The Branch Davidians of Waco: The History and Beliefs of an Apocalyptic Sect PDF
Preview The Branch Davidians of Waco: The History and Beliefs of an Apocalyptic Sect
THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS OF WACO This page intentionally left blank The Branch Davidians of Waco The History and Beliefs of an Apocalyptic Sect KENNETH G. C. NEWPORT 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto WithoYcesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork (cid:1)KennethG.C.Newport2006 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2006 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloging–in–PublicationData Newport,KennethG.C. TheBranchDarvidiansofWaco:thehistoryandbeliefsofanapocalypticsect/KennethG.C.Newport. p.cm. ISBN–13:978–0–19–924574–1(alk.paper) ISBN–10:0–19–924574–6(alk.paper) 1.BranchDavidians.I.Title. BP605.B72N492006299’.93–dc22 2005033133 TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby BiddlesLtd.,King’sLynn ISBN0–19–924574–6 978–0–19–924574–1 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 In memory of Baby Gyarfas and Baby Gent, whose lives were ended almost before they began. This page intentionally left blank Preface Thisisabookaboutreligiousbelief.Itisaboutthekindofreligiousbeliefthat mayleadapersontocometotheconvictionthatGodhascalledhimorherto leadacommunityofthefaithfulandtoteachthemthewaysofGod.Itisabout beliefthatmayleadapersontotakeaction—tomovethousandsofmiles,to establishaplaceonearthwherepeoplemaybepreparedforheaven,todevote oneselftothewritingandspreadingofreligioustracts. Itisaboutbeliefthat looks for the self-revelation of God in scripture and in the spoken word of livingprophets.Itisaboutthekindofbeliefforwhichonemaychoosetodie. Thestorytoldhereisthestoryof‘Waco’—thenameofapleasantenough Texantownnowsynonymousinmanypeople’smindswithreligiousextrem- ism and/or government heavy-handedness. What took place there in the spring of 1993 is now etched upon the American psyche, and despite the passing of a dozen years ‘what really happened’ continues to be a matter of grave concern. It was, for example, of grave concern to Timothy McVeigh, whoonthesecondanniversaryoftheWacoWrebombedtheAlfredP.Murrah building in Oklahoma City in an act of revenge. It continues to be of grave concern to those who lost loved ones at Waco, the mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, other family members, and friends of the eighty-four who died duringtheWfty-onedays. Itishopedthatthisbookwillcontributetotheunderstandingof‘Waco’in a number of ways. First, every attempt has been made to set the events in context. The Branch Davidians were not a new movement in 1993 and to understandthemitisnecessaryalsotounderstandsomethingoftheirhistory. Evenmoreimportant,however,istheneedtounderstandsomethingoftheir theology,foritwastheologythatdrovethem;itwastheologyforwhichthey lived and theology for which so many of them died. My task has been to understandsomeofthattheologyandsomeofthathistoryinaneVorttosee beneath the surface of events that for awhile so dramatically hit the world’s TV screens. It has not always been an easy task nor always a pleasant one. Iremainconvinced,however,thatitwasnecessary.TherewillbeotherWacos, andifthisbookassistsinsomesmallwayinunderstanding theonewehave alreadyhad,thereissomehope,evenifonlyasmallone,thatitmightassist tooinseekingtoavertthekindofoutcomewewitnessedon19April1993.In thiscasemy timewillhavebeenwellspent. This book has grown considerably in the writing and the end product is nearly Wfty per cent longer than had originally been contracted. In the end viii Preface I had to decide on what it was that I might most proWtably bring to this discussion.MyownbackgroundbeinginhistoryandbiblicalstudiesIchose to focus on two primary tasks: the attempt to piece together as fully as possible the history of this trajectory and the more complicated matter of outlining its theology, especially its use of the Bible. I hope that I have done these two things tolerably well. I have, however, had to leave it to others to reXectmoretheoreticallyonthenatureofthismovement,thereasonfor the course of its development, and the role it has played in recent American culturalandpoliticallife.Ifthisstudyassistsinthatwidertask,againIbelieve thatmytimewillhavebeenwellspent. Awebsite that supports this book and provides a good deal of the docu- mentary and other evidence that undergirds it can be found at: www.hope. ac.uk/humanities/theology/branchdavidians. Acknowledgements Icouldnothavewrittenthisbookwithoutthehelpofnumerousindividuals. Great practical assistance and fruitful conversation was provided by Mark Swett who for many years has been involved in his own investigations into Waco, despite which he still found time to provide me with a mass of informationandharddata.Mydebttohimisverylargeindeed. Other conversation partners include my long-time friends Malcolm Bull andKeithLockhart,bothofwhomhavefoundtimetoreaddraftmaterialand oVerdetailedfeedback.Thisbookwouldbeverymuchweakerwithouttheir input. I have been very fortunate in being able to call upon the assistance of a number of really quite superb archivists and librarians. Lynda Baildam of Newbold College provided me with archive material and also very helpfully tracked down the publication details of some of the more obscure Seventh- dayAdventistworksmentionedinthisvolume.AtBaylorUniversityinWaco, Texas, I was very well looked after by Ellen Brown. The Texas Collection (whichnowincludestheprivatearchivebuiltupbyMarkSwett)hasbeenthe mostimportantsourceofmaterialformuchofwhatIhavebeenworkingon these past few years. Working on a book which draws so heavily upon an archive some 4,500 miles away has its own challenges. Ellen Brown made those challenges manageable, even giving up her own time so that I might work late on the collection during my visits. Kent Keeth and Bill and Ruth PittsallextendedtraditionalTexanhospitalitytomewheneverIwasintown, andforinterestingconversation(andsomeverygoodfood)Iamindebted. Ihavetriedinthisresearchtobeasopenaspossibleandtoconsultdirectly withatleastafewofthosewhowerecentrallyinvolvedinthe1993stand-oV. FBI negotiator Byron Sage was generous in giving up an entire Saturday to explain to me his side of the story, and has provided detailed responses to some of the chapters in this book. My thanks are due also to Marie Hagen whosimilarlyhasbeengenerousinsharingcommentswithmeanddrawing myattention todocumentsthat Imighteasilyotherwise have missed. Onat least two major points she has saved me from serious factual error. The contents of this book will reveal also that I have been able to speak with a number of surviving Branch Davidians. These include Derek Lovelock, a resident of my own home city of Manchester, UK. Derek and I have spent many hours together in conversation and he has kindly permitted me to publishasanappendixtothisbookasummaryofamuchlongermanuscript
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