David Koresh and the Davidians
Branch Davidians, American religious movement that became widely known in 1993, when most of its members were killed in a fire that destroyed their headquarters near Waco, Texas. The fire marked the end of a 51-day siege by United States federal agents. (Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.)
The Branch Davidians trace their origins to the Davidian movement, a splinter group of Seventh-Day Adventists founded by Adventist leader Victor Houteff in Los Angeles, California, in 1934. Houteff retained the traditional Adventist belief that the apocalypse (the end of the world) and the Second Coming of Christ were imminent and would be preceded by catastrophes and war. Houteff also taught that the kingdom of ancient Israelite monarch David—hence the term Davidian—would be reestablished in Palestine. After splitting from the Adventists, Houteff led his followers from Los Angeles to Waco, where they established the communal Mount Carmel Center. Houteff died in 1955, and the Branch Davidian movement itself eventually splintered.
Vernon Howell, the future David Koresh, attended various schools before dropping out after the tenth grade. Vernon spent hours in agonized prayer and Bible study. He became leader of one faction of the Davidian movement and in 1990 legally adopted the symbolic name David Koresh. “David” signifies the kingdom of David to be restored in Palestine. Koresh emphasized the apocalyptic element in Davidian theology, teaching that the Davidians at the Mount Carmel Center—renamed Ranch Apocalypse in 1992—would be assaulted by forces of evil. Communal life focused on recruiting new members, hard studying of the Bible, and preparing for the coming cataclysmic events by stockpiling food, weapons, and fuel.
By 1993 accusations of various kinds of abuses were being leveled at the group by anticult activists, including some former members, and the United States federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) decided to search the complex for illegal weapons. The tragedy began with a military style raid on February 28, complete with helicopter gunships firing down upon the women's and children's quarters. Then followed a long siege. On April 19, the US government sent tanks to gas the building where the people lived. The government said they decided to gas the Davidians because they were concerned about the sanitary conditions for the kids and innocent people inside the house, and because the FBI agents were getting tired.
The tanks tore big holes in the walls, drove into the house, and knocked down whole sections of the building.
On February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided the Branch Davidian ranch in Mount Carmel, a rural area near Waco, Texas. The raid resulted in the deaths of four agents and five Davidians. The subsequent 51-day siege ended on April 19 when the compound was completely consumed by fire killing seventy-five men, women, and children, including the leader David Koresh.
by armed SWAT team members who fired a CS tear gas canister into their house.
His father was considered the leader of the Waknukians, so he would put signs up around his house like "Watch Thou for the Mutant", and "The Norm is the Will of God". These came from there set of laws, Nicholson's Repentances. So all these combined, David wasn't given a lo...
The cult was mainly composed of men and women both. All members had crew cuts and were between the ages of 26 and 72. Although many members lived together in a mansion in California, they came from all parts of the country. Many were from California, but members also came from Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Florida, New Mexico, Minnesota, Utah, Ohio, and Florida. There were approximatly 39 members who lived in the 1.3 million dollar Rancho Santa Fe mansion. They operated a web site for their cult called “Higher Source”.
KING DAVID IS OUR DECESSED KING, HE DIED IN 1978. KING HOOVER PUT THE "G" ON THE CROWN AND STARTED THE GANGSTER DISCIPLE'S!
David George, a significant person in religious history, was born in 1742 in Essex County, Virginia. He was the son of two African slaves John and Judith. As a young slave, David would fetch water and pick cotton with age he progressed to join the adults in the tobacco and cornfields. His master was a very bad towards his slaves ; George faced many violent situations growing up. He witnessed his mother and brother being beaten. Their slave owner would whip them up to 500 times, after receiving lashes salt and water would be whipped in with a rag. David had also been whipped, “till the blood has run down over my waistband”(Sanneh). George’s greatest grief was watching his mother be beaten and hearing her begging for his mercy. In 1762, at the age of nineteen, driven away by his master he ran away into the ownership of George Galphin in South Carolina. Under new ownership, George now faced a spiritual pace of life for the rest of his life.
Painted in Rome in the style of Neo-Classicism, Jacques Louis David’s Oath of the Horatii is one of the better-known examples of art produced by this artist of eclectic styles. This painting was hailed as the manifesto of a new school based on the fervent study of the antique and a return to classical techniques in the late 18th century. In this painting, completed in 1785 as an oil on canvas, David (DA-VEED) successfully coalesces the nascent and confused ideology of the Neo-Classical movement in a dramatic portrayal of the Horatii brothers swearing their allegiance to the state as their father stands with swords held high for them to grasp. An analysis of the painting’s historical background, and an evaluation of the lines, colors, and subject matter, will illustrate why Oath of the Horatii represents the defining characteristics of the Neo-Classical period.
Summary & Relevance: I have read multiple article and watched a few videos on the Branch Davidians cult. The cult was formed by David Koresh after he was expelled from the Church of the Seventh Day Adventists for his radical views. These views included believing that he was the all women where his spiritual wives and he was the messiah. The Brand Davidians where located in Waco Texas and believe that the end of the world was near. The followers beloved that Koresh spoke the word of God. The group became known after Koresh’s numerous sexual scandals, wedding underage girls, and the groups arming of themselves. In February 28 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) raided the compound. This event ended with four AFT agents and six Branch Davidians dead and Koresh wounded. A 51-day siege of the compound followed and it was covered by CNN 24 hours a day and other new agencies also
Sunday Service, a seemingly peaceful day. At approximately 10:22 a.m., an explosion shook the 16th Street Baptist Church. A bomb was detonated on the east side of the building, caving in its interior walls. The impact of the discharge killed four girls and injured more than 20 others (History.com). The bodies of Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, all 14, were found in the basement bathroom under the rubble with 11-year-old Denise McNair (nydailynews.com). The event left a lasting effect on America.
the tear gas operation, although shots were fired at the FBI from the compound. The FBI did not
There was wider damage then just that to the World Trade Center buildings and on the scale of ordinary disasters it was heavy. For thirty years or so the Twin Towers had stood above the streets as all tall buildings do, as a bomb of sorts, a warehouse for the prodigious energy originally required to raise so much weight so high. Now, in a single morning, the towers released that energy back into the city. Massive steel beams flew through the neighborhood like gargantuan spears, penetrating subway lines and underground passages to depths of thirty feet, crushing them, rupturing water mains and gas lines, and stabbing high into the sides of nearby office towers, where they lodged. The phone system, the fiber-optic network, and the electric power grid were knocked out. Ambulances, cars, and fire trucks were smashed flat by falling debris, and some were hammered five floors or so down from the street into the insane chaos e...
Not much is known about David's early childhood, but it is known that he was a solitary child. He enjoyed playing cowboys and Indians, war games, and other childhood games. He was a chubby kid, and got teased a lot for it. He was also very smart, in 1960; he was given an IQ test, and scored a 118, a “superior” level. One of his elementary teachers described him as a “moody child, very easily upset.” David loved to hide; his father gave him various nicknames like Sneaky, Snoop, and Spy. David loved sneaking through the house, trying to be invisible.
It not only destroyed the homes of the people who lived there but it also messed with their head. It caused then to think differently and jump to conclusions. Though they eventually recovered the emotional and mental damage stuck with them.