Branch Davidians

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Branch Davidians ( English for Davidian branch or split from the Davidians ) are a small American religious community that split off in 1955 from the Davidian Seventh Day Adventists , which in turn are former Seventh-day Adventist members who were excommunicated in the 1930s . Later, however, the Branch Davidians were urged by their leader David Koresh to refer to themselves as "students of the seven seals ."

Formative for the Branch Davidians, as for all Adventists , is the millenarian belief that they will live in the end times before the Last Judgment .

The Branch Davidians are best known for the 51-day federal siege of their settlement, Mount Carmel Center near Waco , Texas , in 1993, in which 82 members were killed, including their leader, David Koresh.

history

The Davidians

In 1928, Victor Houteff, a Bulgarian immigrant, claimed he had a new revelation for Seventh-day Adventists. He delivered this in the form of a book called The Shepherd's Rod (" The Shepherd's Rod "). His statements were not accepted and were viewed as divisive by the leadership, as he commented on developments that he viewed as drifting from the basic doctrines and standards of the church. That is why he and his followers were excommunicated.

In 1935, Houteff set up his headquarters outside of Waco. Until 1942 his movement was known simply as "Shepherd's Rod", but when Houteff deemed a formal association to be necessary so that members could be recognized as conscientious objectors , he renamed his group to "Seventh-day Adventists Davidian". The term "Davidian" refers to the re-establishment of the Kingdom of David . Houteff instructed the Davidians to evangelize only Adventists .

After Houteff's death in 1955, a split from his movement formed the "Branch Davidian Seventh Day Adventists", originally led by Benjamin Roden. The group set up a settlement on the site outside of Waco that the other Davidians had previously used. In 1977 Roden's wife Lois claimed to have also received a revelation that the Holy Spirit was female, which led to a big argument in the group. When Roden died the following year, her son George attempted to take over the reins, claiming he was the group's rightful prophet . However, his mother Lois successfully fought this attempt.

The Branch Davidians

In 1981, Vernon Wayne Howell, who would later change its name to David Koresh, joined the group as a regular member. In September 1983, Lois Roden allowed him to teach his own revelations, giving him the opportunity to build his own following before the group split in early 1984. Lois was also rejected by the Canadian Davidian Charles Pace.

In the spring of 1984, at Passover time, a kind of general meeting of all Branch Davidians was held on Mount Carmel, at which the group split into several smaller groups, one of which was loyal to Howell. Thereupon George Roden first expelled him and later also Pace of the area.

Howell went to Palestine , Texas with his followers , while Pace went to Gadsden, Alabama . However, when George Roden got into trouble around 1988 - he was in jail for disobeying the court - Howell took over the disputed property in his absence. According to the will of Lois Roden, who died in 1986, Teresa Moore should have continued her work with Irmine Sampson. In 1990 Howell finally changed his name to David Koresh, alluding to the biblical King David and the Persian King Cyrus the Great . Both David and Cyrus are mentioned in the Old Testament in connection with the figure of the Messiah , the prophesied savior for the people of Israel . Koresh claimed to belong in this row too. Under his leadership, the community lived mostly withdrawn, but had connections to Waco and the surrounding areas. The Davidians ran several companies to finance it, including an arms trade at gun shows .

The community believes in a variant of the belief of all Seventh-day Adventists, according to which the earth is only about 6,000 years old since creation ( Young Earth Creationism ). But if 1000 years are like one day before God ( Psalm 90 : 4  EU ), the seventh day would begin now, which at the same time would mean the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth as determined in the Revelation of John . Revelation makes pictorial predictions for the time of upheaval before the advent of this kingdom of peace, which Koresh interpreted using his visions . Accordingly, he himself would be the Lamb of God , who is assigned a special role in Revelation in connection with the opening of the book of the seven seals . It is controversial whether he thereby identified himself with Jesus Christ .

