Koresh's Recruiting Recalled

A bizarrely dressed David Koresh showed up at a Seventh-day Adventist church in Hawaii in the mid-1980s and eventually led two dozen people from the Honolulu area to his Waco, Texas, compound, said a Spokane minister who used to head two churches in Hawaii.

Koresh, the Branch Davidian cult leader who also is known as Vernon Howell, turned up one Saturday morning at the Diamond Head Seventh-day Adventist Church, dressed in a long, flowing robe that was cinched with a rope, recalled the Rev. Max Torkelsen, communications director for the Upper Columbia Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

He appeared to be trying to look like a Biblical prophet, said Torkelsen, who was pastor of the Diamond Head church at the time.

After the service, Koresh, with long hair and intense, piercing eyes, tried to gather people around him in the parking lot to preach a sermon, said Torkelsen.

Torkelsen refused to allow Koresh to hold meetings in the church, but Koresh met with younger church members off the premises and convinced some of them to join him in Waco.

"I begged and pleaded for them not to go. They were convinced he was a prophet and that when he spoke, he was giving them messages directly from God," Torkelsen.

Torkelsen, who also served as minister of the Central Seventh-day Adventist Church in Honolulu, said 20 to 25 people from various Seventh-day Adventist churches in Hawaii went with Koresh to Texas in the mid-1980s.

The worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church, based in Silver Spring, Md., has disavowed any connection with Koresh or the Branch Davidians who were involved in a shootout with federal agents Sunday.

Spokesmen for the Seventh-day Adventist Church say the Branch Davidians are a splinter group whose original members split away from the denomination in 1929.

Spokesmen for Seventh-day Adventist churches in Washington state said they knew of no efforts by Koresh to recruit here.

Torkelsen said he never could understand why the people in Hawaii followed Koresh. He acknowledged some were new to Christianity and may have been impressed by Koresh's knowledge of the Bible, even though Torkelsen believes he twisted and misinterpreted Scripture.

Some who left were well-educated and well-to-do. One man had a degree in agriculture from the University of Hawaii. Another drove a Ferrari.

"I couldn't conceive why they would be taken in. They were fervent Christians, but I wouldn't want to say they had ever before shown fanaticism," said Torkelsen.

Torkelsen said he told members of the Diamond Head church that he didn't think a modern-day prophet would come dressed in Biblical attire, but rather in the dress of the day, like a suit or blue jeans. "I don't think God calls us to be oddballs," he said.

John Pauletti, a member of the Maranatha Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Seattle, said he met Koresh while he was living in Hawaii. He said he attended 30 or 40 meetings with Koresh in 1986.

"He is fearless. He can be intimidating. When I decided not to affiliate, he said, `You watch and see what happens in two weeks.' I said, `What's going to happen?' He said, `Wait and see.' Nothing happened," said Pauletti, 31.

Pauletti said Koresh used to talk about "dirty birds" to describe people's sinfulness. "I think he created theology that wasn't there," said Pauletti.

Pauletti said Koresh planned to try to recruit at Seventh-day Adventist churches in major U.S. cities, but never made it to Seattle.