Cult News

It has been a decade since the Waco Davidian standoff, but old conspiracy theories die hard.

Of course the few remaining diehard Davidians, which numbered five at a recent religious service, are still loyal to their selective memory of David Koresh and events at Waco.

But why do some journalists persist in groundless anti-government conspiracy theories and Davidian yarns?

A British reporter recently wrote just such fiction, but tries to pass it off as objective reporting instead, within the Independent Sunday.

The following statements were related as fact-based reportage:

“Whether the fire that consumed 76 men, women and children (24 of them British), including Koresh, on 19 April 1993 was started by the Davidians or federal agents remains in question.”

Ignored, is that numerous investigations have repeatedly verified through testimony and physical evidence that there is no “question.”

The fire was deliberately started by Davidians and ordered by Koresh.

This was proven by aerial infrared photography, audio recordings of Davidians discussing the fire and the residue of an accelerant found at the site.

Get ready for another whopper.

“The Davidians raised money by purchasing arms and selling them at gun fairs, a legal activity. Most of the weapons found at Mount Carmel were boxed for sale.”

A huge arsenal was recovered from the compound and it was clear that Koresh was stockpiling for Armageddon, not planning a “sale.”

The reporter offers a now discredited documentary without qualification, which somehow proves what went wrong at Waco.

But what was proven is that the FBI use of pyrotechnics cited in this film did not ignite the fire and fell harmlessly outside the wooden walls near concrete construction.

The reporter quotes Koresh’s lawyer who “was appalled by the lazy characterization of the Davidians as a cult, and their flimsy center as an ‘armed compound.'”

However, anyone who witnessed the initial barrage of gunfire directed against ATF agents, knows it was an “armed compound” that overwhelmed and ultimately murdered four federal officers.

And obviously it was the mindset of a “cult” that kept the Davidians within the compound for 51 days and cemented their loyalty to Koresh as the so-called “Sinful Messiah,” even if that meant death.

The journalist states, “Of the string of prophets and visionaries who had lead the [Davidians], Koresh was the most charismatic, and disillusioned Seventh Day Adventists flocked to him.”

This is hardly historically accurate.

The Davidian movement outside Waco peaked in its early days under founder Victor Houteff and Seventh Day Adventists never “flocked” to the compound to follow Koresh.

Despite constant proselytizing, David Koresh actually gained very few converts.

According to the reporter former Davidian Mark Breault is somehow an example of “betrayal.”

But it was largely Breault’s alleged “betrayal” that saved the life of Kerri Jewell, a teenager freed from the cult compound through a custody battle.

Later at 14 Jewell testified before Congress that Koresh sexually molested her at the age of 10.

In fact the depth of Koresh’s depravity is barely examined in the article.

It seemingly suffices to summarize; “Koresh was flawed.” Though the reporter allows that he likely fathered 17 children, many with teenage girls, all who perished in the fire.

“Flawed”?

The term most commonly applied to someone with this particular predilection is “pedophile.”

However, Koresh’s mother Bonnie Haldeman is given ample space to hold forth about her son the sexual predator.

She says, “David was so cute…I can see his smiling face, those dimples.”

Haldeman apparently thinks it’s important to point out that despite her son’s messianic claims she “certainly wasn’t Mary. It certainly wasn’t a virgin birth.”

Thanks for setting that straight.

And the mother, who still seems to be milking her brief moment in the media spotlight, glosses over the obvious truth about her son.

He was clearly a criminal psychopath, but let’s not forget a “cute” one.

Well, even though Haldeman is not the “Virgin Mary,” she is still a mother.

But what’s the reporter’s excuse for ignoring many of the facts about Waco?

It seems some European, Arab and extremely liberal journalists often exhibit the same sort of bias when reporting about Iraq.

Never mind that Saddam is or was a psychopath and that the Iraqi people suffered through an era of evil tyranny. Instead, what’s important is that the United States government is somehow “bad,” “negligent” and/or “criminal.”

Does such a bias at least partially explain the mythological aspects of the British reporter’s recent article about Waco?

If so, that prejudice is perhaps more pathetic than the final few still clinging to David Koresh through their strange imaginings.

After all we expect “journalists” to report the facts, instead of engaging in story telling based upon the fantasies embraced by true believers.