In the early 1990s, 130 Davidians lived on Mount Carmel. Koresh demanded sexual abstinence from the male members of his group , which for him as the Lamb of God was not considered. With the women of the group he fathered a number of children who were referred to as Children of the New Light and whom he promised a special role in God's plan of salvation . In addition, due to the conflicts predicted in Revelation between worldly power and the company of God, the group expected a confrontation with state authorities and armed themselves. All members, including children, have been trained in the use of firearms .

Internal disputes between group members resulted in dropouts publicly and to authorities calling the community a sect and reporting it to various authorities. Allegations included sexual abuse of children by Koresh, visa violations by members of the non-American community and illegal gun possession.

The Davidians then invited representatives of the youth welfare office to their premises, who inspected the living conditions of the children and spoke to them. However, the community avoided giving information about their biological parents. Koresh spoke personally to the Waco sheriff on allegations of possession of illegal weapons and tried to clarify which specific weapons would be allowed. However, because of the complicated gun laws, it is likely that the local sheriff did not know all of the laws. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was investigating Koresh and his Davidians on suspicion of gun and drug law violations and child abuse, and dispatched an undercover agent to the compound who appeared to be religious and both should educate the stock of weapons as well as the personalities of community leaders. Although the Davidians quickly exposed him, they allowed him to participate in their community because their missionary conviction required that they take every opportunity to spread their faith.

The siege

Mount Carmel during the siege
Branch Davidians flag that was hoisted on Mount Carmel during the siege.

On February 28, 1993, the ATF attempted a search of Mount Carmel. Due to the widespread theories about sects and the comparison with the mass killing of Jonestown in 1978, the search warrant was carried out in the form of a dynamic entry : A special task force attacked the doors with breaking tools. The Davidians had learned of the imminent search and resisted at gunpoint. Who started the shootout is controversial. Four ATF officers were killed and twenty were shot. There were five fatalities on the Davidian side, three of whom were shot by other members of the group and another five were injured. Special task forces from various authorities have now been called in from the wide area. Armored vehicles advanced and besieged the area. Negotiations were successful in the course of the first 24 hours, and the ATF was able to rescue its injured and dead from the field of fire. From March 1, the FBI took over the command of Mount Carmel, tactical leaders and negotiators of the Hostage Rescue Team led the siege, which lasted 51 days and in which over 700 government officials took part.

The officials considered the methods used in the case of hostage-taking to be appropriate and did not take into account the special situation that it was religious believers who classified their situation in their millenarian worldview. The FBI negotiators consistently assumed that Koresh and a few leaders were using brainwashing and psychological violence to keep the vast majority of the group under control, creating massive psychological pressure.

In contrast, the Davidians saw themselves as independent and voluntary members of a religious community and only wanted to be left in peace by the authorities. Small children, who, according to the Davidians, could not yet decide for themselves about their religious and other matters, were led out of the premises on March 5th and handed over to the youth welfare office. It was agreed that the children should be placed in the families of relatives. Instead, the youth welfare office kept the children together as a group in one facility. This led to further conflict when the youth welfare office sent the Davidians videos showing the children playing and doing everyday activities. The Davidians were appalled that their children were drinking sweetened soft drinks and not living with family members, who, like all Adventists, if less strict than the Davidians, followed their traditional lifestyle.

The Davidians countered the FBI's negotiating tactics by attempting to involve officials in discussions about their beliefs in order to proselytize them. They saw it as a particularly serious violation of their rights by the FBI that the FBI had cut off all communication media of the Davidians. In the course of the negotiations, the FBI offered to broadcast a one-hour Bible exposition on the Revelation of Koresh several times locally and once across the United States on a religious radio station. Koresh saw this as a success and assumed that he could speak to the FBI about religious issues and thereby influence the situation in his favor. The FBI representatives did not understand the importance of theology for the Davidians, so they rejected the offer from James Tabor and Phillip Arnold , two established biblical scholars , to discuss his interpretation of the Bible with Koresh and to convince him that his attitude towards conflict was against the state is not covered by the Holy Scriptures. After about seven weeks of siege, Koresh announced that he and all residents would voluntarily and unarmed after he had completed a theological manuscript in which he wanted to summarize his interpretation of the Revelation for the first time.

