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03/14/93
Davidians in Missouri disavow Waco-area cult; Texas standoff disrupts group's pastoral life
By Daniel Cattau / The Dallas Morning News
EXETER, Mo.-The unfolding tragedy of the Branch Davidian cult near Waco is disrupting the life and besmirching the reputation of a small group of believers who nestle in the secluded hollows of the Ozarks.
Far from the news media and the rest of the world, the remaining faithful till vegetable gardens, maintain fruit trees, conduct a small Bible school and publish numerous pamphlets and tracts.
They proudly bear the name Davidian, despite what they consider the satanic undertakings of cult leader David Koresh.
"I take a great deal of courage in reading about the life of David,' said Jeriel E. Bingham, 32, vice president of the Davidian Seventh-day Adventist Association. The legendary king of Israel endured his own political, family and public relations problems-his affair with Bathsheba, for instance.
"Through it all, he didn't lose sight of God, and he had courage and faith,' said Mr. Bingham, who acts as spokesman for the group. His mother, Jemmy Bingham, is president but declined to be interviewed.
"But now the Davidian name is known to the outside world under the worst of circumstances,' Mr. Bingham said. Later, he added: "The reason why cultists are so successful is that they prey on the fears of people. If you know Jesus Christ, you have no fear of the future.'
Mr. Bingham met Mr. Koresh (then Vernon Howell) at a conference in the early 1980s-and said he was no messiah. Although he was clean-cut and seemed personable, he seemed to lust for women and power, Mr. Bingham said.
The five-hour Dallas Morning News interview with Mr. Bingham is the first he has given in-depth about the Davidians. It took place in the Missouri group's modern, year-old publishing house on 542 acres of oak forest called Bashan Hill. (Bashan was part of the Davidic kingdom around 1000 B.C. and was known for its oak trees.)
The Davidians in Missouri denounce the cult leader's penchant for firearms, rock music and polygamy, but they have historic ties to the Mount Carmel compound in Texas: M.J. Bingham, Jeriel's father who died five years ago, was part of the group that settled in Waco in the mid-1930s. He established the property near this town of 600 people in the late 1960s to give a fresh start to the Davidian movement.
Although known as a quiet, peace-loving group, they published literature that abounds with violent, apocalyptic biblical imagery- the same sort of imagery that Mr. Koresh invokes.
As such, the Davidians' story also sheds some light on the continuing saga near Waco. And it offers a glimpse into the theological feudings of the Seventh-day Adventists.
The Missouri sect is still at doctrinal odds with the mother church. The Koresh cult, by contrast, is at odds not only with the church but also much of the rest of the world.
"We're honest and upright, and we're trying to clean up the church,' Mr. Bingham said, referring to the 700,000-member Seventh-day Adventist Church, which has its international headquarters in Silver Spring, Md.
Nonviolent people
Mr. Bingham said there are about 5,000 supporters on his mailing list, but the association has no membership. Thirty-five staff members live at the Bashan Hill property in single-family homes or apartments.
There are about a half-dozen Davidian groups, including those in Mountaindale, N.Y.; Spokane, Wash.; Yuciapa, Calif.-and a small Jamaican group in Waco.
"I see these people as nonviolent,' said George W. Reid, director of the Adventist Biblical Research Institute. But "they are parasitic . . . what they're really doing is preying on the Adventist church' for members and donations.
As a rule, Davidians don't seek publicity. Mr. Bingham, who asked not to be photographed for the story, said: "We're not trying to evangelize the outside world because we're not known to them.'
All that changed when four agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were killed Feb. 28 in an attack on Mr. Koresh's heavily armed Mount Carmel compound.
The ensuing standoff continues to spotlight an arcane bit of Adventist history, theology and prophetic teachings. It involves splinter groups and branches of these groups-including the Branch Davidians.
Davidians generally share mainstream Adventist beliefs in a healthy diet-no alcohol or tobacco and most Davidians are vegetarian-and in Christ's imminent, though unspecified, return to Earth.
What distinguishes Davidians from Adventists, in essence, is their belief that they are among God's chosen 144,000 mentioned several times in the book of Revelation.
The movement began when Adventist layman Victor H. Houteff, a native of Bulgaria, was "disfellowshipped' by a Los Angeles Adventist congregation in 1930 for his unorthodox teachings.
