Peoples Temple, was a new religious movement founded in 1955 by Jim Jones in Indianapolis, Indiana . Jones used the Peoples Temple to spread a message that combined elements of Christianity with communist and socialist ideas, as well as an emphasis on racial equality . </P> <P> The Peoples Temple is best known for the events of November 18, 1978 in Guyana, when 918 people died in a mass murder / suicide at its remote settlement, named "Jonestown", as well as the murders of U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan and members of his visiting delegation in nearby Port Kaituma . The mass suicide and killings at Jonestown resulted in the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks . </P>

What was the purpose of the peoples temple
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