No one believed that Jesus was the Son of God when he first walked the world. Why would they believe him if he came back a second time?
As a premise for a novel, it’s a nice idea. Dostoyevsky has given us a taste of this: In The Brothers Karamazov, this is the parable Ivan tells his brother to show how the mainstream church, jealous of its power, would never accept the return of Jesus even if it did as such would recognize such.
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In the real world, the consequences of this deception can be devastating, especially when candidates for Jesus drag his disciples into the abyss. Just think of the case of David Koresh, the leader of a religious sect who presented himself as the new messiah.
Many believed. Hundreds rather who chose to live with him on a ranch in Waco, Texas.
It didn’t go well, to say the least. One day the police decided to show up because, in addition to the Bible, Koresh also liked to collect banned military weapons. It was the first confrontation of the “Davidians” with the police. Four agents died.
The second confrontation, which lasted nearly two months of stalemate, ended in flames, with the collective suicide of 82 cultists, including Koresh. Of those 82, 28 were children, many of whom were abused by Koresh.
The documentary about the tragedy is available on Netflix (“Waco: American Apocalypse”) and I confess that I enjoyed it. Not because of the story itself, but because it reveals a certain mentality that has sadly passed from religious fanaticism to politics.
In 1993, Koresh’s followers were the exception to the rule: devotees, zombies, hallucinators, they saw themselves as part of God’s plan to redeem “American Babylon.”
As noted by one of the devotees who actually survived and shares her experience in the documentary, no one considered themselves a “person.” They all saw themselves as instruments of a greater cause, which is why they were willing to die for it.
Today, Koresh’s followers are everywhere, which only supports the thesis that the decline of traditional religions is metastasizing in the most unlikely of places. Koresh’s sect was just one of them. overkill?
I do not think so. Years ago, writer Shadi Hamid told The Atlantic that the United States was a rare case in the secular West between 1937 and 1998: 70 percent of Americans still went to church, an unthinkable number in Europe. Over the next two decades, the number dropped to less than 50%.
At the same time and in the same period, the ideological intensity increased dramatically until we reach the current scenario where radicals on both sides believe they are fighting the devil and are not discussing the best policies for the country.
Wokism is that form of religiosity with its academic and cultural inquisitions; Rightwing nationalism, with its excuses for nativism and blood, is another pagan form of spiritual worship.
And in this sordid broth, it’s fair to acknowledge that the far right has the advantage of seizing and wielding power: it already had its president between 2016 and 2020, and the president apparently chose Waco, Texas, for the first rally of his new campaign . Coincidence?
It’s no coincidence: choosing Waco would always be symbolic. Doing this on the 30th anniversary of the tragedy takes on even greater meaning.
And Donald didn’t let the opportunity pass him by. According to the press, he apologized for invading the Capitol; he declared himself a victim of a corrupt system; promised death and annihilation if arrested; declared 2024 the “final battle” to retake America from its enemies.
Far be it from me to declare that Donald Trump is the incarnation of David Koresh. On the contrary: Koresh’s madness was real; nothing is real about Trump.
My point is different: Like a talented parasite, it feeds and feeds on the kind of dark energies that took on Dantesque proportions in this place 30 years ago.
He knows deep down that the will to believe hasn’t gone away. And that doomsday votes still partially explain his lead in all polls for the top Republican nominee for 2024.
Thirty years after Waco, The Spirit of American Babylon is still a box office hit.
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