THEY CAME IN ON A LEADER AND GROUP OF PEOPLE ALREADY UNDER THE INFLUENCE AND BRAIN-WASHED MIND SET, AS NOT THINKING ANY MORE, ALREADY HANDED THEIR MIND OVER TO A MAN, WHO CLAIMED GOD SPOKE THROUGH HIM.
BUT SOMETIMES, AND EVERY OFTEN, IT DOIES NOT START THAT WAY; STARTS OFTEN THROUGH A MAN [SOMETIMES A WOMAN] WHO DOES NOT IN THE BEGINNING ACT LIKE A CULT LEADER.
YOU CAN GO ON THE INTERNET AND LOOK UP "JIM JONES" AND SEE THAT HE AND HIS ORGANIZATION, AS IT GREW, SERVED AND HELPED A LOT IN CHARITY WORKS TOWARDS OTHERS.
HERE IS A LITTLE FROM "WIKIPEDIA" ON JIM JONES:
Jim Jones
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Peoples Temple leader. For other persons of the same name, see Jim Jones (disambiguation).
| Jim Jones | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | James Warren Jones May 13, 1931 Randolph County, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | November 18, 1978 (aged 47) Jonestown, Guyana[1] |
| Occupation | Religious leader |
| Religion | Atheist (self-proclaimed)[2] |
| Spouse(s) | Marceline Baldwin Jones (1949 - 1978) |
| Children | Agnes Paulette Jones (1943 - 1978) Suzanne Jones Cartmell (1953 - 2006) Stephanie Jones (1954 - 1959) Lew Eric Jones (1956 - 1978) Jim Jon Prokes (1975 - 1978) Stephan Gandhi Jones (1958- ) James Warren Jones, Jr. (1961-) |
| Parents | James Thurman Jones (1887 - 1951) Lynetta Putnam Jones (1902 - 1977) |
James Warren "Jim" Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was the founder and the leader of the Peoples Temple, best known for the cult murder/suicide in 1978 of 909 of its members in Jonestown, Guyana, and the murder of five individuals at a nearby airstrip. Over 300 children were murdered at Jonestown, almost all of them by cyanide poisoning.[3] Jones died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple there in the 1950s. He later moved the Temple to California in the mid-1960s, and gained notoriety with the move of theTemple's headquarters to San Francisco in the early 1970s.
The incident in Guyana ranks among the largest mass suicides in history, though most likely it involved forced suicide and/or murder, and was the single greatest loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act until the events of September 11, 2001. Among the dead was Leo Ryan, who remains the only member of Congress killed in the line of duty in U.S. history.[4]
Early life[edit]
Jim Jones was born in a rural area of Randolph County, Indiana, near its border with Ohio,[5] to James Thurman Jones (May 31, 1887 – May 29, 1951), a World War I veteran, and Lynetta Putnam (April 16, 1902 – December 11, 1977). Lynetta reportedly believed she had given birth to a messiah.[6][7] He was of Irish and Welsh descent.[8] Jones later claimed partial Cherokee ancestry through his mother, though according to his maternal second cousin Barbara Shaffer, this is likely untrue.[8][note 1] Economic difficulties during the Great Depression necessitated that Jones' family move to nearby Lynn, Indiana, in 1934 where, he grew up in a shack without plumbing.[3][9]
Jones was a voracious reader as a child and studied Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi and Adolf Hitler carefully,[10] noting each of their strengths and weaknesses.[10] Jones also developed an intense interest in religion, primarily because he found making friends difficult.[8] Childhood acquaintances later recalled Jones as being a "really weird kid" who was "obsessed with religion ... obsessed with death". They alleged that he frequently held funerals for small animals on his parents' property and had stabbed a cat to death.[11]
Jim Jones and a childhood friend both claimed that Jones' father, who was an alcoholic, was associated with the Ku Klux Klan.[9] Jones himself, however, came to sympathize with the country's repressed African-American community due to his own experiences as a social outcast. Jones later recounted how he and his father clashed on the issue of race, and how he did not speak with his father for "many, many years" after he refused to allow one of Jones' black friends into the house. After Jones' parents separated, Jones moved with his mother toRichmond, Indiana.[12] He graduated from Richmond High School early and with honors in December 1948.[13]
Jones married nurse Marceline Baldwin in 1949, and moved to Bloomington, Indiana.[14] He attended Indiana University at Bloomington, where a speech by Eleanor Roosevelt about the plight of African-Americans impressed him.[14] In 1951, Jones moved to Indianapolis, where he attended night school at Butler University, earning a degree in secondary education in 1961.[15]
