Houteff bought a plot of land and moved outside Waco, Texas, bringing just under a hundred followers with him and thereby establishing the Davidian sect. They built a variety of buildings and named the location Mount Carmel after the mount where Elijah overcame the prophets of Baal. On a side note, this Mount Carmel was different from the one involved in the Branch Davidian inferno. Houteff did not want to break away from the Seventh-day Adventism and continued to view his evangelistic message as directed to the Adventist church. Seventh-day Adventism continued to play a major role in the theology of the Davidians though their relationship was bitter. The Davidian sect grew and although Houteff died in 1955, his wife Florence became the leader of the Davidian sect.
With the death of Victor Huoteff, the Davidian sect morphed with each new leader. As each individual rose to power, the sect transformed in theology and practice, all the while firmly rooted and established in Seventh-day Adventism. Victor’s teaching, in connection with Seventh-day Adventism, focused on the expectation of Christ’s return. Florence, in looking to the Bible and Victor’s teachings, proceeded to set a date for the commencement of the new era, April 22, 1959. They avoided the language of “the return of Christ” due to the unmet expectations William Miller had fostered. Rather, they expected some important event that would change the course of history and mark the beginning of the new age of Christ’s rule. Following her prediction, many Davidians sold their homes, businesses, and moved to Mount Carmel. Unfortunately for many of these followers, Florence’s prophecy proved false and she lost much influence as the leader of the Davidians. On Ma...
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In 1981 Howell joined the group as a regular member. At the time Lois Roden led the group with a message that Christ was a woman. In 1983 she allowed Howell to teach his own message. This created much controversy in the group. A meeting was called for all Branch Davidians in 1984, which led to...
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Throughout history men have lived and died for their religious beliefs. Wars have been and won and battles have been lost in the name of higher deities. Both men and women have taken up the sword in the name of a higher power. Specifically, in our country, the first English settlers sought to convert the heathen Indians and many Indians died in the process. From the Crusades to the recent tragedy in New York, strong and charismatic leaders have taken men and filled them with religious fervor. Editha attempts to convince George that recent events, a war has been declared, are part of God’s master plan. Editha assumes the role of the charismatic religious leader in her attempt to sway George. George has an antiwar mentality and Editha seeks to change this by bringing into question his loyalty to God.
Thirty-six years ago, on Nov. 18, 1978, 913 members of the People’s Temple Cult committed mass suicide in the Guyana jungle, under the direction of the Reverend Jim Jones. Most of the victims seem to have taken their own lives by ingesting grape Kool-Aid laced with cyanide, while a few had been shot. The grisly event was triggered by the ambush of U.S. Rep. Leo J. Ryan and other Americans who were attempting to investigate mistreatment of Rev. Jones’ followers; the cult apparently felt threatened by the potential repercussions of the ambush (Layton 3). In 1993, about 80 members of David Koresh's Branch Davidians died after cult members set fire to their own compound following a standoff with federal authorities. And within the past years, 74 members of a group calling itself the Order of the Solar Temple have gone to their death in Canada, Switzerland and France. In the most recent Solar Temple incident, Didier Queze, 39, a baker, his wife Chantale Goupillot, 41, her mother and two others of the faithful exploded themselves into oblivion in St.-Casimir, Quebec; they had attempted to take their three teenaged children with them, but at the last minute the three drugged teens dragged themselves out of the explosive-rigged house and hid in a storage shed. Members of the Solar Temple cult believe that the explosions that cause the fragmentation of their earthly bodies will propel them to Sirius, a star in the constellation Canus Major (Lacayo 44). And, of course, most recently thirty-nine people in matching clothes, members of the Heaven’s Gate cult in Rancho Santa Fe, California, were found lying peacefully in their beds at their rented hillside mansion, hands at their sides, dead. Cult members had taken their own lives on the weeken...
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Moving to the post World War II era, the evangelical coalition began to appeal to the older generations, to the Hollywood population, and to leaders in Washington D.C. Soon after the war, the religious conflicts that infected fundamentalism in the 1920’s were no longer relevant. Protestantism, in its mainline form, had become much more evangelical in its’ nature and its’ sects became much more interested in becoming recognized publicly. Many historians agree that, “what has not often been recognized, however, is that one of the most important driving forces behind the postwar resurgence of religion was a cadre o...
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Christianity is known to have begun in A.D. 33, in modern day Palestine. It deals with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Ch...