For Wilshire Baptist Church
Wilshire and the church at large recently observed two Sundays that highlight the Holy Spirit — Pentecost and Trinity — and those days often have me reflecting on the Branch Davidians. Not the misguided followers of David Koresh, who fed them lies about holy war and end times, but the peaceful followers of Lois Roden who preceded him. The ones who followed the movements of the Trinity and especially the Holy Spirit.
In the early 1980s I was the religion reporter for the Waco Tribune-Herald, an assignment I accepted reluctantly at first but came to enjoy. One reason was that Waco, home of the world’s largest Baptist university, was as religiously diverse as any other city. Sure, the Baptists had a large presence, but the city also had congregations representing every faith and denomination as well as independent and non-denominational groups.
Among them were the Branch Davidians, a small sect living and worshiping outside of Waco in Elk, TX. I came to know who they were through Perry Jones, their spokesman, who would visit me every few weeks to deliver a copy of “Shekinah,” their journal.
Shekinah is a Hebrew word that means “the dwelling or presence of God in the world.” For the Branch Davidians at that time, the key to shekinah was the Holy Spirit. They believed the Holy Trinity was the perfect representation and model of a Holy Family with God the Father, Jesus the son, and the Holy Spirit mother.
That’s a concept that resonated with me then and still does today. In the Gospels, the Holy Spirit is described as coming at Pentecost in the form of a violent wind and tongues of fire, but I’ve always leaned toward a softer image: doves, gentle winds, and such. In other words, a mother’s gentle, nurturing touch.
When I think of the Holy Trinity, I think of God saying, “This is my plan for you”; Jesus saying, “Here, let me show you how to live the plan to its fullest”; and the Holy Spirit coming alongside us and saying, “It’s a great plan, but you may become tired and discouraged along the way. You can lean on me and I’ll help you get through.”
That’s the shekinah the Branch Davidians espoused and that caught my attention and spurred my imagination. Jones also explained to me that Roden advanced the equal roles of men and women in the church, and I’ve always been on board with that as well.
Each time Jones would come see me, he’d bring news about the workings of the Holy Spirit and how “her” presence was being understood and accepted by more and more people. He was a likable, gentle man, who sometimes brought his daughter, a little girl with blond hair. I didn’t mind the visits, except they often went on longer than my time or patience would allow. But then one day Jones brought news the building housing their office and printing press had burned. He was upset and distressed and uncertain about the future. That was the last time I saw him.
Fast forward a decade to 1993 and the ATF raid, siege, and fire at the Davidian compound that killed four federal officers and 82 Davidians. As I read the news, I learned that Jones and his daughter, who had become one of Koresh’s wives, were among the dead.
I’ll never understand how the Davidians’ notions of shekinah and a mothering Holy Spirit were transformed into paranoia and fear, and how someone as peaceful and gentle as Jones could have been transformed as well. All I can conclude is “the devil” is a powerful force, and some people are too easily convinced they should turn their faith over to someone else.
This year on Pentecost Sunday, Jim Walton led our Epiphany class in a discussion about the Holy Spirit. Jim said our understanding of the Holy Spirit and what happened at Pentecost is informed by our personal histories and experiences. I agree with that, and as such, I don’t believe the Holy Spirit would lead any one of us – or dozens of us – into an armed battle against our own kind. That’s the misguided work of misguided people following false prophets.
Later in worship on that same Pentecost Sunday, we sang “Sweet, Sweet Spirit,” a song I tired of in the late 1970s because we sang it all the time. But hearing it again for the first time in decades, it helped reset my own spirit. Or as the song says, it “revived” me. That’s the true work of shekinah, the Holy Trinity, the Holy Family, however you want to describe the presence of a loving God.