Building the Temple[edit]
Indiana beginnings[edit]
Further information: Peoples Temple
In 1951, Jones began attending Communist Party meetings and rallies in Indianapolis.[16] He became flustered with harassment he received during the McCarthy Hearings,[16]particularly regarding an event he attended with his mother focusing on Paul Robeson, after which she was harassed by the FBI in front of her co-workers for attending.[17] He also became frustrated with ostracism of open communists in the United States, especially during the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.[18] This frustration, among other things, provoked a seminal moment for Jones in which he asked himself, "how can I demonstrate my Marxism? The thought was, infiltrate the church."[16][17]
Jones was surprised when a Methodist superintendent helped him to get a start in the church even though he knew Jones to be a communist and Jones did not meet him through the Communist Party.[18] In 1952, Jones became a student pastor in Sommerset Southside Methodist Church, but claims he left that church because its leaders barred him fromintegrating blacks into his congregation.[16] Around this time, Jones witnessed a faith-healing service at the Seventh Day Baptist Church.[16] He observed that it attracted people and their money and concluded that, with financial resources from such healings, he could help accomplish his social goals.[16]
Jones organized a mammoth religious convention to take place June 11 through June 15, 1956, in a cavernous Indianapolis hall called Cadle Tabernacle. To draw the crowds, Jim needed a religious headliner, and so he arranged to share the pulpit with Rev. William M. Branham, a healing evangelist and religious author as highly revered by some as Oral Roberts and Billy Graham.[7]
Jones then began his own church, which changed names until it became the Peoples Temple Christian Church Full Gospel.[16] The People's Temple was initially made as an inter-racial mission.
Jones moved away from the Communist Party when CPUSA members became critical of some of the policies of former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.[18]
Integrationist[edit]
In 1960, Indianapolis Democratic Mayor Charles Boswell appointed Jones director of the Human Rights Commission.[19] Jones ignored Boswell's advice to keep a low profile, finding new outlets for his views on local radio and television programs.[19] When the mayor and other commissioners asked Jones to curtail his public actions, he resisted and was wildly cheered at a meeting of the NAACP and Urban League when he yelled for his audience to be more militant, and climaxed with "Let my people go!"[20]
During this time, Jones also helped to integrate churches, restaurants, the telephone company, the police department, a theater, an amusement park, and the Methodist Hospital.[16] After swastikas were painted on the homes of two African American families, Jones personally walked the neighborhood comforting African Americans and counseling white families not to move, in order to prevent white flight.[21] He also set up stings to catch restaurants refusing to serve African American customers[21] and wrote to American Nazi leaders then leaked their responses to the media.[22] When Jones was accidentally placed in the black ward of a hospital after a collapse in 1961, he refused to be moved and began to make the beds, and empty the bed pans of black patients. Political pressures resulting from Jones' actions caused hospital officials to desegregate the wards.[23]
Jones received considerable criticism in Indiana for his integrationist views.[16] White-owned businesses and locals were critical of him.[21] A swastika was placed on the Temple, a stick of dynamite was left in a Temple coal pile, and a dead cat was thrown at Jones' house after a threatening phone call.[22] Other incidents occurred, though some suspect that Jones himself may have been involved in at least some of them.[22]
Jones' "Rainbow Family"[edit]
Jim and Marceline Jones adopted several children of at least partial non-Caucasian ancestry; he referred to the clan as his "rainbow family,"[24] and stated: "Integration is a more personal thing with me now. It's a question of my son's future."[25] Jones portrayed the Temple overall as a "rainbow family."
