Branch Davidian Cult: Mount Carmel Compound
The Branch Davidian compound in Mount Carmel was an essential foundation to the Branch Davidian cult as well as a place of conflict. Compounds are key factors to many cults because it allows all the members of the cult to be in one place where they are provided with a home and feeling of belonging. The compound not only helps the members feel at home, but it allows the leader to preach the teachings of the cults all throughout the day, making the members even more connected. In the beginning, while the Branch Davidian cult’s beliefs were more oriented with the Seventh Day Adventist teachings, the compound was not a huge focus, and instead of one main building where everyone lived, there were small houses for families or groups of people. Once David Koresh became the leader of the branch, the group broke further into the Branch Davidians separating themselves from the Seventh Day Adventists.
Koresh believed that they needed to build a larger building because an influx of people was going to be coming in, and they would need a place to stay and worship. They tore down the decrepit individual buildings and used the materials to rebuild a communal eating hall, then a church, and then a gymnasium. People stayed temporarily in the gym while the living quarter was being built. When David Koresh took over more people came in as they saw him as a manifestation of God when he preached and believed he had been “preordained, or at least known by God in advance” which “permitted him to go through certain experiences and situations in his life” (Clive 77). The living quarter was two floors which can be seen in figure 2. The men lived on the first floor in bunks while the women lived on the second. The compound evolved further under Koresh as towers, a swimming pool, and a storm shelter in a pit was built. There was a buried bus that made a tunnel from the north end of the first-floor rooms to the storm shelter, but there were no escape tunnels. Most of these features can be seen in figure 1, with the living quarters being the largest building, but the pit is to the far right of the picture and is just cut off. The members believed that the property “was a place God provided in the wilderness outside of the Holy Land” it was a “training ground and a haven” (Clive 68). In 1993 the ATF raided Mount Carmel because Koresh was buying many guns, and the raid of ATF led to a gunfight which left four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians dead. This gunfight then led to a 51-day standoff that ended in the compound being blown up. The cause of the explosion is unknown as some predict it to be set off by the Branch Davidians while others believe the FBI did it. The explosion killed most of the members of the Branch Davidian cult as the entire compound was engulfed in flames. With the destruction of the compound and the death of their leader David Koresh, the Branch Davidian cult came to an end as the two most important aspects of their cult, their leader and their compound, was gone.
Works Cited
Bullard, Eric. “Branch Davidian.” Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2016. EBSCOhost, proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=87321083&site=eds-live.
Doyle, Clive. A Journey to Waco: Autobiography of a Branch Davidian, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/lib/ugalib/detail.action?docID=990369.