But some followed him, taking the name Shepherd's Rod. One source cited for the name comes from the King James version of Micah 6:9: "The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the Rod, and Who hath appointed it.'
In the first edition of The Shepherd's Rod, Mr. Houteff wrote that his "dominant doctrinal concern is the truth of the 144,000 and a correct understanding of it as a life-or-death matter to all.'
They also take God's judgment of Israel in Ezekiel and apply it to Revelation. In Ezekiel 9:6, the Lord instructs an angel to "cut down old men, young men and young women, little children and women, but touch no one who has the mark.'
The Davidians in Missouri consider themselves to be true to the teachings of Mr. Houteff-who in 1935 brought a small band of followers from Southern California to the Waco area.
The elder Mr. Bingham, who joined the Adventists after being partially paralyzed, joined Mr. Houteff in the early 1930s and served as associate editor for Mr. Houteff.
The elder Mr. Bingham lived at the old Mount Carmel site near Lake Waco until the late 1940s. At one point, 125 people lived a placid existence there, selling and buying dairy cattle, and operating a school and a home for the elderly.
Mr. Bingham remembered his father's description of Mr. Houteff as "a little fellow, undistinguished and unassuming. . . . People generally had this idea he was a hayseed who popped up out of nowhere with an apocalyptic vision of the end of the world.'
Yet Mr. Houteff, who had a third-grade education, was a fast learner. His accent lessened as his powers of biblical exposition increased. He read widely and even knew Greek, said Mr. Bingham.
Biblical teachings
Some published stories about Mr. Houteff have said that he claimed he would never die. Mr. Bingham denied the story.
But he added that, after the leader's death in 1955, Mount Carmel should have died as well. Its history has been troubled ever since. The misinterpretation of biblical teachings-and even those of Mr. Houteff-has led to the tragedy now being played out near Waco, said Mr. Bingham.
Mr. Houteff was succeeded by his wife, Florence, who made the disastrous prediction that the world would end April 22, 1959. Earlier, she had sold the Lake Waco site for development and moved Mount Carmel to its current site near Elk.
About 1,000 gathered in the rain and mud of the countryside. What they witnessed was not the end of the world, but a "knockout blow' for the movement, Jeriel Bingham said.
By this time, the elder Mr. Bingham, who had opposed the prediction, had moved back to Southern California. He later formed the current Davidian association, which he moved back to Missouri in the late 1960s.
After Mrs. Houteff sold most of the 900-plus acres at Mount Carmel, she moved away. The next leader was Benjamin Roden, who moved from Odessa to claim the prophet's mantle.
"Get off a dead rod and onto a living branch,' said Mr. Roden after his ascension. He also changed the name to the Branch. The number of people living at Mount Carmel dwindled, and lawsuits over the sale of the property mounted into the late 1970s.
After Mr. Roden died in 1978, his wife, Lois, took control of the property and gained a certain notoriety by teaching that the Holy Spirit is female. One Adventist who met her says that she looked like something "straight out of the 19th century-her hair was tied so tightly back that she could hardly close her eyes.'
She also prayed "Our Mother who art in Heaven,' and named her publication Shekinah-the Hebrew word for the light that shone the brightest in the Temple's most holy place. She also wrote a pamphlet on a tank dubbed Merkabah-Hebrew for war chariot-used by Israel; she linked it with the prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel.
As prophetess of the group now called the Living Waters Branch, she initiated a disciple in his early 20s named Vernon Howell by having sex with him.
Mr. Bingham remembers the two visiting the Ozarks in the early 1980s, and said Mr. Howell was neat and personable with an eye for women.
"I think it started out as a lark,' said Mr. Bingham. "But the more he got into it, he could see the possibilities and benefits.'
After a shootout with George Roden in 1987 -- Lois had died that year and Mr. Howell and her son were struggling for control of Mount Carmel-Mr. Bingham knew that the cult leader was armed and dangerous. Mr. Howell also took the Branch Davidian name and changed his name to David Koresh.
"Anybody who allows himself to come to this point is under a satanic delusion,' Mr. Bingham said of the current standoff.
Through these trials-and daily phone calls from the media-Mr.
Bingham still holds hope for his small group and for others by using the example of David.
"As long as a person sees the lessons in David's life,' he said, "they can be a Davidian.'
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