The couple adopted three children of Korean-American ancestry: Lew, Suzanne and Stephanie. Jones had been encouraging Temple members to adopt orphans from war ravagedKorea.[26] Jones had long been critical of the United States' opposition to communist leader Kim Il-Sung's 1950 invasion of South Korea, calling it the "war of liberation" and stating that "the south is a living example of all that socialism in the north has overcome."[27] In 1954, he and his wife also adopted Agnes Jones, who was partly of Native Americandescent.[16][25] Agnes was 11 at the time of her adoption.[28] Suzanne Jones was adopted at the age of six in 1959.[28] In June 1959, the couple had their only biological child, Stephan Gandhi Jones.[16]
Two years later, in 1961, the Joneses became the first white couple in Indiana to adopt a black child, James Warren Jones, Jr.[29]
The couple also adopted another son, who was white, named Tim.[16] Tim Jones, whose birth mother was a member of the Peoples Temple, was originally named Timothy Glen Tupper.[25]
Travel to Brazil[edit]
After a 1961 Temple speech about nuclear apocalypse, and a January 1962 Esquire magazine article listing Belo Horizonte, Brazil as a safe place in a nuclear war, Jones traveled with his family to the city with the idea of setting up a new Temple location.[30] On his way to Brazil, Jones made his first trip into Guyana, then still a British colony.[31]
After arriving in Belo Horizonte, the Joneses rented a modest three bedroom home.[32] Jones studied the local economy and receptiveness of racial minorities to his message, though language remained a barrier.[33] Jones was careful not to portray himself as a communist in a foreign territory, and spoke of an apostolic communal lifestyle rather than of Castro or Marx.[34] Ultimately, the lack of resources in the locale caused the Joneses to move to Rio de Janeiro in mid-1963.[35] There, they worked with the poor in Rio's slums.[35] Jones also explored local Brazilian syncretic religions.[36]
Jones was plagued by guilt for leaving behind the Indiana civil rights struggle and possibly losing what he had struggled to build there.[35] When Jones' associate preachers in Indiana told him that the Temple was about to collapse without him, Jones returned.[37]
California Eden[edit]
When Jones returned from Brazil in 1965, he told his Indiana congregation that the world would be engulfed in a nuclear war on July 15, 1967 that would then create a new socialist Eden on earth, and that the Temple had to move to Northern California for safety.[16][38] Accordingly, the Temple began moving to Redwood Valley, California, near the city of Ukiah.[16]
While Jones always spoke of the social gospel's virtues, before the late 1960s Jones chose to conceal that his gospel was actually communism.[16] By the late 1960s, Jones began at least partially openly revealing the details of his "Apostolic Socialism" concept in Temple sermons.[16] Jones also taught that, "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment — socialism."[39] Jones often mixed these ideas, such as preaching that, "If you're born in capitalist America, racist America, fascist America, then you're born in sin. But if you're born in socialism, you're not born in sin."[40]
By the early 1970s, Jones began deriding traditional Christianity as "fly away religion," rejecting the Bible as being a tool to oppress women and non-whites, and denouncing a "Sky God" who was no God at all.[16] Jones authored a booklet titled "The Letter Killeth," criticizing the King James Bible.[41] Jones also began preaching that he was thereincarnation of Gandhi and Father Divine, as well as Jesus of Nazareth, Gotama Buddha and Vladimir Lenin. Former Temple member Hue Fortson, Jr. quoted Jones as saying, "What you need to believe in is what you can see ... If you see me as your friend, I'll be your friend. As you see me as your father, I'll be your father, for those of you that don't have a father ... If you see me as your savior, I'll be your savior. If you see me as your God, I'll be your God."[11]..............
......
YOU SEE HOW IT WAS A PERIOD OF TIME BEFORE JONES GAVE THE LAST SENTENCES ABOVE.
BUT THE END RESULT WAS A PEOPLE FOLLOWING A LEADER IN BLIND FAITH, OR TO PUT IT IN UP-FRONT LANGUAGE "BRAIN-WASHED." AND EVENTUALLY NEARLY 1,000 PEOPLE AND CHILDREN, YOU COULD SAY DIED BY HIS HAND.
SOME PEOPLE CAN START OUT ON A GOOD PATH, BUT THEY CAN BECOME SO FILLED WITH EGO, VANITY, AND HUMAN PRIDE IN THEMSELVES, THEY EVENTUALLY CLAIM GOD SPEAKS DIRECTLY TO THEM, THAT THEY HAVE SOME SPECIAL PHONE LINE WITH GOD. THEIR FOLLOWERS BELIEVE IT, EVEN TO IGNORE THE BIBLE, WHEN THEIR LEADER TEACHES OR COMMANDS THEM TO DO SOMETHING THAT IS CONTRARY TO THE BIBLE. THESE LEADERS PUT THEMSELVES ABOVE THE BIBLE. THEIR FOLLOWERS BECOME SO BLINDED WITH BELIEVING THIS LEADER IS INDEED FROM GOD, THAT THEY WILL INDEED DO ANYTHING THE LEADER SAYS, EVEN TO KILL THEMSELVES AND THEIR CHILDREN, AS IT WAS IN JIM JONES' GROUP.
