Church Universal and Triumphant is a new religious movement in the Theosophical tradition. Since moving its headquarters to Montana in the early 1980s, the Church has frequently been in the news, for everything from illegal weapons purchases to the construction of controversial fallout shelters. Most recently it has been sensationalized in the media as the "next Waco." During the summer of 1993, a team of academic specialists conducted a unique, interdisciplinary study of this movement to, in part, determine whether the general public perception of this fascinating new religion was accurate. This volume reports the results of that study.

Church Universal and Triumphant

Religion & Spirituality

Melton, Gordon J.

Lewis Shewmaker & Shewmaker LLC, James R.

New Age & Spirituality

University Press of America

In 45 short essays aimed at a broad audience, the contributors to From the Ashes place the Branch Davidians in historical and comparative perspective with nontraditional religions, analyze the government's handling of the Waco confrontation, assess the media's coverage and public response, and provide an overview of responses from the academic and religious community. Although the contributors represent a wide variety of viewpoints, they are united in the belief that the 89 deaths could have been avoided and that the popular demonization of nontraditional religious movements in the aftermath of Waco represents a continuing threat to freedom of religion. Contributors include: Dick Anthony, Michael Barkun, James Beckford, Col. Charlie Beckwith, Eldridge Cleaver, Dean M. Kelly, Franklin H. Littell, and Thomas Robbins.

From the Ashes: Making Sense of Waco

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

From the Ashes

From the time of the earliest tribal religions, high priests, self-proclaimed prophets, and purveyors of doom have been predicting the end of time. This encyclopedic survey of endtime predictions looks at the history of these prophets and the religious sects that forecast the exact dates that civilization would take its final bow. Author James R. Lewis eloquently remarks that all of these doomsday fear- mongers have one thing in common: they have all been wrong. As the year 2000 ushers in a new millennium, widespread interest in the end of the world, judgment day, and the "return" of a "savior," as predicted by many old and new groups, has spread like wildfire across the planet. Encompassing the truly bizarre, the suicidal, the homicidal, and the almost believable, Doomsday Prophecies touches on apocalyptic strains in each religion, revealing that endtime predictions reach all the way back to Old Testament writings. They have thrived for centuries, and today they find new life with New Age religions and televangelists. Included are "prophecies" from the Hindu scriptures, the Ghost Dance, Iroquois tradition, the Shawnee prophet, the Turner Diaries, Aum Shinrikyo, the Branch Davidians, the Children of God, Rael, Dorothy Martin, Edgar Cayce, Marshall Applewhite, the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord, and more. Lewis includes everything, from the longtime belief in a final battle between good and evil to the space-age belief that heaven's gate can be reached through travel with alien beings. Sometimes humorous, often tragic, this enduring book examines the questions raised by the mass appeal of prophetic movements as a theme in popular culture.

Doomsday Prophecies: A Complete Guide to the End of the World

Prometheus

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