End Nears for Branch Davidians?

Most people in America are probably familiar with the Branch Davidians and their stand-off with police in Waco, Texas. After that incident, however, most people probably never gave a second thought to the members left behind. Today their aren’t many left and the group may disappear soon.

The Kansas City Star reports:

There's not much left of the barn-like dormitory compound where the Branch Davidians made their last stand. ... But this field surrounded by cattle pastures on the outskirts of Waco, Texas, remains a Mecca for a certain breed of American tourist, the kind who harbors anti-government suspicions and favors conspiracy theories about what happened here. Timothy McVeigh, the mastermind of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, was a prominent pilgrim.

The faithful gather every Saturday, the day they keep as Sabbath, waiting for their Messiah to return to the scene of his immolation here in a weedy field they call Mt. Carmel. They've been waiting for 11 years now, and they vow to go on waiting for as long as it takes until David Koresh comes back to lead them to the promised land. There aren't many Branch Davidians left, their numbers having dwindled over the years due to death and dispersal and disillusion. Only half a dozen show up for the Saturday prayers; another 20 or so less fervent believers are thought to live in the area.

Despite the terrible price he and his family paid, [Clive Doyle, caretaker of the Mt. Carmel site and the keeper of the flickering Branch Davidian flame] says he refuses to entertain any doubts about Koresh or the certainty of his resurrection. "If it was all a deception, and yet we were convinced it was right, then how can we ever know the difference between good and evil and right and wrong?" Doyle asked. "If I was misled by God, then how would I ever believe anything ever again?"

Doyle’s comment is an interesting testimony to the power of faith, even in the face of tragedy. Doyle essentially admits that he can’t stop believing because if he were to seriously entertain the idea of having been wrong, his entire ego and world would come crumbling down around him. The article says “despite the terrible price he and his family paid” (his 18-year-old daughter Shari became one of Koresh's many wives and died in the fire), but I would argue that a more accurate statement would be that because of the terrible price he and his family paid, he refuses to entertain any doubts about Koresh.

At this point, he simply has too much ego and emotion invested in his religious beliefs. If he even considers the chance that he was wrong, then he considers the chance that he took his daughter to her death for the sake of an error. How many people could live with that? How many religious believers held on to failed, absurd theologies for similar reasons? How much of religion has survived simply because people have been unwilling and unable to face the consequences of being wrong?

Read More:

• Religion 101
• Theism 101
• Does God Exist?