After three days, the FBI officials couldn't wait for it, even though Koresh had estimated it at least seven days. On April 19, they used engineering tanks to tear large holes in the walls of the building on different sides, through which they piped CS gas into the building for four hours in the hope of driving the Davidians out. According to other sources, the officials continued to believe that the majority were being held against their will and wanted to use the breaches to give them an opportunity to escape. The cause of the subsequent fire is unclear. The Davidians set fire to the building, according to US government officials and a firefighter who was in direct contact with the ATF. However, it is also believed that the fire may have been started by the CS gas.

76 Davidians died in the fire and from gunshot wounds, including pregnant women, children and David Koresh himself. Only nine residents survived the fire. With reference to the danger that rescue and fire fighters could be shot at by the Davidians, the FBI had withheld the fire engines. The storming was partially broadcast live by several American television stations and attracted worldwide interest.

After the siege

conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theorists have doubted the American government's account from the outset, claiming that the FBI started the fire. On a website, the storming was described as a Holocaust . Former attorney Linda Thompson alleged in two widespread videos that government officials deliberately set the property on fire and shot children; government deaths were due to accidental self- fire . Even from ominous "black helicopters" without identification, which played a major role in conspiracy theories of the 1990s, " CIA- paid thugs" were shot at the Davidians. The development amounts to a military coup in the United States, in which the "private mafia" behind it would use a "combination of drug trafficking, arms trade, lobbying, extortion of MPs and terrorism".

Especially right-wing extremists like the militia movement were affected by the incident. They saw the storming of the Mount Carmel Center as a "wake-up call" and as proof that the government was in the process of establishing a "New World Order" in which the freedom and sovereignty of the United States would be abolished in favor of an anti-Christian world government by the United Nations . To this end, everyone who insists on their right to bear arms guaranteed in the 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution would be eliminated, if necessary by force. In addition to the Waco tragedy, right-wing extremists interpreted the incident at Ruby Ridge in August 1992 and the tightening of gun laws by the Brady Bill of November 1993 as evidence of this alleged conspiracy. Assassin Timothy McVeigh deliberately chose the second anniversary of the storming of Mount Carmel Center as the date for his bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City , which killed 168 people on April 19, 1995. In 1997, Eric Rudolph , the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bomber , confessed to several bomb attacks on abortion clinics and a lesbian bar on behalf of the Army of God , which he justified in retaliation for Waco.

Investigations

The storming of Mount Carmel Center was the subject of several investigations. Twelve of the surviving Davidians had to face criminal proceedings in the late summer of 1993, among other things for murder , incitement and conspiracy to do so, as well as for violating the gun laws. Four of them were completely acquitted; the court did not consider the murder charge to be proven, but sentenced the remaining eight to prison terms, some of which were long for “voluntary manslaughter”, the use of a weapon during a crime and possession of illegal weapons. In several appeal proceedings , these judgments were only partially confirmed: The accusation that the Davidians had used machine guns against agents of the federal government was dismissed as unfounded, and prison sentences were reduced accordingly. In 2007, the last defenders of the Mount Carmel Center were released from custody.

Civil claims for damages brought against the United States government and other federal agencies by survivors and family members of Davidians killed in 1993 have been dismissed.

In 1999 an FBI officer reported that the federal authorities had used pyrotechnic devices during the siege, which had always been denied; These were so-called "Flite-Rite grenades" which release CS gas through a combustion process. In response to this change, Attorney General Janet Reno set up a committee under former Senator John Danforth on September 9 to investigate the storm. During its fourteen months of work, the Danforth Committee sifted through over two million pages of files and heard 1001 witnesses. His final report, published in November 2000, stated that the fire had not been lit or kindled by federal agents, but that the fire inside the building was started by Davidians themselves; Agents of the federal government had therefore not targeted the building complex and used their armed force only within the framework of their jurisdiction and the law; Koresh himself shot several members of his group, including five children, in the course of the siege. The committee members are also convinced that there was no conspiracy or cover-up. The committee members only criticized the fact that the use of the pyrotechnic gas grenades had been kept secret by members of the FBI and the Justice Department for so long. Overall, they came to the conclusion:

"What is remarkable is the overwhelming body of evidence that exonerates the government from the allegations made against it, and the lack of real evidence to support the allegations of malice."

