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Prophets of the Apocalypse: David Koresh and Other American
Messiahs
Kenneth R. Samples, Erwin M. de Castro, Richard Abanes, & Robert J. Lyle
Baker
Books, Grand Rapids, MI, 1994, 222 pages.
Reviewed by
Linda James,
M.A.
The authors’
stated goal is to present information about David Koresh and the Branch
Davidians and to show readers the dangers of religious cults that “overemphasize
subjective religious experience, spiritualize issues to justify their actions,
make confusing and inflated promises of fellowship, manipulate through emotion
rather than substance, and encourage others to ‘just believe’ rather than think
critically.” This they have done and a lot more.
The book begins
with a very successful attempt to describe and offer explanations for the
seemingly incomprehensible behavior and beliefs of David Koresh and his
followers. It concludes by anticipating readers’ questions about the historical
origins of this group and how it and other American-based cults can be placed in
the larger social context of American culture. The 70-page appendix is also
worthy of attention. This book has a lot going for it. It covers an enormous
amount of territory in a language that is free of academic jargon and thus easy
to read. It is also impressive in its ability to discuss immoral, unethical, and
violent acts in a manner that does not sensationalize. This in itself is
praiseworthy.
By examining the
life and personality of David Koresh, this book admirably succeeds in helping us
understand both Koresh’s desire, and his subsequent ability, to take over the
leadership of a Branch Davidian group. We watch him create a renewed sense of
purpose in the members and gradually go on to create what appears to be the
textbook cultic conditions which could and ultimately did lead to the
devastating suicide murders of cult followers and their leaders, this time
outside of Waco, Texas, in 1993.
The book’s power
lies in the authors’ choice to describe Koresh’s group at the micro rather than
macro level. We are given concrete events and individual anecdotes gathered by
the authors through indepth interviews with survivors and through quotes from
Koresh’s speeches. This encourages the reader to get inside the minds and hearts
of particular individuals within the group and we slowly begin to understand on
a visceral level how one could be seduced and manipulated into such an extreme
cultic relationship with a leader. We feel the pressure and the control; we
experience the abuse and the fear; but like Koresh’s victims we also experience
the attraction and the appeal of Koresh, of his charisma, and of the community
spirit of the group. This book is a testament to the idea that to understand the
most bizarre cultic behavior one must not begin by examining the end result but
rather begin at the beginning and understand the gradual, progressive changes in
members’ relationship to each other and to their leader. Reading this book, you
can feel their developing dependence, the slow undermining of critical
facilities, the progressive erosion of self-preservation instincts, the evolving
transformation of individuals from seekers of a more healthy and charitable
Christian life to those capable of child abuse, sexual exploitation, and
violence to please a leader and adhere to his doctrine.
To the credit of
the authors, the reader is also introduced to the development of the personality
of a cult leader. We watch a young man named Vernon Wayne Howell who in
searching for answers becomes David Koresh and develops into a dogmatic,
power-hungry, egotistical demagogue, incapable of accepting any negative
feedback about his decisions and thus able to act unchecked on his perversions.
For those
familiar with the social-psychological dynamics that produced Jim Jones and
Jonestown, the resemblance is uncannily eerie. Although the origins of the
Peoples Temple and the Branch Davidians were different, the perverted dynamics
of cultic power were identical and produced similar results. Jones’s group
originated with him, while Koresh took over a previously formed rather
complacent group from the leadership of an older woman whom he seduced. Through
the use of mind-control techniques, he then revitalized the group’s energy by
creating the now-familiar dynamics of elitism and end-time fantasies. Koresh
claimed an adolescent girl as a wife, moving on to bigamy, then to polygamy,
and, again reminiscent of Jones, ultimately declaring the marriages of his
followers a sin and all women as his. One cannot but be struck by the almost
cookie-cutter mold from which the most destructive cult leaders tend to come and
the similar power-hungry, unethical, immoral choices they make, unleashing their
perversions on their followers and creating doctrines to justify such abusive
behavior.
