Member-only story
Toward Existential Madness
On April 19, 1993, after 51 days in a stand-off with police and military, Vernon Howell — aka David Koresh — and 75 others, including 25 children, burned to death in a fire at a Waco, TX compound of a Branch Davidian offshoot of the Seventh-Day Adventists.
Reports say Howell came from a troubled background. In 1990, he rose to power in the sect, claiming the gift of prophesy, including a belief that he was a messiah, and that any children born to him would be sacred.
Looking through a 29-year long lens at events that were, even at the time, murky, makes most interpretations of the events of April 19th and the preceding 50 days subject to considerable scrutiny and off-the-mark interpretation.
I didn’t know Howell personally. I haven’t read all the literature on what might have motivated him. From my very limited perspective, it seems likely he suffered from some kind of mental illness.
Vernon Howell aside, consider the example of David in the Old Testament. (Now, the historical lens is 3,000 years long.) The story of David and Goliath has been told and retold over centuries. It has been used as part of motivational seminars in perhaps every country where the Old Testament is used. Sermons are preached about him in churches across the globe.
