project 1

Project one

Branch Davidians

Purpose:

In America there are many strange and radical cults made up of people who generally don’t fit into “regular” society. Though there is no true definition of what a cult is, they are generally groups of people that share religious beliefs and practices thought of as weird or sinister to most people. My group and I chose cults as our umbrella topic because we knew that there are many interesting and some super crazy ones that exist in America. I have chosen to focus my research on the Branch Davidians, a cult that derives from the Seventh-day Adventist movement. “This cult is shaped around their belief in the imminent return of christ” (Pitts 1).

Th I chose Branch Davidians as my topic after reading about the tragic standoff in Waco, TX in 1993 between them, the ATF, and the FBI. It lasted 51 days and ended with the death of 61 branch davidians. I was very impressed that a group of just over 100 people mostly consisting of women and children were able to hold off the ATF and FBI for 51 days. I was also intrigued to learn more about it due to the abuse of government power that the federal agencies used in the attempted raid. I think that this is a very good example of how much power our government has over us and it is important that we keep them in check. Being a cult, the branch davidians experienced a contact zone with most of society and what is considered “the norm”. They were referred to as radical and probably thought of as crazy.

Problems to be investigated:

• Why did the US government not issue David Koresh’s arrest warrant in a less violent, more covert way?
• Are there any Branch Davidians left in America today?
• How many groups like the Branch Davidians exist?
• Why do people join cults in the first place?

The Branch Davidians had a real issue when the government invaded their privacy and tried to step in and take their cults’ leader. The question is whether or not the government had the right to do what they did.

Methods of research:

1. Gaffney, Edward McGlynn, Jr. “Enforcing the Law.” Commonweal, no. 10, 1993, p. 5. EBSCOhost, proxygsu-bru1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsglr&AN=edsgcl.13784192&site=eds-live&scope=site.
2. Cummings, Michael S. “Armageddon in Waco: Critical Perspectives on the Branch Davidian Conflict.” Utopian Studies, 1998, p. 350. EBSCOhost, proxygsu-bru1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsglr&AN=edsgcl.53280292&site=eds-live&scope=site.
3. Weitzman, Steven P. “Religious Studies and the FBI: Adventures in Academic Interventionism.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 81, no. 4, Dec. 2013, pp. 959–995. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1093/jaarel/lft033.
4. Gallagher, Eugene V. “The Branch Davidians of Waco: The History and Beliefs of an Apocalyptic Sect.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 76, no. 4, Dec. 2008, pp. 999–1002. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfn084.
5. Sullivan, Lawrence E. “‘No Longer the Messiah’: US Federal Law Enforcement Views of Religion in Connection with the 1993 Siege of Mount Carmel Near Waco, Texas.” Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, vol. 43, no. 2, 1996, pp. 212–34. EBSCOhost, proxygsu-bru1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=1999027464&site=eds-live&scope=site.
6. Rosenfeld, Jean, and Mary Zeiss Stange. “Understanding Waco.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 62, no. 3, Fall 1994, p. 919. EBSCOhost, proxygsu-bru1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=9503130046&site=eds-live&scope=site.
7. Kerstetter, Todd. “‘That’s Just the American Way’: The Branch Davidian Tragedy and Western Religious History.” Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 35, no. 4, Winter 2004, p. 453. EBSCOhost, proxygsu-bru1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=15331048&site=eds-live&scope=site.
8. Minor, Joel. “Great Plains Nations.” Southwestern American Literature, vol. 32, no. 2, Spring 2007, p. 45. EBSCOhost, proxygsu-bru1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edo&AN=25396196&site=eds-live&scope=site.
9. Wood Jr., James E. “The Branch Davidian Standoff: An American Tragedy.” Journal of Church & State, vol. 35, no. 2, Spring 1993, p. 233. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1093/jcs/35.2.233.
10. Pitts, William L., and William L. Pitts Jr. “Changing Views of the Millennium in the Davidian Tradition.” Journal of Religious History, vol. 24, no. 1, Feb. 2000, p. 87. EBSCOhost, proxygsu-bru1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=khh&AN=4369778&site=eds-live&scope=site.
11. Pieter G.R. de Villiers. “The Spirituality of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Groups. The Case of the Branch Davidians in Waco.” HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies , Vol 74, Iss 3, Pp E1-E10 (2018), no. 3, 2018, p. e1. EBSCOhost, doi:10.4102/hts.v74i3.5152.
12. “Agents of Apocalypse.” Commonweal, no. 9, 1993, p. 3. EBSCOhost, proxygsu-bru1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsglr&AN=edsgcl.13869451&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Field Research Ideas:

- reasons for people to join cults.

- cults that are near me.

- using a dictionary to research really old cults.

- finding a good documentary on cults.