IT WAS THE SAME FOR THE "BRANCH DIVIDIAN' UNDER DAVID KORESH.
David Koresh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | This article's lead section may not adequately summarize key points of its contents. (April 2012) |
| David Koresh | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Vernon Wayne Howell August 17, 1959 Houston, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | April 19, 1993 (aged 33) Mount Carmel Center McLennan County, Texas, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Gunshot |
| Body discovered | Branch Davidian ranch McLennan County, Texas, U.S. |
| Resting place | Memorial Park Cemetery 32.35640°N 95.36750°W |
| Residence | Elk, Texas, U.S.[1] |
| Occupation | Religious leader of Branch Davidians |
| Known for |
|
| Spouse(s) | Rachel Jones |
| Children |
and twelve others
|
| Parents |
|
David Koresh (born Vernon Wayne Howell; August 17, 1959 – April 19, 1993) was the American leader of the Branch Davidians religious sect, believing himself to be its finalprophet. Howell legally changed his name to David Koresh on May 15, 1990 (Koresh being the Persian name of Cyrus the Great (کوروش, Kurosh). A 1993 raid by the U.S.Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the subsequent siege by the FBI ended with the burning of the Branch Davidian ranch outside of Waco, Texas, inMcLennan County. Koresh, 54 other adults, and 28 children were found dead after the fire.[2]
Early life[edit]
Koresh was born on August 17, 1959 in Houston, Texas to a 15-year-old single mother, Bonnie Sue Clark.[3] His father was a 20-year-old man named Bobby Howell. Before Koresh was born, his father met another teenage girl and abandoned Bonnie Sue. Koresh never met his father and his mother began cohabiting with a violent alcoholic.[3] In 1963, Koresh's mother left her boyfriend and placed her 4-year-old son in the care of his maternal grandmother, Earline Clark. His mother returned when he was seven, after her marriage to a carpenter named Roy Haldeman. Haldeman and Clark had a son together named Roger, who was born in 1966. Koresh described his early childhood as lonely, and it has been alleged that he was once gang-raped by older boys when he was 8.[3] Due to his poor study skills and dyslexia, he was put in special education classes and nicknamed "Mister Retardo" by his fellow students.[4] Koresh dropped out of Garland High School in his junior year.
When he was 22, Koresh had an affair with a 15-year-old girl who became pregnant.[3][unreliable source?] He claimed to have become a born-again Christian in the Southern Baptist Church and soon joined his mother's church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church. There he fell in love with the pastor's daughter and while praying for guidance he opened his eyes and allegedly found the Bible open at Isaiah 34, stating that none should want for a mate; convinced this was a sign from God, he approached the pastor and told him that God wanted him to have his daughter for a wife. The pastor threw him out, and when he continued to persist with his pursuit of the daughter he was expelled from the congregation.[3]
In 1982, he moved to Waco, Texas, where he joined the Branch Davidians, a religious group originating from a schism in 1955 from the Shepherd's Rod, themselves disfellowshipped members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1929. They had established their headquarters at a ranch 9 miles out of Waco, which they called the Mount Carmel Center (after the Biblical Mount Carmel), in 1985. Koresh played guitar and sang in church services at Mount Carmel Center; his band played a few times at clubs in Waco; former members (such as David Thibodeau) have written that he recruited them through music. He also tried pursuing his own record company but because of lack of funds and support was not successful. His status as a "rock singer" was very localized.[citation needed]
Ascent to leadership of the Branch Davidians[edit]
In 1983, Koresh began claiming the gift of prophecy. It is speculated[by whom?] that he had a sexual relationship with Lois Roden, the prophetess and leader of the sect who was then 77 years old, eventually claiming that God had chosen him to father a child with her, who would be the Chosen One.[3] In 1983, Roden allowed Koresh to begin teaching his own message which caused controversy in the group. Lois Roden's son George Roden intended to be the group's next leader and considered Koresh an interloper. When Koresh announced that God had instructed him to marry Rachel Jones (who then added Koresh to her name), there was a short period of calm at Mount Carmel Center, but it proved only temporary. In the ensuing power struggle, George Roden, claiming to have the support of the majority of the group, forced Koresh and his group off the property at gunpoint. Disturbed by the events and the move away from the philosophy of the community's founders, a further splinter group led by Charles Joseph Pace moved out of Mount Carmel Center and set up home in Gadsden, Alabama.
