Branch Davidians

History, beliefs, and practices

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History of the group

The group that became popularly known as the Branch Davidians are traceable back to a  splinter sect that broke away from the Seventh-Day Adventist Church (SDA) in 1942. The SDA church is well known for their belief in the imminent return of Jesus Christ to earth, for their special vegetarian dietary restrictions and for their retention of Saturday as their Sabbath.

The breakaway sect was founded by Victor Houteff, who had joined the SDA church in 1919. His beliefs deviated from main-line church doctrine. This became obvious when he wrote his book The Shepherd's Rod in 1930. In it, he outlined errors that he had found within the denomination. The book caused a minor crisis with the SDA denomination; some of its congregations disfellowshipped members who followed the book. Houteff believed that Christ's return would only occur when at least a small number of Christians had been sufficiently purified. He believed that he was a messenger sent by God to conduct this cleansing. He saw his task as a brief one, consisting of:

He founded the Mt. Carmel Center near Waco TX with 11 followers in 1935. He called the group "The Shepherd's Rod" after his book title. They attempted to recruit membership from within the SDA church with only modest success. In 1942, he broke completely away from the SDA because the latter refused to grant conscientious objector status to its members during World War II. He selected the name Davidian Seventh-Day Adventists for his organization. After the war, he started to recruit members internationally.

After Houteff's death in 1955, control of the Davidians passed to his wife Florence. She moved the community to a new location farther from Waco. She prophesied that the 1260 days mentioned in Revelation 11:3 would end and the Kingdom of David would be established on 1959-APR-22. Many hundreds of followers sold their possessions and moved to Mt. Carmel in anticipation of the "end time". They were bitterly disappointed when April 23 dawned and it was business as usual around the world. The group almost did not survive the failure of the prophecy; only a few dozen members remained. Many had left to form the Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist Association which remains active to this day. Florence Houteff left in 1962.

Benjamin Roden assumed control of the group, and renamed it the General Association of Davidian Seventh-Day Adventists. He proclaimed himself to be King David's successor. After his death in 1978, his wife, Lois Roden took control. She had been receiving visions that God is both male and female, that the third person of the trinity (the Holy Spirit) was female, and that Christ would take the form of a woman at his/her second coming! A power struggle developed between Lois and her son George.

Vernon Howell (1959-1993) joined the group as a handyman in 1981. In 1984, he married the daughter of a prominent member of the community, Rachel Jones, then aged 14. A series of power struggles resulted. George Roden had Howell thrown off the property. Roden later dug up a 25 year old corpse, placed it in the chapel and declared that the person who returned the corpse to life would be the next leader. Howell and followers sneaked into the compound to photograph the casket. They were detected and a gun battle between Vernon and George Roden resulted; George was wounded, and later imprisoned for violating a restraining order and for contempt of court. The latter charge was caused by a series of legal actions that he filed which were filled with profanity and threats against the judges. When Roden was imprisoned in 1987, Howell and his followers took over control. They found an illegal drug laboratory on the premises which made met amphetamine; they also found a large quantity of pornography. Both were removed. Howell was later tried for attempted murder, but the jury could not reach a verdict.

In 1989, Roden split his roommate's head open with an axe; he was found not-guilty of murder by reason of insanity. He lived in the Big Spring State Hospital in west Texas state mental facility. (On 1998-DEC-5, at the age of 60, he escaped and was found dead of a heart attack on the hospital grounds.)

A major international recruitment drive was established in 1985; it was aimed at SDA members (in particular those who had been disfellowshipped from the church due to their beliefs). This effort brought in members from Australia, Canada, Great Britain, etc. A number of businesses were created within the compound; guns were purchased wholesale and legally resold at gun shows. There were 130 members living at Waco in the Spring of 1993; they were a multi-racial, multi-ethnic group of whom 45 were black.

The group called themselves "Students of the Seven Seals" (meaning in reality: students of the scroll protected by the seven seals). The term "Branch Davidians" (BD) was derived from Roden's expression "Get off the dead [Shepherd's] Rod and move onto a living Branch". It was not generally used by the membership, but became the name most commonly used by the public and media. In 1990 Howell changed his name to David (after King David of the Israelites) Koresh (after the Babylonian King Cyrus). In 1992, Koresh renamed Mt. Carmel "Ranch Apocalypse", because of his belief that the final -encompassing battle of Armageddon mentioned in the Bible would start at the BD compound.

Church Beliefs

Their basic beliefs follow those of the Seventh Day Adventist church, with its emphasis on the imminent arrival of Jesus Christ, dietary rules, the inerrancy of the Bible, etc. They differ only slightly from many Evangelical churches. However, they have added a number of additional, novel concepts which were centered on themselves and their leader:

Church Practices

Ranch Apocalypse was a powder keg, awaiting only a spark. Some BDs observed the approach of 76 heavily armed employees of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and interpreted it as related to the Apocalypse and the Battle of Armageddon which they so devoutly had been studying and anticipating for years. Given their religious beliefs, no other interpretation was possible.

Reference:

1. "Report to the Deputy Attorney General on the Events at Waco, Texas; February 28 to April 19, 1993," U.S. Department of Justice, at: http://www.usdoj.gov/

Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2000 & 2003 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally published: 1995-SEP-28
Last update: 2003-APR-19
Author: B.A. Robinson