Rethinking Waco: The Perspective of the Academic Study of Religion by James D. Tabor Associate Professor Department of Religious Studies University of North Carolina at Charlotte Originally delivered before the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Washington, D.C., November 22, 1993. Copyright March 1994 by James D. Tabor. Permission is granted for non-commercial replication of or excerpting from this material, provided that appropriate notice is included of its copyright status, as above. ===== The Koresh Package includes the following electronic files from James Tabor (jdtabor@unccvm.uncc.edu): David Koresh's Unfinished Manuscript on the Seven Seals, edited by James Tabor and Phillip Arnold Events at Waco: an Interpretive Log Rethinking Waco: the Perspective of the Academic Study of Religion The Role of Biblical Scholarship at Waco: One Attempt to Avert Disaster To access materials from the ccat gopher, University of Pennsylvania, follow these procedures: telnet gopher.upenn.edu select UPenn gophers select ccat.sas follow the menus -- for example select CCAT Text Archives select Religion select Koresh MSS ===== RETHINKING WACO: THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE ACADEMIC STUDY OF RELIGION If any of you were able to attend or watch the Justice Department's October 8th summary, mainly given by former Assistant Attorney General Edward Dennis on the Waco incident, and attended by Janet Reno toward the end, you would know that they were asked repeatedly, "Aren't you afraid of a whitewash? What about a whitewash?" At one point the Attorney General stated rather blatantly and dramatically: "We want the truth to come out." The reason I agreed to come up here today is because I want the truth to come out. I feel somewhat emotional and personal about Waco. I'm past saying that I'm merely sad. Indeed I have moved to more of a feeling of anger after reading the Justice Department report and watching the presentation made on October 8th. Toward the end I will tell you more about just why I feel such personal emotion. Some of the sharpest criticism in the report comes from the two scholars on the outside panel who know the most about the religious studies, Professor Nancy Ammerman of Emory University and Professor Larry Sullivan of Harvard. Yet their incisive critique hasn't been covered by the media yet, and no mention of their findings was made by Edward Dennis, who claimed that no serious errors in judgment were made. Please read their documents for yourself. They are devastating, even blistering. And that's why we're here. Our focus is on the question, was there another way? Yes, there was another way, and if fact, it was being pursued. Edward Dennis presented what he called a coherent negotiation strategy followed during the 51 day siege. It had three steps: (A) Convince the group that they were not in an apocalyptic situation as they thought; (B) Assure legal protection so that the possibility of coming out could be implemented. That involved the strategy of letting the lawyers Dick DeGuerin and Jack Zimmerman go in over a period of time during late March and April. And (C) Continue pressure techniques intended to divide the group and sever loyalty to David Koresh, breaking down the morale of those inside. Obviously, A and B work well together, while C is counterproductive. Also, A and B were working, but finally ignored, while C was followed and led to disaster. On the whole, according to Dennis, the Waco situation was defined as a CHBRS: that is, a Complex-Hostage-Barricade-Rescue situation. It's not quite an acronym the way I said it, but you can play around with that. Well, I'm sorry but it wasn't that. The Branch Davidians were a devout religious community founded over 50 years ago. They were a church. They took holy communion twice a day, morning and evening; they spent much of their time studying the Bible. It is true that they held alternative, and I would say, for most of us, rather bizarre religious convictions. But they were capable of articulately defending these Biblical views with a fair degree of sophistication, based upon their world view. Now former Assistant Attorney General Edward Dennis said on October 8th that any speculation regarding the group coming out was irresponsible. I thought that was an amazing statement. That is, we shouldn't even speculate -- that it would be irresponsible. This implies we should not even evaluate what might have been the case, had other courses been followed -- since this would be irresponsible! Well, that is precisely what I plan to do, and I consider it absolutely responsible to do so. But actually what I have to say is not mere idle speculation. People have asked me: "Why worry about what might have been? Maybe we could learn some lessons, but it's over. These Waco people were a very strange. They should have come out. They were stubborn. Now they're dead. It's over. Maybe we should just forget it." We also heard Edward Dennis say on October 8th, "How could seemingly intelligent people pursue a course of insanity, mass murder and suicide?" That's what he said. President Clinton, on the very day of the fire, said "The U.S. government is not to blame. If a bunch of religious fanatics decide to kill themselves, what can we do?" Then when he was further questioned he said, "Well, there was child abuse. We all know that he had sex with minors, don't we?" And all the reporters were looking at each other: Do we know that? I don't know that? Do you know that? We've heard a lot of reports about that. Were there legal charges? What kind of country are we living in? We all know that he had sex with minors? Let me give you a chronology, I guess you could call it what might have been. What makes me angry is that David Koresh was coming out. We were a few days, up to a week or so, from getting him out. I'm absolutely