Davidians and Branch Davidians

This thesis has provided an understanding and re-examination of the political conflict of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas in 1993. In addition, it has shown that the government siege could have been less violent and has justified the acts of certain individual players within the conflict. Without a doubt, everyone has their own pre-understanding and reassessment of the event.
The first part dealt with the social context of religion in the United States and at within the state of Texas. It describes the diverse religious environment, history, and conditions for participants and their religion there. At the same time, it quickly familiarized readers with the phenomena of new religious movements.
The second part was focused on the development of Branch Davidians and described the forming of the group from its roots in Adventism and previous leaders through the final version with David Koresh. The presentation of the Branch Davidians represented was important for understanding their behavior in following chapters.
The last fundamental part was dedicated to the initiators of the conflict and its consequences. The hypothesis was confirmed that the Branch Davidians were not the only initiators of the conflict. The principle role of inciting the conflict was played by disgruntled Branch Davidian apostates and anti-cult movement players. Other initiators included the United States government, the Branch Davidians, news media, and and the general public.
In the end, it was shown that the Waco incident has not gone away and has explained the positive and negative impacts on the religious situation in the United States. In addition, it was shown that this event has stayed within in the consciousness of American people and became a historical fact in American religion. Because of the lack of information about this topic in the Czech language, I hope this thesis has been helpful for any people interested. In addition, it has been served as a memoir for the victims.

Nearly twenty years after they happened, the ATF and FBI assaults on the Branch Davidian residence near Waco, Texas remain the most deadly law enforcement action on American soil. The raid by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents on February 28, 1993, which resulted in the deaths of four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians, precipitated a 51-day siege conducted by the FBI. The FBI tank and gas assault on the residence at Mount Carmel Center on April 19 culminated in a fire that killed 53 adults and 23 children, with only nine survivors. In A Journey to Waco, survivor Clive Doyle not only takes readers inside the tragic fire and its aftermath, but he also tells the larger story of how and why he joined the Branch Davidians, how the Branch Davidian community developed, and the status of survivors.

While the media and official reports painted one picture of the Branch Davidians and the two assaults, A Journey to Waco shares a much more personal account of the ATF raid, the siege, and the final assault that details events unreported by the media. A Journey to Waco presents what the Branch Davidians believed and introduces readers to the community’s members, including David Koresh. A Journey to Waco is a personal account of one man’s journey with the Branch Davidians, through the tragic fire, and beyond.

In 1993 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives executed one of the most disastrous arrest warrants in US history.  Their failure stemmed from incompetent OPSEC. Their loss of essential secrecy resulted in a sustained gunfight which they lost and developed into a 51-day siege.  86 people were killed in the fiasco including four ATF agents as well women, and children.

This volume gives a concise but comprehensive overview of the rich diversity of prophecy, its role in major world religions as well as in new religions and alternative spiritualties, its social dynamics and its impact on individuals’ lives. Academic analyses are complemented with contextualized primary source testimonies of those who live and have lived within a prophetic framework.

New Religious Movements (NRMs), by virtue of their novelty, inherently are in some degree of tension with the wider societies in which they are located. NRMs may differ from mainstream religions in terms of their theologies or philosophies, new revelations, sources and structures of authority, gender roles, sexual arrangements, and child rearing. Some "new religions" are "old religions" that have been imported into new contexts by immigrants and/or missionaries who gain converts. Others represent theological innovations within their native traditions.

A total of 84 people were killed in the 1993 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) raid on Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas. Debates continue about who was responsible—e.g., was it a government conspiracy or cultist militants intent on mass suicide? What hasn’t been fully considered, however, is the role the guns, tanks, toxic gases, and other “theater of war” accoutrements themselves played in the siege and resultant deadly inferno. Traditional metaphysical inquiries rest on the presupposition that the subject is separate from and sovereign over the object it examines. But as we have entered this intensely visual consumer culture, differences between subject and object disappear and the power of the subject collapses. Employing the postmodern metaphysics—here and elsewhere called “pataphysics”—of Jean Baudrillard to investigate this tragic battle, the author will argue that the ATF and the FBI were seduced by the compound’s castle and arsenal as well as their own. The helicopters, snipers, tanks, and CS gas turned what had begun on February 28, 1993, as a raid to serve a search warrant into a full scale military-style attack on a fortress and its peoples. Could it be that the federal agents became and were subordinate to the tools they were using?

A fter the Waco standoff ended in tragedy, many scholars expressed concern that the FBI had not sought advice from those . who study new religious movements (NRMs). 1 The result was a debate over which experts were or were not consulted during the fiftyone days of negotiation at Waco and which experts should or should not be consulted during any future confrontations between law enforcement agents and groups motivated by unconventional religious or political beliefs. On one side, religious studies scholars criticized the FBI negotiators' lack of attention to the mediating efforts of J. Phillip Arnold and James D. Tabor during the Waco standoff. 2 On the other side, the FBI agents described a scene of "fax meltdown" in which they found it impossible to distinguish valuable expert advice from the spurious input of cranks. 3 Happily, the discussion has moved beyond the initial rancorous debate. FBI crisis management agents and NRM scholars seem to recognize that they share a common goal: Both groups ideally would like to prevent violent confrontations between members of NRMs and law enforcement officials. In the event of another barricade situation involving an unconventional religious group, both scholars and law enforcement officials want to maximize the possibility of a nonviolent outcome. Furthermore, this acknowledgment of a common objective seems to be more than just an agreement in principle. Following their post-Waco reorganization, members of the FBI Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) began seeking input from religious studies scholars and other NRM experts. 4 For example, CIRG personnel met with representatives from the American Academy of Religion (AAR) in June 1998 in Washington, D.C. The FBI also has invited several NRM experts to speak with agents at the FBI Academy. FBI agents came to the 1998 AAR Annual Meeting in Orlando where they attended open sessions and met with NRM scholars.

When They Were Mine is the autobiography of Sheila Martin, a member of the Branch Davidian Church at the time of its apocalyptic encounter with the FBI in April, 1993. The assault resulted in a fire that killed 76 Branch Davidians, including 23 children. Sheila's husband and four oldest children died in the fire. Martin told the story of her life, both before and after the attack, to Catherine Wessinger, who then wrote this first-person narrative from the recordings of their sessions together. The result is a haunting account of one life, typical in its ups and downs, made atypical by a collision of faith with history.

The 1993 event at Mt. Carmel shocked all of America and has since spawned a plethora of books regarding the "truth" about the Branch Davidians. Memories of the Branch Davidians is the story told from the inside. The oral history of Bonnie Haldeman, the mother of Vernon Howell (David Koresh), offers an intimate, first-hand account of how a boy named Vernon Howell became David Koresh. Haldeman paints a picture of Koresh that could only be told by one who knew both his greatest strengths and his deepest faults.