Indianapolis Recorder: Militant Pastor – Transcript

“Militant Pastor Wins Fight for Draft Exemption.”Indianapolis Recorder, March 2, 1957, p. 16 – Transcript || Annotation || Archive || Back


The pastor of an interracial church has been granted ministerial exception from the draft after the Indianapolis NAACP Board and various citizens issued statements in his behalf recently.

Rev. James W. Jones, pastor of the People’s Temple, thoroughly integrated church at 1502 N. New Jersey, was reclassified as 4-D but later his classification was changed to 3-A. His appeal for ministerial status at that time was denied both by the local board and the state appeal board.

The NAACP and several ministers and citizens last week sent statements to the Bloomington board testifying that the People’s Temple is a bonafide church and Rev. Jones is its legitimate full time pastor.

Interested persons said they were concerned about the issue of religious liberty as well as the maintenance of a church which does not recognized color lines. The young minister has been in “hot water” with orthodox ecclesiastical authorities ever since the start of his militant crusade against segregation.

The time and station of the People’s Temple television program were started erroneously in a recent issue of The Recorder. The program is on station WFBM-TV at 8:15 each Sunday morning.