persuaded. This is not mere speculation. There was not a coherent negotiation strategy because there was pressure and other kinds of things going on. But what the lawyers were doing day by day, and they spent more time with the group after the siege than anybody else; and what Dr. Phillip Arnold and I were doing, day by day, in concert with the lawyers from the religious side of things, was absolutely working. Listen to this chronology which you likely haven't heard: On March 4, Jeffrey Jamar who was the FBI agent in charge, was asked, "When are they coming out?" The answer, "David's stance is that he's been told to wait." Told by whom we must ask? Whom does David listen to? Does he listen to the loud speakers? Does he listen to recordings of rabbits being slaughtered? "He's been told to wait." David operated in a religious framework. Jamar continued, "When he gets the message to stop waiting, then we'll proceed from there. He's still saying that he's going to come out." He also said the FBI had as much time as was needed and would not provoke any violent action. Now that's what we heard on March 4th. What did we hear after that? Anything different? The lawyers went in day after day and what did they report over and over again? "We've solved all the legal problems. He's coming out after Passover." Now, how long is Passover? The FBI apparently thought it lasted one day. Even Jeffrey Jamar said on ABC's Nightline, the day of the fire, that David kept changing the date of Passover each day. Obviously, he's not Jewish. The Passover celebration lasts for eight days. David and his group began their Passover celebration on Tuesday or Wednesday night, April 6th or 7th. It was over a week later, on Tuesday or Wednesday April 13th or 14th. Jews around the world were observing the same eight day cycle. On Friday, April 2nd, the weekend before Passover, the lawyers came out after what was supposed to be their last visit. They were smiling. They held a press conference: "It's all solved. He's coming out and after Passover we'll get the word." They stressed that David had to receive a clear sense from God of just how to implement his desire to come out. But on Sunday, April 4th, the suddenly lawyers went back in again. Why? The media reported that they had some important religious information that they said they were carrying -- that was the last time they saw David Koresh. I emphasize again, this was April 4th, the Sunday before Passover. What they took in was recorded material Dr. Arnold and I had given them in response to David's Biblical and apocalyptic interpretations of the Book of Revelation. Our efforts were working beautifully, just as we had hoped. The FBI knew all about it these efforts. You can read Nancy Ammerman's report, she covers this. I don't think they bothered to listen to our final tape and really try to follow precisely what we were saying, what our strategy was, because they said in their logs about that time that "We're tired of Bible babble. We want to get on with it -- get on with getting them out." The problem, of course, is that this so-called "Bible babble," was actually quite coherent and meaningful, and it was the only way to communicate with David. Anyway, what happened on April 14th, the day after Passover, just four days before the fire? Think about this. Four days, it's on a Wednesday, April 14th. Prompt as clockwork the day after Passover, David sends out a letter, which turned out to be his final formal communication to the outside world. He says -- and remember, he's been waiting for the word from God that he says he has to have in order to come out -- "I've got the word. Here it is." A two page letter, he released it to the world. What does it say? "I am free of my waiting period. I'm coming out. I am presently being permitted to document in structured form the decoded message of the Seven Seals." Notice the language carefully. Anyone who knows anything about religion and the dynamics of the charismatic religious leader would understand that this language was to be taken very seriously. He says, "I am being permitted." We can speculate that David was a criminal, a mere con man, cloaking his evil motives under a religious garb, as the FBI repeatedly said. But I am personally of the opinion that David Koresh was absolutely sincere in his beliefs. Indeed, that is what made the situation so explosive. I know the Branch Davidian people were absolutely sincere. Dr. Arnold and I have spent many hours interviewing them, both before and since the fire. These are convicted religious people who find their views in the Bible. David goes on to say, "I've been praying so long for this opportunity. As soon as I've been given over to the hands of men (notice this language, it's actually rather subtle and brilliant) I know that I will be made a spectacle of, and people will be concerned, not about my message, the truth of God, but the bizarreness of me in the flesh." He knew that. He knew everyone would want to know about the stories of sex with minors, and all the other bizarre things that had been reported about him and the group. But he said that what's important is the message of the Seven Seals -- to get this out. His word from God was that he would be permitted to write the message out. We all heard about this new turn of events. The lawyers, along with Dr. Arnold and I, were elated. The FBI reacted by merely making fun of David. Listen to this -- the letter continues. Here are the last lines, the last public words of David Koresh: "As soon as I can see that people like Jim Tabor and Phil Arnold have a copy of the manuscript, I will come out and you can do your thing with this beast." [I can explain what this language about the "beast" means later if you want to get into the theology.] Koresh was obviously responding positively and consistently to the materials we had presented, which