In 1985, Koresh and around 25 followers set up camp at Palestine, Texas, 90 miles from Waco, where they lived under rough conditions in buses and tents for the next two years, during which time Koresh undertook recruitment of new followers in California, the United Kingdom, Israel and Australia. That same year Koresh traveled to Israel where he claimed he had a vision that he was the modern day Cyrus. The founder of the Branch Davidian movement, Victor Houteff, wanted to be God's implement and establish the Davidic kingdom in Palestine. Koresh also wanted to be God's tool and set up the Davidic kingdom in Jerusalem. At least until 1990, he believed the place of his martyrdom might be in Israel, but by 1991 he was convinced that his martyrdom would be in the United States. Instead of Israel, he said the prophecies of Daniel would be fulfilled in Waco and that the Mount Carmel Center was the Davidic kingdom.[5]
After being exiled to the Palestine, Texas camp, Koresh and his followers eked out a primitive existence. When Lois Roden died in 1986, the exiled Branch Davidians wondered if they would ever be able to return to Mount Carmel Center. But despite the displacement, "Koresh now enjoyed the loyalty of the majority of the [Branch Davidian] community."[6] By late 1987, George Roden's support was in steep decline. To regain it, he challenged Koresh to a contest to raise the dead, going so far as to exhume a corpse to demonstrate his spiritual supremacy. Koresh went to authorities to file charges against Roden for illegally exhuming a corpse, but was told he would have to show proof (such as a photograph of the corpse). Koresh seized the opportunity to seek criminal prosecution of Roden by returning to Mount Carmel Center with seven armed followers attempting to get photographic proof of the crime. Koresh's group was discovered by Roden and a gunfight broke out. When the sheriff arrived, Roden had already suffered a minor gunshot wound and was pinned down behind a tree. As a result of the incident, Koresh and his followers were charged with attempted murder. At the trial, Koresh explained that he went to Mount Carmel Center to uncover evidence of criminal disturbance of a corpse by Roden. Koresh's followers were acquitted, and in Koresh's case a mistrial was declared.
In 1989, Roden murdered Wayman Dale Adair with an axe blow to the skull after Adair stated his belief that he (Adair) was the true messiah.[7] Roden was convicted of murder and imprisoned in a mental hospital at Vernon, Texas. Since Roden owed thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes on Mount Carmel Center, Koresh and his followers were able to raise the money and reclaim the property. Roden continued to harass the Koresh faction by filing legal papers while imprisoned. When Koresh and his followers reclaimed Mount Carmel Center, they discovered that tenants who had rented from Roden had left behind a methamphetamine laboratory, which Koresh reported to the local police department and asked to have removed.[8][9]
Name change[edit]
Vernon Howell filed a petition in California State Superior Court in Pomona on May 15, 1990, to legally change his name "for publicity and business purposes" to David Koresh. On August 28, 1990, Judge Robert Martinez granted the petition.[10] It is a transliteration of the Persian name of Cyrus (Modern Persian: کوروش, Kurosh), the Persian king, who allowed the Jews—who had been dispersed throughout Babylonia by Nebuchadnezzar—to return to their homelands. His first name, David, symbolized a lineage directly to the biblical King David, from whom the new messiah would descend. By taking the name of David Koresh, he was "professing himself to be the spiritual descendant of King David, a messianic figure carrying out a divinely commissioned errand."[11]
Accusations of child abuse and statutory rape[edit]
The child abuse and sexual abuse claims have been widely circulated in the press coverage though it is often difficult to separate the purported claims from the evidence.[12] Koresh's doctrine of the House of David[13] did lead to spiritual marriages with both married and single women in the group and with at least one underage girl. The underage girl was Michelle Jones, the younger sister of Koresh's legal wife Rachel and the daughter of lifelong Branch Davidians Perry and Mary Belle Jones. Koresh took Michelle as a spiritual wife when she was thirteen, evidently with the consent of the Joneses. This means Koresh was in violation of state law and could have been prosecuted for statutory rape in Texas. A six-month investigation of child abuse allegations by the Texas Child Protection Services in 1992 failed to turn up any evidence most likely because the Branch Davidians concealed the spiritual marriage of Koresh to Michelle Jones, assigning a surrogate husband (David Thibodeau), to the girl for the sake of appearances.[14] A second allegation involved an underage girl, Kiri Jewell, who testified in the Congressional hearings on Waco in 1995. She claimed that, beginning from when she was ten years old, Koresh forced her to perform sexual acts.
