The Charlatans of the Faith

Last night I watched a report of Waco burning and the story of David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, It called me to remember that terrible 1993 seige when we sat by the televisions and wondered if this madman would come out and surrender or if he would let them be burned alive.

Then it was all over and there was no one coming out.   He had gotten national attention and his story of perversion and abuse and his terrible upbringing had been discuss ad nauseum.  Psychiatrists had come to the forefront with many explanations and the word "charismatic" had been coined for us forever.

I sat here and wondered if I would ever allow someone to "mind-control" me to the point that I would be so taken in as to stand in a burning building without running for cover.   There are plenty of David Koresh's in this world because there are plenty of people who are desperate for anything to hold on.  To me the Church has failed to provide enough stable people so that the unstable can take over.   I find very few television preachers I would listen to for more that a second --I get the feeling that they would light the fire in the building and be the first to run out and leave the rest of us there.   I am not cynical, at all, about God and his power;  but I am so cynical about preachers and con-men pretending to be the word of God in today's world.

There are lessons to be learned in the account of Waco.  But those who died in the burning had no time to think about those lessons.