Branch Davidian
The Branch Davidian community is a religious sect that broke away from the Seventh-day Adventist Church, emerging in the early 20th century. The group gained notoriety in 1993 when a siege with U.S. federal authorities resulted in the deaths of eighty-six individuals, including many children. Under the leadership of David Koresh, the Branch Davidians embraced a unique interpretation of biblical prophecy and adopted beliefs such as the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ. The conflict with federal agents began with a botched raid by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), leading to a lengthy standoff with the FBI that ended in a tragic fire at their Waco compound.
The group’s origins date back to a schism within the Davidians, founded by Victor Houteff, and later led by the Roden family. Koresh’s leadership was marked by claims of divine authority and controversial practices, including polygamy. In the aftermath of the raid, survivors faced legal consequences, and investigations scrutinized the actions of law enforcement agencies. Today, remnants of the Branch Davidian community continue to exist, with some adhering to Koresh's teachings while others have distanced themselves from his ideology. The legacy of this group remains complex and contentious, reflecting a mix of faith, tragedy, and ongoing debate about the events that transpired.
Branch Davidian
The Branch Davidian community is a breakaway sect of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In 1993, the group was involved in a siege with the US federal government that left eighty-six people dead. More formally known as the Branch Davidians of the Seventh-day Adventists, the group developed cult-like tendencies under its charismatic and authoritarian leader, David Koresh. Like the mainstream Seventh-day Adventists, the Branch Davidians believed that the end of the world was near. Under Koresh, the group attracted the attention of federal authorities, leading to a standoff that ended with the deaths of most of the Branch Davidians after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) surrounded their compound.
Brief History
The Branch Davidians' roots lie with the Seventh-day Adventists. The Seventh-day Adventists differ from other mainstream Protestant Christian groups by virtue of such beliefs that Saturday, not Sunday, is the holy day of the Sabbath and that the second coming of Jesus Christ is imminent. In 1929, church member Victor Houteff began to preach a gospel deemed to contradict the tenets of the church and was expelled. Houteff moved to Mt. Carmel, Texas, to establish a meeting place for his group. After his rejection by the Seventh-day Adventist leadership, Houteff organized his followers into a group called the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists, a reference to the biblical King David.
Houteff's sect of Davidians grew to a high of ten thousand members in the 1950s before his death in 1955. The leadership of the group fell to his wife, Florence. In 1959, she prophesied that the signs of the end times had begun and all Davidians should gather at their compound in preparation for the end of the world on April 22, 1959. To shed themselves of worldly connections, over a thousand Davidians sold all their possessions, quit their jobs, and waited at Mt. Carmel. When the anticipated second coming of Jesus did not occur, the group underwent another schism. Some followers moved to California to reaffirm their commitment to Victor Houteff's original teachings, while many people left the Davidians altogether in discouragement. Most, however, elected to join one of several new Davidian sects that formed after Florence Houteff's failed prophecy.
The largest of these breakaway groups was the Branch Davidians. This group was led by Benjamin Roden, who had been one of the earliest and most vocal critics of Florence Houteff. He named his new group the Branch Davidians. After Roden's death in 1978, the group was led by his wife, Lois Roden. In the early 1980s, while in her mid-sixties, Roden began a physical relationship with a twenty-six-year-old member of her congregation named Vernon Howell. After her death in 1986, a power struggle erupted between Howell and the Rodens' oldest son, George. The conflict between the men splintered the group into two well-armed divisions. George Roden eventually gained control and forced Howell and his followers off their Waco property at gunpoint.
However, Roden was unstable, and he was eventually committed to a mental institution after killing a member of his congregation. Howell, who was now calling himself David Koresh, resumed leadership of the group at their Waco headquarters in 1988.
The Branch Davidians combined the belief systems of the Seventh-day Adventists, Victor Houteff, the Rodens, and David Koresh. From their Adventist origins, they believed in a Saturday Sabbath, vegetarianism, and abstinence from liquor, drugs, and tobacco; from Houteff, they developed a fixation upon biblical prophecy; and from the Rodens, they gained a belief that the Holy Spirit was feminine and that members were required to celebrate the feast days of the Old Testament. Under Koresh, they developed strong cult-like tendencies. Koresh positioned himself as the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and claimed all the women of the group as his wives. Several ex-members also accused him of using violence and mind-control tactics to assert his control.
Waco Raid
Many details regarding the siege of the Branch Davidian compound remain contentious. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) had been investigating the group for several months for the possession of illegal weapons. In addition, Koresh was accused of being in polygamist marriages with several members of the community, including an underage woman—an act that constituted statutory rape. On February 28, 1993, the ATF attempted to enter the compound to arrest Koresh. However, the Branch Davidians had been alerted beforehand about the raid. Although it is unclear who fired first, the raid quickly turned into a gunfight that left four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians dead.
After the disastrous raid, the FBI assumed authority over the case. A standoff between the two groups lasted for fifty-one days in front of a national audience. Finally, under intense pressure to end the stalemate, the FBI authorized an assault on the compound on April 19. At some point, a fire broke out in the building, although it remains unclear whether it was deliberately set by the Branch Davidians, or accidentally created by either the FBI or Koresh's followers. Regardless, only nine of eighty-five of the compound's remaining occupants were able to escape the resulting inferno. Among the dead were twenty-two children under the age of eighteen.
Topic Today
The tragic outcome of the raid led to a federal investigation. The nine survivors of the siege were sentenced to jail terms of up to forty years, although all were released by 2007. A ten-month government study absolved the ATF and FBI of blame and instead placed primary culpability for the deaths upon Koresh. However, the findings of this report remain contested by many critics of the government's actions in Waco.
Some Branch Davidians subsequently reformed as a group called The Branch, The Lord of Our Righteousness under the leadership of Charles Pace, a former disciple of Koresh who left the group in the 1980s. However, even among the few surviving adherents of the group, there remains a wide schism. The group calling itself The Branch has refuted the belief that David Koresh was the son of God, and Pace resettled his church on the land where the raid took place. Membership of The Branch remained limited in the twenty-first century. A second group led by Clive Doyle, mostly composed of Branch Davidians who were present on the ranch at the time of the raid, still revere Koresh and believe that he will return from the dead to lead them again. However, Doyle died in 2022.
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