-

Land dispute

After much of Koresh's group died, other Davidians made property claims on the Mount Carmel property. Within a few months, Amo Bishop Roden, George Roden's ex-wife, moved to the property and lived there alone. Charles Pace also moved to the property in 1995.

Most Koresh survivors and supporters, however, consider Clive Doyle to be the rightful administrator of the land. Renos Avraam, one of the imprisoned Davidians, announced that he was receiving a new, prophetic light as the “chosen vessel of the remaining bride”. Most of the survivors, however, disdain his new party of the "hidden manna". In 1996 a court ruled that the land belonged to the Branch Davidian Seventh Day Adventist Church. The judgment did not reveal who exactly this church consists of.

Also in 1996 strained Koresh remaining followers a trial on to the country on the basis of Adverse Possession being awarded. However, this presupposes that the claims are asserted against the party who is currently entitled to the property. Here, however, the followers of Koresh on the one hand referred to themselves and, in contradiction to this, on the other hand, the representatives referred to the other side as “administrators of the church”.

Another Branch Davidian leader, Doug Mitchell, who is also unrelated to Koresh, joined the trial in 1998. Mitchell claims that when Koresh left Mount Carmel in the 1980s, he adopted the name "Davidian Branch Davidian Seventh Day Adventist" for his followers because those who were then "forsaken"; H. Koresh's group forfeited their claim to be true Branch Davidians. During the preliminary proceedings, Mitchell's attempts to obtain an injunction against Koresh's remaining successors prohibiting them from using the Church's name and property were dismissed due to "lack of legal basis". Judge Alan Mayfield said the matter touched church matters that the court could not judge by legal means.

The day before the trial, the 1993 survivors dropped their adverse possession claims and only asked to be viewed as the administrators of the church. Doug Mitchell's claim to be the lawful administrator of the Church was not allowed to trial when the court tried the claims of the survivors and Amo Roden; however, he was allowed to defend himself against the claims of others. In 2000, a court ruled to the detriment of both the survivors and Amo Rodens. On the other hand, they stayed on the site, together with the group around Charles Pace.

Because of the government's behavior in the 1993 battle, the Koresh survivors have received a great deal of sympathy and support from various people and groups around the world who, for various reasons, believed that the government's actions were wrong. This support allowed them to continue to maintain their identity and property claims to the detriment of those Branch Davidian Seventh Day Adventists who opposed Koresh. The opponents cannot lawfully use the site without conflicting with the survivors or with others who are disapproving or indifferent to their claims. They also suffer from the bad reputation Koresh and his followers have brought about the name of the Branch Davidians.

A new chapel was built by the survivors and their supporters near the original complex. The ruins of the old building, including the tornado shelter and the unfinished swimming pool, are open to visitors. There are also various memorials to the victims - both those of the Davidians and the Federal Agents who perished there. Memorial trees with name plaques for each Davidian who passed away were planted on the site. A memorial was also erected on Mount Carmel for the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing .

present

On April 19, 2005, 67 people attended the annual memorial service. At the time, survivor Clive Doyle lived on Mount Carmel with supporter Ron Goins, ran a small visitor museum, and held weekly Bible studies on the Sabbath . Charles Pace and his family also lived on the premises and held services.

However, relationships began to crumble. In August, Pace held a christening service for his followers on Mount Carmel, which Goins joined. This made Doyle the only Koresh supporter on the premises and, he said, came under increasing pressure to either convert or to leave. In February 2006, he finally decided to move to the city and also vacated the visitor museum.

