Waco Standoff

For the first time ever, a survivor of the Waco massacre tells the inside story of the Branch Dividians, David Koresh, & what really happened at Mount Carmel. This page-turner about life in the Koresh compound is full of shocking revelations about the siege at Waco & the actions of the ATF & FBI.

Through common sense & clear language, Wessinger provides the essential tools for understanding millennial beliefs & the complex internal mix that shapes a religious group's decision to embrace or reject violence.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, violent episodes involving cults are rare historically. But their potential to affect and disrupt civic life looms large and efforts to manage these incidents involve controversial issues of religious freedom, politics, state intervention, and public security. The interpretive challenge of this book is to provide a social scientific explanation for these rare events. The authors conclude that they usually involve some combination of internal and external dynamics through which a new religious movement and society become polarized.

New nontraditional religious movements are the most likely groups to offend mainstream culture and the least likely to have representatives in government to ensure that their liberty is protected. These new religious movements are sometimes ostracized and subject to various forms of discrimination. As America becomes increasingly pluralistic, with more and more groups contributing to the nation's religious mosaic, new religious movements may well play an increasing role in the course of religious liberty in America, just as groups such as the Jehovah's Witnesses did formerly. This book explores the problems and possibilities posed by new religious movements for religious liberty in America.

It is a bitter irony that today millions who claim to be religious - those who counsel peace, advocate the community of humankind, and voice concern for the welfare of others - often perpetrate madness, mayhem, and murder on a grand scale, and all in the name of some "righteous" cause. It would seem that the crusades, inquisitions, and witch hunts of our dark and blood-drenched past have taught us nothing. In just the first few years of the 1990s the world has witnessed Sikh violence against Muslims in India; Serbian Orthodox Christians against Croatian Catholics and Bosnian Muslims in the shattered Yugoslavia; the extremism of Muslim holy laws throughout Africa and the Middle East; Catholics against Protestants in Northern Ireland; the Branch Davidian inferno in Waco, Texas; Hindus and Buddhists engaging in violent clashes in Sri Lanka; and the United States' first real experience of international religious terrorism on its own shores - namely the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City. These are but a few of the horrific episodes that make so many people question the benign message of modern religion. In Holy Hatred: Religious Conflicts of the 1990s, renowned journalist James A. Haught, author of the widely acclaimed Holy Horrors: An Illustrated History of Religious Murder and Madness, demonstrates in gruesome detail that humanity in general and the world's religions in particular have learned little from the brutal mistakes of their predecessors. Whether it be masses of Hindus storming the gates of a Muslim mosque in India; a car bombing in Belfast; the shotgun murder of an abortion-clinic physician in Florida; "ethnic cleansing" at the hands of Orthodox Serbs inBosnia-Herzegovina; or the bounties placed on the heads of those who dare to question the iron law of Islam; the frightening effects of "fractious faith" can be seen in virtually every part of the globe. But before rational people c

Apocalypse Observed is about religious violence. By analyzing five of the most notorious cults of recent years, the authors present a fascinating and revealing account of religious sects and conflict. Cults covered include: * the apocalypse at Jonestown * the Branch Davidians at Waco * the violent path of Aum Shinrikyo * the mystical apocalypse of the Solar Temple * the mass suicide of Heaven's Gate. Through comparative case studies and in-depth analysis, the authors show how religious violence can erupt not simply from the beliefs of the cult followers or the personalities of their leaders, but also from the way in which society responds to the cults in its midst.

Apocalyptic expectations of Armageddon and a New Age have been a fixture of the American cultural landscape for centuries. With the approach of the year 2000, such millennial visions seem once again to be increasing in popularity. Stephen O'Leary sheds new light on the age-old phenomenon of the End of the Age by proposing a rhetorical explanation for the appeal of millennialism. Using examples of apocalyptic argument from ancient to modern times, O'Leary identifies the recurring patterns in apocalyptic texts and movements and shows how and why the Christian Apocalypse has been used to support a variety of political stances and programs. The book concludes with a critical review of the recent appearances of doomsday scenarios in our politics and culture, and a meditation on the significance of the Apocalypse in the nuclear age. Arguing the Apocalypse is the most thorough examination of its subject to date: a study of a neglected chapter of our religious and cultural history, a guide to the politics of Armageddon, and a map of millennial consciousness.

This book combines original theoretical analysis with real life case studies to examine the nature of the standoff. The author explores seven actual standoffs between anti-state groups and organizations of law enforcement (six from the United Staes and one from Peru), and the archetypal patterns of human action and cognition that move us into and out of these highly charged situations. Evoking original ideas about time, space and appropriate or anticipated action, she develops a theory of the fundamental existential indeterminacy of social life and the role improvisation can play in preventing violent outcomes.