Crazy cult beyond belief
IN THE 25 years since Waco there have been many documentaries on the subject, of varying quality. Overlooking the dreadful pun in the title, WACO INFERNO: THE UNTOLD STORY (Channel 5) made it to the higher end of the list. Obviously any attempt to tell the story, untold or otherwise, has to include cult leader David Koresh.
It has to include his fondness for having sex with children. It has also to include the dreadful narrative of the peaceful movement turning paranoid. The stockpiling of weapons, the prophecies of destruction, the tanks, the tear gas and the final, suicidal blaze claiming 75 lives.
What set this film apart was its willingness to talk to the members who got out. Sheila Martin lost four children and a husband on the day the Branch Davidian cult leader set his headquarters ablaze.
Clive Doyle lost his 18-year-old daughter, one of three who had been “married” to Koresh. Both Sheila and Clive live in Waco, Texas to this day and remain committed to their sect’s beliefs.
It would be wrong to say they didn’t grieve for the loved ones they lost, indeed, their unwillingness to leave the town suggested they could never move on.
Along with other survivors, though, they still believe that at least some of Koresh’s message was right and that they will be reunited with him at some appointed time.
Brainwashing is too simple an explanation. For many interviewees, including people who’d rejected their former beliefs, Koresh and his movement had been exciting.
Instead of plodding along just living good lives, they were actively preparing, caught up in a mission, rebels with a cause.
People flocked to the movement from Australia, from the UK and stuck with it when it started to go wrong.
It was significant as well, perhaps, that Koresh recruited members from the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Its members believe in an imminent second coming and an ongoing struggle here on Earth between the powers of Jesus and Satan.
They also believe in prophecy, which was why a young high school dropout could convince some members he’d unlocked hidden Bible codes, explaining when the end time would come. If you can believe that, what can’t you believe? That’s the point of belief.
The main difference between a cult and a religion is just how many people believe it.
I did not tune into TRAVEL MAN: 48 HOURS IN MADEIRA (C4) expecting the Gloria Hunniford treatment. Given the droll presence of host Richard Ayoade and the even droller presence of his guest, Robert Webb, I expected to be made to laugh. I was correct in that expectation as well.
“That’s the fastest I’ve ever gone in wicker,” said a somewhat shaken Ayoade, as he and Webb finished a bath chair-cum-waltzer death ride through the streets of Funchal.
“I thought we’d just stand here and squint awhile,” he said later, summing up exactly what everyone does on viewing platforms and why they’re pointless.
Over the course of half an hour, though, I began to wonder whether Madeira needed these wiseguys and whether they needed Madeira.
Forced to earn their jolly by making jokes, you could sense a weariness in the pair as they dredged up another gag about the local fruit. It might have been more fun without the funnies.