all dealt with him coming out, but used Biblical interpretations and language -- what the FBI called "Bible babble." Also notice, this very letter makes it clear that he didn't think he was God. He says he thanks his heavenly Father for this opportunity, this permission, to write the message of the Seven Seals. You see, in the book of Revelation the seer is told not to write the secrets of the book. For David, this was a very great event -- it could now be written. Did the FBI seriously analyze the letter? If so, how could Edward Dennis end the Justice Department press conference on October 8th by saying, "In the final analysis there is simply little one can do with someone who thinks he is God." Koresh didn't think he was God. What does he mean when he says, "I thank my heavenly Father." Who was that? Koresh didn't even think he was Jesus Christ. He thought he was a Christ, that is, an anointed one, based on Isaiah 45:1-3 and Psalm 40 and 45 -- look it up. These are not references to Jesus Christ. Further, if he thought he was Jesus why would the Branch Davidians take communion twice a day to remember the heavenly work of Christ? These statements alone make it clear that people at the highest Federal levels still do not understand these people as a religious community, nor do they comprehend their most basic beliefs. And this is after the so- called, "thorough" investigation. This final letter from Koresh is coherent and consistent, and it fits perfectly with what FBI agent Jeff Jamar had said weeks before -- David will not come out until he gets his word from God. So, on April 14th, just four days before the fire, David says, "I've got the word, I'm coming out." The lawyers said just before Passover that all the legal obstacles to their coming out were solved. David was to report his "word from God" after Passover. The day after Passover he releases this letter saying he is coming out. So, what happened? This was on Wednesday. David says, "I'm working on a manuscript." The FBI only made fun of him: "We don't know how long it will take a high school dropout to write a book." They took this as merely one more delay tactic, which shows they had not carefully followed our efforts, nor had they ever taken David's main claim seriously -- his ability to expound the meaning of the Seven Seals. Over the next day or two they said they had evidence he was not even working on the manuscript. Well we now know David, true to his word, did go to work on his manuscript that very weekend. It was highly important to him, the most important thing he had ever tried to do. A copy of his work survived the fire on a computer disk carried out by his typist, Ruth Riddle. We released it to

Newsweek and other media last week. It's quite a substantial piece of work. It would run about 26 pages double spaced. The content is rather intriguing and it explains a lot about David's beliefs and even his attitude toward the Waco standoff situation. It is coherent, logical, and quite moving to read. It's what David lived, breathed, and died for. What did he mainly claim? He said he had been given the secret, the message of the Seven Seals. David completed his work on the first seal that Sunday night. We've reconstructed the chronology. He worked until around 9:00 pm. Let me read to you the last few lines of the surviving manuscript. Keep in mind that this was written the night before the fire. He first quotes the Scripture. Remember, to David, these texts of Scripture were everything. He felt he had to follow them. He quotes Joel 2, verse 15. "Assemble the congregation. Gather the children. Let the bride come out of her closet." That's his quote. What does it mean to him? It's a message that it's time to come out. And then he offers his commentary: "Should we not eagerly ourselves be ready to accept his truth?" What truth? The truth that he was now seeing in the Scriptures, namely, that they are to "Come out of our closet and be revealed to the world as those who loved Christ in truth and righteousness." His point is obvious. It was as if he were saying, "We've been made fun of; we've been maligned. I've been called a child molester and a sex pervert -- everything in the book. It is time to come out and let the world hear our true message and know we are faithful servants of Christ." He was coming out. But he wasn't coming out without a message -- to be strapped and chained, pushed and cajoled and made fun of. He was coming out. What he was saying was this: "Do what you want with me, but read what I have to say." He was coming out. So what were the last words of David Koresh? Sunday night, around 9:00 pm: "Let's come out of our closet and face the world." We have interviewed the typist who typed this for Phil. She reports that David was pleased with his progress on the First Seal that evening, and planned to continue work through the next week. The group was pleased with him, there was a joyful spirit of hope among them. They had finally gotten their word from God, and things were moving along nicely with David's writing. They knew that if he finished the First Seal in one day, on that Sunday, and the First Seal was was the longest one, then they might be out in a week to ten days. So that's the truth folks. The attack on April 19th was totally unnecessary, ill-timed, and ignored the most important thing of all -- David's absolute insistence for 51 days that he had to follow the instructions of God. What happened April 19th? David's world view hadn't changed. He felt that God was allowing him to write this manuscript and that he was supposed to then come out and face trial as Jesus had, and as others had, which is one of the points we had presented to him on our tapes. We had pleaded that he come out and face trial so that the truth could come out. The apostle Paul went to prison. Others went to prison. David was