Denver cultists arrested in Israel

Denver Post/January 4, 1999
By Peggy Lowe

Jan. 4 - Israeli police raided two homes in Jerusalem on Sunday and arrested 14 members of a Denver cult for allegedly planning a suicidal shoot-out with police.

The eight adults and six children are members of Concerned Christians, organized by Monte Kim Miller, the 6-foot-4 leader of the cult. Miller, 44, formerly of Denver, was not among those detained, and his whereabouts were unknown.

The cult members, whose names were not released, were bent on a bloody confrontation with authorities in hopes of hastening the second coming of Christ, Israeli police said Sunday. No weapons were found in the expensive homes where cult members were living.

"They planned to carry out violent and extreme acts in the streets of Jerusalem at the end of 1999 to start the process of bringing Jesus back to life," said Brig. Gen. Elihu Ben-Onn, the national police spokesman.

About 80 Concerned Christians members left Colorado and other U.S. cities for Jerusalem four months ago to accomplish the apocalyptic end Miller has predicted. Miller, who claims to speak for God, told followers he's destined to die on the streets of Jerusalem in the finals days of December 1999. Sunday's action was hailed as a positive one by some family members and experts who have watched Miller's group gain momentum in its march toward the millennium.

The raid probably has forced some members to question Miller, despite his claim of infallibility, Mark Roggeman, a Denver police officer who tracks cults, said Sunday. Miller has total control over his followers - even determining day-to-day decisions like phone calls to family members, Roggeman said.

Being detained "has to force them to panic a little bit. Believe it or not, that's healthy, if you understand the whole cult phenomena," he said. "If he's truly speaking for God or a prophet this stuff should have been predicted. I think this is a great break," Roggeman said.

If the Israeli officials act quickly, the 14 could be deported as early as today. If they are held for 48 hours, they must appear in a Jerusalem court. Their names could be released if they appear in court.

Nicolette Weaver, 16, of Lakewood, talked to reporters Sunday about her 10-year experience in the cult. She left it two years ago, fearing Miller's intensity. Weaver's mother, Jan Cooper, and her husband, John, are believed to be high-ranking members of the cult. John Weaver, Cooper's ex-husband said he doesn't believe Cooper was among those arrested but that she may still be in Israel. "Our main hope is to get them away from Kim Miller," John Weaver said. "And we just pray that they get some sense in their head that this guy is just a scam artist. Real prophets don't get involved in shootouts. Jesus didn't come with a machine gun."

Weaver won custody of Nicolette after details of the cult's activities were revealed in court. In a court affidavit filed in the custody case, Nicolette Weaver was quoted as saying: "My mother told me in August '96 that we have only 40 months left on Earth. My mother told me that if Kim Miller told her to kill me, she would." Still, Weaver said she worries about her mother.

"Because they believe the world will end in December 1999, and I'm sure they'll do something to make it end in 1999," she said. "If the Israeli government deports them, they'll just go somewhere else."

Other relatives of cult members said Sunday's action was just another mysterious element in the ever-larger puzzle surrounding Concerned Christians. Cathy Davidson, sister of cult member Connie Blythe, said she received a call from Blythe just four months ago.

"She said that everything was fine. She said, 'We're not a Koolaid group,' " Davidson said, an apparent reference to the cult led by Jim Jones that committed mass suicide by drinking poisoned Koolaid in Guyana in 1978. "Why would she even say that? Why would she throw that in there?" Davidson asked.

Bill Honsberger, a Conservative Baptist missionary who rescues people from cults, said he wondered what proof the Israeli police have that the members of the group plan to provoke them.

"Am I flabbergasted by the idea that this group would do something to incite the police? Not at all. Do I know for sure? I have no idea. I don't find it inconceivable that they would," Honsberger said.

Another expert, Hal Mansfield of the Religious Movement Resource Center in Fort Collins, said the threat of violence was not surprising given Miller's violent tendencies. Mansfield also compared Miller to Jones.

"Jones did not start out as a kook. It was a slow progression," Mansfield said. "The problem here is Miller has become more isolated. He probably started believing in his own p.r. I think he's so far out there it's impossible to gauge what will happen now." Honsberger, who Miller threatened to kill after Honsberger published a report on the cult's activities, was also nonplussed by reports that the group lived in nice homes. Miller, who filed for bankruptcy in 1997, has "ripped off the IRS, credit card companies, he's ripped off so many people," Honsberger said.

"He's in some ways a classic con artist. So I'm not surprised they're living high off the hog," he said.

Denver Post Staff Writer Jim Kirksey, The Associated Press and Jerusalem reporter Arlynn Nellhaus contributed to this story.

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