Regarding the allegations of child abuse, the evidence is less compelling. In one widely reported incident, ex-members claimed that Koresh became irritated with the cries of his son Cyrus and spanked the child severely for several minutes on three consecutive visits to the child's bedroom. In a second report, Koresh was said to have beaten the eight-month-old daughter of another member for approximately forty minutes until the girl's bottom bled. In a third incident, a man involved in a custody battle visited Mount Carmel Center and claimed to have seen the beating of a young boy with a stick.[15] Finally, the FBI's justification for forcing an end to the 51-day standoff was predicated on the charge that Koresh was abusing children inside Mount Carmel Center. In hours following the deadly conflagration, Attorney General Janet Reno told reporters that "We had specific information that babies were being beaten." [16] But FBI Director William Sessions publicly denied the charge and told reporters that they had no such information about child abuse inside Mount Carmel Center.[17] A careful examination of the other child abuse charges found the evidence to be weak and ambiguous, casting doubt on the allegations.[18]
The allegations of child abuse stem largely from detractors and ex-members.[19] The 1993 U.S. Department of Justice report cites allegations of child sexual and physical abuse. But despite the merits of the charges, legal scholars point out that the ATF had no legal jurisdiction in the matter of child protection and it appears that these accounts were inserted by the ATF to inflame the case against Koresh. For example, the account of former Branch Davidian Jeannine Bunds is reproduced in the affidavit. She claimed that Koresh had fathered at least fifteen children with various women and that she had personally delivered seven of these children. Bunds also claims that Koresh would annul all marriages of couples who joined the group, had exclusive sexual access to the women, and would also have regular sexual relations with young girls.[20][21] There is no question that Koresh had multiple children by different women in the group. His House of David doctrine based on a purported revelation involved the reproduction of 24 children by chosen women in the community. These 24 children were to serve as the ruling elders over the millennium after the return of Christ. In his book, James Tabor states that Koresh acknowledged on a videotape sent out of the compound during the standoff that he had fathered more than 12 children by several "wives."[22] On March 3, 1993, during negotiations to secure the release of the remaining children, Koresh advised the Negotiation Team that: "My children are different than those others," referring to his direct lineage versus those children previously released.
At the time, in Texas, the age of parental consent for a minor to marry was 14, as was the age for consent to engage in sexual relations.[citation needed] In the documentary film, Waco: The Rules of Engagement (long version), Jack Harwell, Sheriff of McLennan County, stated: "You have to have proof to go into court.... Keep in mind, too, that most of the girls who were involved were at least 14 years old and 14-year-olds get married with parental consent. So if their parents were there and letting things happen in the way of sexual activities and what have you with their 14-year-old kids, you have common law husbands and wives. I don't say that I agree with that and that I approve of it. But at the same time, if parents are there and they're giving parental consent, we have a problem with that in making a case."
Raid and siege by federal authorities[edit]
Main article: Waco siege
On February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided Mount Carmel Center. The raid resulted in the deaths of four agents and six Branch Davidians. Shortly after the initial raid, the FBI HRT (Hostage Rescue Team) took command of the federal operation, since the FBI has jurisdiction over incidents involving the deaths of federal agents. Contact was established with Koresh inside the compound. Communication over the next 51 days included telephone exchanges with various FBI negotiators.
As the standoff continued, Koresh, who was seriously injured by a gunshot wound, along with his closest male leaders negotiated delays, possibly so he could write religious documents he said he needed to complete before he surrendered. His conversations with the negotiators were dense with biblical imagery. The federal negotiators treated the situation as a hostage crisis.
The 51-day siege of Mount Carmel Center ended on April 19 when U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno approved recommendations of veteran FBI officials to proceed with a final assault in which the Branch Davidians were to be removed from their building by force. In the course of the assault, the church building caught on fire in circumstances that are still disputed. Barricaded inside the building, 76 Branch Davidians, including David Koresh, did not survive the fire; seventeen of these victims were children under the age of 17. According to the FBI, Steve Schneider, Koresh's right-hand man who "probably realized he was dealing with a fraud", shot and killed Koresh and then committed suicide with the same gun.[23]
......
