Lewis_From the Ashes

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From the AshesMaking Sense of Waco

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James R. Lewis, Editor

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.


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ROWMAN & LfITLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.Published in the United States of Americaby Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.4 720 Boston Way, Lanham, Maryland 207063 Henrietta Street, London WC2E SLU, EnglandCopyright 1994 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.Al l rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored in a retri eval system, or transmittedin any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the priorpermission of the publisher.British Cataloging in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataFrom the ashes : making sense of Waco I James R. Lewis,editor.p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.

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1. Waco Branch Davidian Disaster, Tex., 1993. 2. BranchDavidians. 3. Koresh, David, 1959-1993.BP605.B72F76 1994 976.4'284063-dc20 93-48400 CIPISBN 0-8476-7914-4 (cloth : alk. paper)ISBN 0-8476-7915-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Printed in the United States of America

r::::;:;., TM Th e paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of'CJ American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of

Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Responses to the Branch Davidian TragedyIntroductory Essays:

Chapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3

The Crime of Piety: Wounded Knee to WacoChas S. CliftonMisinterpreting Religious CommitmentTimothy MillerTailhook and Waco: A CommentaryFranklin H. Littell

Understanding the Branch DavidiansChapter 4 The Waco Tragedy: An Autobiographical Account

of One Attempt to Avert DisasterJames D. TaborChapter 5 The Davidian Dilemma-To Obey God or Man?J. Phillip ArnoldChapter 6 The Davidian TraditionBill Pitts

Millennialism and the Waco ConfrontationChapter 7Chapter 8

Reflections after Waco: Millennialists and the StateMichael BarkunThe Millennial DreamJeffrey Kaplan

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51Chapter 9 Varieties of Millennialism and the Issue of Authority 55Catherine Wessinger

Law Enforcement and Tactical AssessmentsChapter 10 Cult Label Made Waco Violence Inevitable

Robert C. HicksChapter 11 What Went Wrong in Waco? Poor Planning,

Bad Tactics Result in Botched RaidCol. Charlie Beckwith

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Contents Contents

Chapter 12 Killed by Semantics: Or Was It a Keystone Kop Chapter 23 Waco and the War of the Worlds:Kaleidoscope Kaper? 71 Media Fantasy and Modern Reality 157Moorman Oliver, Jr. I. Lamar Maffett

Chapter 13 Showdown at the Waco Corral: ATF Cowboys Polygamy and Accusations of Child AbuseShoot Themselves in the Foot 87James R. Lewis Chapter 24 A More Righteous Seed: A Comparison of

Chapter 14 Misguided Tactics Contributed to Polygamy among the Branch Davidians and theApocalypse in Waco 95 Fundamentalist Mormons 165Stuart A. Wright Martha Sonntag Bradley

Mass Suicide? Chapter 25 Who Committed Child Abuse at Waco? 169Chapter 15 Excavating Waco 99

Larry LillistonSusan J. Palmer Chapter 26 Suffer the Little Children 175

Chapter 16 Who Started the Fires? Mass Murder, George RobertsonAmerican Style 111 Academic ReflectionsR. W. Bradford

Chapter 17 Fanning the Flames of Suspicion: Chapter 27 Lessons from Waco: When Will We Ever Learn? 181Th e Case against Mass Suicide at Waco 115 James T. RichardsonJames R. Lewis Chapter 28 Why Did Waco Happen? 185

The Role of the Anti-cult Movement Larry D. ShinnChapter 18 The Mythology of Cults 121 Chapter 29 Reflections on the Waco Disaster: Trying to MakeDavid G. Bromley Sense of Insane Events 189--- Charles L. HarperChapter 19 "Cults," "Mind Control," and the State 125Thomas Robbins and Dick Anthony Chapter 30 Deconstructing Waco 197-,-. Michael YorkChapter 20 The Cult Awareness Network:

Its Role in the Waco Tragedy 137Chapter 31 Did the G-men Sleep through SOC 100? 201

Andrew Milne William H. Swatos, Jr.Dynamics an d Impact of the Media Chapter 32 Reflections on the Tragedy at Waco 205Thomas McGowan

Chapter 21 The Media and New Religious Movements 143James A. Beckford Chapter 33 How Future Wacos Might Be Avoided:

Chapter 22 Television and Metaphysics at Waco 150Two Proposals 209Phillip LucasConstance A. Jones and George Baker 'f.' Chapter 34 Sticks'n Stones May Break Your Bones butWords CAN Really Hurt You 213Evelyn Dorothy Oliver

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Introduction

Responses to the Branch Davidian TragedyIn its May 24, 1993 issue, Time magazine printed a selectionof responses tothe Waco holocaust in its letters section. While some readers expressedoutrage at the FBI attack, others supported the agency's efforts to blame theBranch Davidians:

The standoff may have come to a devastating end, but the responsibility forthe slaughter of innocent children remains with the deluded megalomaniacwho wanted to retain the upper hand at any cost, not with the FBI agents,whse main goal was to give the Davidians safe passage.

