Editing Branch Davidians (section)

== Flag ==
The original Davidian flag, as described in the ''Catalog-Syllabus'' (1942), showed a red lion inside a black [[six-pointed star]], surrounded by five-pointed stars, on a green field.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1942-11-28 |title=Mt. Carmel Training Center |url=https://gadsda.com/mt-carmel-training-center/ |access-date=2024-09-23 |website=The Davidian Seventh-day Adventists Association |language=en-US}}</ref>

On February 28, 1993, the day of their initial confrontation with the ATF, a similar flag made of fringed satin was visible hanging in a front window of the compound. This flag had a pink six-pointed star surrounded by five-pointed stars, on a gold field.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Assault on the Branch Davidian Community: A Photographic Retrospective |url=https://wrldrels.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Assault-on-the-Branch-Davidian-Community-A-Photographic-Retrospective.pdf}}</ref> It had been presented to [[Benjamin Roden]] by northern Branch Davidians, but Roden never flew it because "the colors were wrong". Koresh, however, decided to hang it, and although it was destroyed on the first day it continued to hang in tatters throughout the siege.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Doyle |first=Clive |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LQOvTf8csrQC&pg=PA124 |title=A Journey to Waco: Autobiography of a Branch Davidian |last2=Wessinger |first2=Catherine |last3=Wittmer |first3=Matthew D. |date=2012 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-0885-8 |language=en}}</ref>
[[File:Flag of the Branch Davidians.svg|left|thumb|Reconstruction of the second Waco flag by Matthew D. Wittmer.]]
The Waco sect hoisted a different flag on their flagpole on March 1, 1993,<ref>[https://vault.fbi.gov/waco-branch-davidian-compound/waco-fbi-transcripts-tapes-007-009/view Tape 7] (transcript p. 34). Koresh says "A flag? What about it? Okay, put up -- Well, go ahead and put up our flag. Yeah." to an unidentified person.</ref> after being surrounded by federal agents. This flag was also made of satin and was sewn in part by Kathy Jones.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The 1993 Branch Davidian flag at Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas |url=https://www.stormbound.org/mount-carmel-property/branch-davidian-flag/ |access-date=2024-09-23 |website=Matthew Wittmer |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Steve Schneider (Branch Davidian)|Steve Schneider]] described it as containing a "stylistic Star of David" and the fiery flying serpent mentioned in [[Isaiah 14]].<ref>[https://vault.fbi.gov/waco-branch-davidian-compound/waco-fbi-transcripts-tapes-023-026/view Tape 24], (transcript p. 24): "Have you seen our flag yet? . . . There's a serpent. Yeah. And it's a stylistic Star of David. It comes from Isaiah 14. It's called the fiery, flying serpent. It was a serpent that deceived Eve and Adam into sin and what we now have as 6,000 years of death. But in the Bible Christ is lifted up on the cross. As it says in John 3 and 8 and ye -- as a serpent."</ref> According to Koresh, the flag signified Mount Carmel's status as a sovereign power.<ref>[https://vault.fbi.gov/waco-branch-davidian-compound/waco-fbi-transcripts-tapes-023-026/view Tape 139] (transcript pp. 7-12): "Let's go back to the political matter. If my flag was a national flag, then you would be coming to the borders of my country . . . If I was under the banner of God, and I'm going to rise up against your government . . . we put our flag up. And I'm trying to tell you as nicely as I can that my law is over you."</ref> This flag ripped off its pole during the Mount Carmel compound fire, and the ATF replaced it with an [[Flag of the United States|American flag]], a [[Flag of Texas|Texas flag]], and their own flag.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wagner-Pacifici |first=Robin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dIhi_bdPJkIC&pg=PA119 |title=Theorizing the Standoff: Contingency in Action |date=2000-03-28 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-65479-1 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gottschalk |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uwxkBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA162 |title=American Heretics: Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and the History of Religious Intolerance |date=2013-11-12 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-137-27829-6 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Carol Howe]] reported that a Branch Davidian flag was hanging in [[Elohim City, Oklahoma|Elohim City]] as of January 1995, before the [[Oklahoma City bombing]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hammer |first=David Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k4L1Uy8y54wC&pg=PA96 |title=Deadly Secrets |date=2010 |publisher=AuthorHouse |isbn=978-1-4520-0363-4 |language=en}}</ref>