All elements
common to extremist cults are revealed to have been present in Koresh’s group
including resistance by followers to his outrageous demands. But, in predictable
cultic fashion, the resultant threats and creation of fears in members
discouraged further vocalization of such criticisms and undermined desires to
act on such thoughts. Fortunately these stories by survivors bear testament to
the fact that mind control is never total. Thus, as a result of inner soul
searching and often with the help of outsiders, many Davidians succeeded in
breaking away from the control of Koresh. It is their stories that form the
content of this part of the book.
The second part
of the book is a fascinating overview of the roots of the Branch Davidians. We
are led through relevant American religious history, beginning with William
Millers’ Millerites in the early 1800s. Miller’s erroneous prediction of the
end of the world on October 22, 1844, caused disillusioned followers to leave
and many splinter groups to form. Some of these coalesced into the Seventh Day
Adventists in 1860, with Ellen G. White as their unofficial leader. After her
death in 1915, her legacy of the “spirit of prophecy” was maintained by Victor
Tasho Houteff. He broke from the Seventh Day Adventists and formed the Davidian
Seventh Day Adventists, who set themselves up in Mt. Carmel outside of Waco,
Texas. Upon Houteff’s death in 1955, the mantle of prophetic leadership was
donned by his wife who claimed the end of the world would occur on April 22,
1959. Once again, after the failed prophecy, disillusioned members split into
splinter groups; and the one that remained at Mt. Carmel, led by Benjamin Roden,
became known as the Branch Davidians. When Roden died in 1978, his wife assumed
leadership until a visit by Koresh, who claimed the spirit of prophecy lived on
in him as their final prophet.
The authors use
this history of American religious “end-time and prophetic groups” to link the
development of cultism to idiosyncrasies within American culture. (In addition
to the Seventh Day Adventists, we are also given short introductions to other
American cults and movements, including the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses,
Children of God, Church Universal & Triumphant, and the Christian Identity
Movement.) Cults are seen to be the product of an American emphasis on religious
tolerance and religious experimentation. American pragmatism is linked to the
cultic desire for perfectionism and belief that an individual can struggle and
rise to the top. The availability of vast land for settlement in the new America
is also seen as permitting the establishment of utopian communities from which
cultic exploitative leadership could flourish. This part of the authors’
analysis is less successful in that it depends on ignoring the facts and the
reasons behind the development of numerous non-American-based cults in other
cultures. Despite the incomplete analysis, the information present here is
worthy of consideration. The final chapter does a balanced job of presenting
three views of cults from the differing perspectives of the sociologists
(represented by James Richardson), the Christian theologians, and the secular
anticult movement (represented by Michael Langone). Brief and to the point, the
differences are noted from a position of neutrality. The authors urge readers
and those who debate cultism to recognize the different definitions in
contemporary usage and to improve successful communication by making explicit
which definition is being used by a speaker.
A book review
does not often cover the appendix, but this book’s appendix section constitutes
almost a third of the book, and includes a 10-page extensive bibliography and
three appendixes. Appendix A is a condensed chronological history of the Branch
Davidians from 1782 to the present. Appendix B, which consists of the
transcripts from the interviews held with “those who personally knew David
Koresh,” is fascinating reading. It contains interviews with David Koresh’s
mother and father, church elders of the Seventh Day Adventist church, relatives
of those who died during the Waco siege, and quite gripping discussions with
ex–Branch Davidians.
In six pages
Appendix C attempts to examine the controversy around deprogramming, exit
counseling, brainwashing, and mind control. The debate between the ideas of
Bromley and Shupe and those of Langone and Lifton are presented. Although the
authors refrain from attempting to resolve the debate, they conclude that the
existence of dangerous, manipulative influence processes is not debatable and
must be countered by education so that people can avoid being exploited. They
argue that this type of education is necessary and crucial. This book goes a
long way toward contributing to that goal. For the cult novice and the expert
alike, Prophets of the Apocalypse should be read and take its place on
your bookshelf.
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