Other readers expressed support for the assault, at the same time expressingdissatisfaction that it had not been staged sooner:Not only do I support Attorney General Janet Reno's decision to useteargas and attack Koresh's Waco complex, but I feel the action was longoverdue.

Finally, Time reprinted a statement from one reader who was not just angrythat the FBI hadwasted so much time negotiatingwith Koresh, but was alsoangry about the further "waste" that was to be incurred by the government'sinvestigation of the fiasco.Koresh and his followers are responsible for their own untimely death. Ifault the FBI for not concluding the ridiculous situation in seven days rather

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Chapter 5

The Davidian Dilemma-To Obey God or Man?J. Phillip Arnold

For fifty-one days the Branch Davidians waited inside their religious centerat Mt. Carmel, refusing to obey federal authorities who demanded theirimmediate surrender. Why did nearly one hundred members of this JudeoChristian religious community volunteer to remain inside Mt. Carmel despitethe fact that massive firepower was arrayed against them and their messiahDavid Koresh? 1Americans apparently have no problem understanding why a fewhundred men went to their deaths in 1836 in a standoff with governmentauthorities at another Texas religious center south of Mt. Carmel at theAlamo mission in San Antonio. In fact, the Alamo defenders areremembered as American martyrs who sacrificed their lives for freedomfrom a foreign foe. But moderns do not understand or admire theDavidians for refusing to surrender to authorities. After all, the Davidianscertainly made no claims to represent the nation-state, and the authoritiessurrounding Mt. Carmel were not stereotypical "evil foreigners."Although the Davidians thought that they were defending individualliberty and freedom of religion, this was not the major reason why theyrefused to come out, go to trial, and eontinue their religious mission fromprison if convicted. The question remains why nearly one hundred people

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Chapter 6

The Davidian TraditionBill Pitts

The Davidians are a small religious group whose message is firmly anchoredin millennialist thought. For decades hardly anyone paid this movement anyattention. The ATP siege in February 1993, and the Branch Davidianresponse produced deaths on both sides and began an exhausting standoffwhich received extended media coverage in the United States and aroundthe world. David Koresh's success in defying the government for weeks,compounded with the tragic holocaust at Mt. Carmel, made the BranchDavidians and David Koresh household names. It would not be surprisingto find reference to this episode in history texts generations from now. Theevent has far-reaching implications for American religion and society andprovides occasion for reflection on several significant issues. What, forexample, should the church and its biblical interpreters do with apocalypticmaterials? How does a religious leader acquire power over others and whydo they concede the direction of their lives to someone else? How muchpower should the state exercise over religious groups and how free areAmericans? How has the event affected people's views of religion? Willthe Davidian movement survive?

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Chapter 7

Reflections after Waco:Millennialists and the StateMichael Barkun

Not since Jonestown has the public been so gripped by the conjunction ofreligion, violence and communal living as they have by the events at theBranch Davidians' compound. All that actually took place near Wacoremains unknown or contested. Nonetheless, the information is sufficientto allow at least a preliminary examination of three questions: Why did ithappen? Why didn't it happen earlier? Will it happen again?As a New York Times editorialist put it, "The Koresh affair has beenmishandled from beginning to end." The government's lapses, errors andmisjudgments can be grouped into two main categories: issues of law-enforcement procedure and technique, with which I do not propose to deal;and larger issues of strategy and approach, which I will address.The single most damaging mistake on the part of federal officials wastheir failure to take the Branch Davidians' religious beliefs seriously.Instead, David Koresh and his followers were viewed as being in the grip ofdelusions that prevented them from grasping reality. As bizarre andmisguided as their beliefs might have seemed, it was necessary to grasp therole these beliefs played in their lives; these beliefs were the basis of theirreality. The Branch Davidiansclearly possessed an encompassingworldview

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Chapter 8

The Millennial Dream,Jeffrey Kaplan

The ongoing standoff between federal agents and the Branch Davidianreligious sect in Waco, Texas, has prompted a veritable flood of mediainterest in the otherwise arcane world of the studyof apocalyptic sects andmillennial religious movements. These questionsboil down to two primaryinterests: Why do such movements turn to violence? And closely related,how do leaders who appear to outsiders to be mentally deranged manage toattract such fanatical loyalty that the memberswill follow them to the grave,i f need be? While the scholarly "state of the art" is as yet unable to fullyanswer these questions-much less to predict the occurrence of such violentevents-it is still possible to suggest some tentative explanations for suchseemingly irrational phenomena.. The turn to violenceby groups whose primary doctrine is the imminentend of days is an exceedingly rare event, but when it occurs, there doesappear to be an underlying pattern. First, the group, having proclaimed itsmessage and experienced considerable disappointment at the indifference oroutright hostilityof the community,will seek to withdraw from the dominantculture. This withdrawal may take a variety of forms, ranging from theselective, psychic withdrawal of urban religious sects who seek merely aunique sacred space while otherwise participating fully in the life of the

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