Wacos At Waco Essays - Waco Siege, Apocalypticism, Adventism

Wacos At Waco In studying millenarian movements many theories have attempted to explain the behavior of past groups who believe the end of the world is soon approaching. Historically, these accounts have been brought to light mostly by second-hand accounts. Yet these movements have continued until the present day, allowing us to collect information about similar millenarian movements through current observations, and comparing them with the societies, events, and people who led these movements in the past. As the year 2000 approaches, the words millennium, antichrist, and Armageddon have become commonplace in our every day lives. While this happening, we are made aware of this shift in our cultural conciseness and compare current movements to past theories of millenarianism in order to better understand the place these beliefs hold in our culture. The fateful events that revealed David Koresh to the world are exciting because the Waco disaster was similar to historical events and enhanced our unde rstanding of what is known about millennial groups. The harshness of the events that occurred there are worth noting for more than their sensationalism. (A)The Waco events demonstrated how our government reacts to movements it sees as threatening to the social norm, and resulted in such dire consequences as to suggest that all the studies that have been done on millenarianism up until now are not considered deeply enough. (B)The available literature on the Waco events also suggests that the prophet status held by David Koresh in relation to the group was powerful enough to overcome societal pressures to conform to more acceptable beliefs. (C)Finally, the Waco believers ultimately had a marked political effect that draws more conservative believers to hold fast to their millennial beliefs. Waco movement had political impact- gained suspicion from government, had power to arouse fear- Why?***Second point to discuss. Such as: the role of prophets in the ___ movement.***why power- was d ue to prophet status given by group to Koresh explain how he gave strength and power to affect government to this movement- lead to society***Third point to discuss. Such as: The relationship of the groups millennial ideas and dogma to social change.***waco movement was able to cause social change-why leader, power, resistance ,disillusionment of members in current society about there way of life(hopeless)*** Several biblical experts were called onto the seen during the conflict at Waco. One of these experts, James Tabor wrote his account of the happenings at Waco. In his article Religious Discourse and Failed Negotiations, The Dynamics of Biblical Apocalypticism at Waco asserts that the government reacted to the actions of David Koresh without taking into account what he was truly trying to accomplish. If this was seriously considered, according to the observations of James Tabor, the conflict at Waco could have been resolved without the harsh actions of the BATF.. Initial live interviews with Koresh were very revealing if studied. Koresh believed himself to be the Christ that would be able to interpret the seven scrolls referred to in the bible as one of the events preceding the end of the world. The government approached the situation as a hostage rescue situation, when infect they were acting out the beliefs that Koresh was teaching would occur before the end of the world. The thing t hat the government had missed was that no one in the compound had in the past or the present perceived themselves to be a hostage of Koresh, instead the did feel themselves hostages of the U.S. government. The government reacted to Koresh and his followers violently because thy perceived him to be an insane con-artist with no chance of changing his views. The way Koresh spoke contributed to this, but why was he seen to be such a threat as to allow the government to deal with him with such extreme force? The ability of Koresh to be a charismatic leader allowed him to surpass the authority of many traditional forms of authority. Max Weber characterizes this type of authority as a certain quality of an individual or personality by virtue of which he is considered extraordinary and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These are such as are not accessible to the ordinary person, but