This gave Pace's group sole control of Mount Carmel. Pace had rejected the planting of the row of memorial trees as a "pagan custom" from the start. In the meantime, his group has therefore chopped off David Koresh's tree and destroyed his stone nameplate to prevent it from being used for “ idolatry ”. At the same time, they also removed the panels from the other trees and planned to integrate the stones into their own memorial to the dead. Pace, who is a naturopath, also plans to convert Doyle's former home into a wellness center and the visitor museum into a healthy food and medicinal herbs store.

literature

  • Jayne Docherty: Learning Lessons from Waco. When Parties Bring Their Gods to the Negotiation Table. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse 2001, ISBN 0-8156-2751-3 .
  • Todd Kerstetter: "That's Just the American Way". The Branch Davidian Tragedy and Western Religious History. In: Western Historical Quarterly 35 (2004), No. 4, ISSN  0043-3810 , pp. 453-471.
  • James R. Lewis (Ed.): From the Ashes. Making Sense of Waco. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham MD 1994, ISBN 0-8476-7915-2 .
  • DJ Mulloy: Waco. In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia. ABC Clio, Santa Barbara / Denver / London 2003, Volume 2, pp. 717 ff.
  • Dick J. Reavis: The Ashes of Waco. An investigation. Simon and Schuster, New York 1995, ISBN 0-684-81132-4 .
  • James D. Tabor , Eugene V. Gallagher: Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America. University of California Press, Berkeley 1995, ISBN 0-520-20186-8 .
  • David Thibodeau, Leon Whiteson: A Place Called Waco: A Survivor's Story. PublicAffairs, New York NY 1999, ISBN 1-891620-42-8 .
  • Stuart A. Wright (Ed.): Armageddon in Waco. Critical Perspectives on the Branch Davidian Conflict. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1995, ISBN 0-226-90844-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jayne Docherty: Learning Lessons from Waco. When Parties Bring Their Gods to the Negotiation Table. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse 2001, p. 36.
  2. ^ DJ Mulloy: Waco. In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia. ABC Clio, Santa Barbara / Denver / London 2003, Volume 2, p. 717.
  3. ↑ Jayne Docherty: Learning Lessons from Waco ... When Parties Bring Their Gods to the Negotiation Table. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse 2001, p. 178 f.
  4. ↑ Jayne Docherty: Learning Lessons from Waco .. When Parties Bring Their Gods to the Negotiation Table. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse 2001, p. 228.
  5. ↑ Jayne Docherty: Learning Lessons from Waco ... When Parties Bring Their Gods to the Negotiation Table. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse 2001, p. 36.
  6. ^ DJ Mulloy: Waco. In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia. ABC Clio, Santa Barbara / Denver / London 2003, Volume 2, p. 717.
  7. ↑ Malcolm Gladwell : Sacred and Profane How not to negotiate with believers . In: The New Yorker . March 31, 2014.
  8. ^ DJ Mulloy: Waco. In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia. ABC Clio, Santa Barbara / Denver / London 2003, Volume 2, p. 717.
  9. ^ A b c Evaluation of the Handling of the Branch Davidian Stand-Off in Waco, Texas February 28 to April 19, 1993 ( Memento of May 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ).
  10. ↑ Apocalypse Waco , Friday April 28, 2013; Accessed May 28, 2020
  11. ↑ Peter J. Boyer, Michael Kirk: Waco: The Inside Story. In: PBS , October 17, 1995 (English).
  12. ↑ A Christian stronghold goes up in flames , Der Standard, August 7, 2019; Accessed May 28, 2020
  13. ↑ Michael Barkun : A Culture of Conspiracy. Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. University of California Press, Berkeley 2013, pp. 71 f.
  14. ↑ For the whole section DJ Mulloy: Waco . In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia. ABC Clio, Santa Barbara / Denver / London 2003, Volume 2, p. 718.
  15. ↑ Harvey W. Kushner: Waco. In: same: Encyclopedia of Terrorism. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks / London / New Delhi 2003, p. 398.
  16. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from June 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ^ "What is remarkable is the overwhelming evidence exonerating the government from the charges made against it, and the lack of any real evidence to support the charges of bad acts", DJ Mulloy: Waco . In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia. ABC Clio, Santa Barbara / Denver / London 2003, Volume 2, p. 719.