Baylor University Aided FBI in Waco Firestorm

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ans to develop their profile when they 'visited the campus over the years. According to McCall,the BranchDavidians were a harm less splitoff from the SeventhDay Adventists,who came to Baylor University aided Waco in 1933. But,McCall said that this all began to change when Vernon Howell, who took the name David Koresh, FBI in Waco firestorm "gradually wonned his way into the position of leader." McCall said that Koresh "was convince� he was divine.He was a paranoid and a believer that a hostile world would by Scott Thompson attack the Branch Davidians." McCall accused Koresh of being a murderer and a child abuser. Several sources both inside and outside the Federal Bureau But for McCall,none of this is the real crime ofDavid of Investigation have confinned that a special FBI unit relied Koresh.Rather, it was that Koresh, like a growing number upon the Baylor University ReligionDepartment to help pro of millenarians, was anti-masonic. He Fompared Koresh's fileDavid Koresh and the Branch Davidians prior to the anti-masonic stand to that being taken byDr. James Holly of assault by federal agents on the BranchDavidian compound Beaumont, Texas, who has been leading the campaign to in Waco, Texas on April 19, in which 86 men, women, have Freemasonry declared incompatib.e with the Southern and children were incinerated. Baylor University, which is Baptist Convention. "Both think of Masonry as witchcraft affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention,is in reality and satanism," McCall said.He compared the two to Adolf controlled by the Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction of Free Hitler and Benito Mussolini, who, he: said, had been the masonry,of which the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, leading anti-Masons of the 20th century . together with many other top FBI officials,was a 33rdDegree Grand Cross member. Profiling the Branch Davidians The founder and every president of Baylor University According toDr. Bill Pitts of the Baylor University Reli has been a high-ranking Mason,while the campus hosts the gion Department, there were several department members building of the Grand Lodge of Texas. Baylor University who had met with the BranchDavidiansiduring their visits to was featured on the cover of the February 1993 issue of The the campus to discuss the history of th�ir sect and religion. Scottish Rite Journal as a prime example of the compatibility Pitts said that this was particularly true of the chainnan of the between the Scottish Rite and the Southern Baptist Conven ReligionDepartment, Glen Hilburn. tion (SBC), arguing against those SBC leaders who claim Although a member of the Baylor University administra Freemasonry is an incompatible,satanic religion. tion characterized Pitts as having had th� closest ties with the Assistant FBIDirector of Criminal Investigations Larry BranchDavidians, Pitts denies it.He dots admit that he drew Potts, who was in charge of the 51-day FBI siege of the up a historical profile of theDavidians, �tating that they were BranchDavidian compound from FBI headquarters,told his a "mild-mannered,millenarian " splitof(that sought to purify Virginia hometown newspaper Leesburg Today: "I ...re the SeventhDay Adventists.They even served as medics in lied heavily on members of the Bureau's Investigative Sup World War II,after obtaining conscientious objector status. port Unit made up of agents who travel the world establishing But, like McCall, Pitts has an intense hatred for the behavior profiles.. . .Agents met with religious professors changes wrought by Koresh after he becliIIle the leader of the at Baylor University to discuss sections of the Bible which BranchDavidians.Pitts retailed all the: slanders from those were most often the subjects of Koresh's preachings." San Davidian "defectors," including one from Australia who had Antonio Special Agent-in-Charge Jeff Jamar, who ran the been brainwashed by the Cult Awareness Network (CAN). field command center near theDavidian compound,told the According to Pitts,Koresh was a violence-prone child abus House Judiciary Committee hearings on the role of the FBI er. He said that Koresh thought of himself as Christ, and and the Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco, and Firearms (A TF) in Koresh purposely sought martyrdom. , Waco that "the whole Baylor University Religion Depart This line peddled by Pitts in some 100 media interviews, ment was at our disposal." according to the Baylor administration,1S precisely that same line which CAN fed to the A TF,that r�su1ted in the bloody Koresh compared to Hitler Feb. 28 shootout betweenDavidians and ATF agents.It is Abner V. McCall,who is president emeritus of Baylor apparent from the statements of McCallllndPitts, that Baylor University and a 33rdDegree Grand Cross,wrote the article University spread slanders similar to thpse peddled by CAN featured in the February Scottish Rite Journal. In an inter to the FBI.And, if McCall's statements are representative, view with ajournalist,McCall admitted knowing of the FBI's the reason for this particular strain of vilification was their use of the Baylor University Religion Department,adding belief that David Koresh opposed the same Scottish Rite that many members had had contact with the BranchDavidi- Masons who control Baylor University �

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