APPARENTLY KORESH WAS A GIFTED SPEAKER AND COULD QUOTE LARGE PASSAGES OF THE BIBLE BY MEMORY, AND WOULD OFTEN PREACH FOR HOURS AT A TIME. HE HELD HIS FOLLOWERS IN LIKE A TRANCE, BELIEVING HE WAS INDEED GOD'S VOICE ON EARTH.
A RADIO AND TV PREACHER BY THE NAME OF HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG, BACK IN THE MIDDLE AND LATER HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY, WITH WHOM I AM VERY VERSED IN [BEING A PART OF HIS CHURCH GROUP FROM 1961 TO 1972] WAS A MAN WITH MUCH BIBLE TRUTH, AND WAS UP UNTIL HIS WIFE DIED IN 1967, A HUMBLE MAN, BUT ALL THAT CHANGED AFTER HIS WIFE DIED, AND OVER THE NEXT NUMBER OF YEARS, HE INCREASINGLY BECAME VAIN, SELF-RIGHTEOUS, FULL OF EGO, AND HUMAN PRIDE. HE BECAME A CULT LEADER. CLAIMING LIKE THEY ALL DO, THAT HE WAS GOD'S MOUTH-PIECE ON EARTH. HE RULED HIS CHURCH WITH A ROD OF IRON. HE THEN STEPPED FURTHER OVER THE LINE WITH FALSE CHURCH GOVERNMENT TEACHINGS, AND OTHER ERRORS OF THEOLOGY. BUT BY THEN THE MAJORITY OF HIS FOLLOWERS WERE NO LONGER CHECKING HIS WORD AGAINST BIBLE TRUTH. IF YOU VOICED ANY COMPLAINTS YOU WERE QUICKLY DISFELLOWSHIPPED AND NOT ALLOWED IN ANY LOCAL CHURCH THAT WAS UNDER HIS SPELL AND AUTHORITY.
THERE IS MUCH ON MY WEBSITE DEVOTED TO THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD AND HERBERT ARMSTRONG, AS IT BECAME A CULT.
ACTUALLY THE LARGEST CHURCH CULT IS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH!
IT MAY NOT ACT IN A FULL IN YOUR FACE CULT LIKE THE ONES GIVEN ABOVE, BUT THE BOTTOM LINE IS TRUE ROMAN CATHOLICS BELIEVE THEY ARE THE TRUE CHURCH OF GOD, AND AS ONE YOUNG LADY [ABOUT 20 YEARS OLD] SAID TO A REPORTER, WHEN THE POPE [NOT THE PRESENT ONE] VISITED HER SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRY, "HE IS GOD ON EARTH."
THERE ARE WAY MORE "CHRISTIAN" CULTS OUT THERE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE.
YOU NEED ALWAYS TO DO AS THE APOSTLE PAUL TAUGHT, "PROVE ALL THINGS AND HOLD FAST TO THAT WHICH IS GOOD."
DO AS JESUS SAID, "HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS AND YOU WILL BE FILLED."
DO AS GOD TELLS YOU IN ISAIAH 8:20, "TO THE LAW AND THE TESTIMONY [THE WHOLE BIBLE] IF THEY SPEAK NOT ACCORDING TO THIS WORD, THERE IS NO LIGHT IN THEM." THE ETERNAL ALSO SAYS, "WHEN A PROPHET SPEAKS IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, IF THE THING FOOLOWS NOT, NOR COMES TO PASS, THAT IS THE THING WHICH THE LORD HAS NOT SPOKEN, BUT THE PROPHET HAS SPOKEN IT PRESUMPTUOUSLY: YOU SHALL NOT BE AFRAID OF HIM" [DEUT. 18:22]. AND, "....WHEN THE WORD OF THE PROPHET COMES TO PASS, THEN SHALL THE PROPHET BE KNOWN, THAT THE LORD HAS TRULY SENT HIM" [JER. 28:9].
PAUL ALSO SAID TO TIMOTHY, "STUDY TO SHOW YOURSELF APPROVED UNTO GOD, A WORKMAN THAT NEEDS NOT BE ASHAMED, RIGHTLY DIVIDING [CORRECTLY PUTTING VERSE WITH VERSE, COLLECTING ALL THE VERSES ON ANY TOPIC IN THE BIBLE] THE WORD OF GOD."
OPEN YOUR BIBLE, GET READING IT; NAY GET SUDING IT WITH PASSION; THEN YOU WILL KNOW WHO SPEAKS THE WORD OF GOD CORRECTLY.
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