ready to do just that, as he plainly said a few days before. The important thing for him now was to get the message out. Writing the manuscript was not a delay tactic, it is what he had to do before they exited, so the message would be clear, no matter what happened to them as individuals. And that's exactly what he was doing. He was following a scenario, a script that he believed that God had laid out for him. But when the attack came that morning -- all hope of writing the message ceased. Who can write manuscript with tanks crashing into the walls of ones home? The dynamics of biblical apocalypticism are that you read the text, the Script. You then try to figure out exactly what is going to happen. He had become convinced that he was to come out and go on trial and vindicate the group in the eyes of the world with this manuscript. He saw this in Joel 2 and other texts. That was his scenario. He was bound to follow it. That's why it is not idle or irresponsible speculation to say David was coming out. In fact it is the most responsible reading of the situation, once one takes seriously David's religious worldview, as all the religious studies experts have faulted the FBI as failing to do. Monday morning when they began crashing into that place with all the horror that we're still hearing it was obviously impossible that the book be written. [Just this past Monday there were some new reports over the AP wire that the children were crushed by falling debris caused by the tanks crashing into the structure -- even before the fire started in the bunker area. This raises the possibility that some of the children were killed directly by the government actions.] So, what must have been going through David's mind at that point? He was forced to conclude, because of this violent initiative by the government, that they were in the Fifth Seal after all. This is the place in the Bible that Dr. Arnold and I tried to convince David did not have to be fulfilled at this time, in Waco. It says that the rest of the group will die. Since he he was writing the manuscript, he had given up the notion that the Fifth Seal had to come to pass at this point. Now, through the government action, it was the only possibility once again. This Fifth Seal speaks of a number of God's servants being killed, then waiting a "little season," followed by the rest of the group dying. The events, the external attacks said to him, "I guess God is not going to permit me to write the manuscript and come out after all." I'm sorry I'm rather emotional about this, as is obvious from my voice. I'll tell you why. I came to love these people. You talk to someone like Catherine Mattison, 77 years old, living in the Brittany Hotel down in Waco. She is one of the Branch Davidian survivors. She said, "I've been a member of this group for 35 years." She reminds one of a typical devout "grandmother" figure. She has a large black Bible with every page underlined and marked. I am sure she could hold her own in Biblical discussions with anybody. She has her views and she can defend them. Think of it, thirty five years in this group, before even David Koresh was born. She says, "If David had done all of those nasty things, do you think I would have stood for this. I would have told him off and left the group long ago." And she talks about her affection for him. She said he was the most mature and selfless man she had ever known. I came to love those people. They were dear, sweet souls, a very good people, "heart of the earth," types, much like the type of Bible-believing people I grew up with in the South. If they were guilty of criminal activity, then fine, let's follow legal procedures and have a trial. If they were guilty of any crimes, let's follow a course of law. But if you go in the way the Federal government did, both on February 28th, April 19th, and for 50 days inbetween, the results are going to be absolutely horrible. It was a massacre. How did the fire start? I don't know. But I do know that David was coming out. Surely no one can say that as he worked busily on his manuscript on Sunday night, the evening before the fire, that he actually was planning to burn the place down the next day and kill everyone. This is absurd. The actions of the government directly led to the disaster. That is a fact. There was a serious lack of communication. Somehow over the weekend, in Washington, it was decided to go ahead. Attorney General Reno now admits that she was not given factual information about the so-called child abuse, yet she said the day of the fire that this was the main reason they could not wait. We also learn that she backed off at one point, said they would not go in, then changed her mind. There is no evidence that she was even told what I have presented today. Did the FBI stress to her that the lawyers, who spent the most time with the group in face to face dialogue, and had really gotten to know David, had concluded that everything was set for David to come out? Was she told that the two biblical scholars who had communicated with David had gotten a highly positive response which also supported the idea that he was coming out? And most important, was she told that even as they were conferring, David Koresh was hard at work on his promised manuscript? Was she shown the letter David wrote on April 14th? If not, why not? Who is at fault here? Let me end with this quote: "There's no place for blame," said former Assistant Attorney General Dennis. "There were no gross errors in judgment. We used patience, restraint and understanding." Surely not informing the Attorney General of these matters, and staying the course for another week to or two, when events were so positively unfolding, was a serious and gross error in judgment. Is that a whitewash or what? It really angers me. Those people are dead now, and they didn't need to die. //end//