Waiting for God in Garland, Texas
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from March 1998.
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The soft-spoken 42-year-old is seen as a prophet by his loyal followers. Acting on his word, 150 sect members recently left their lives in Taiwan and moved in the Dallas suburb of Garland where they believe God will appear at Chen's home at 3513 Ridgedale Drive at precisely 10:00 a.m. CST/11:00 EST (1600 GMT) on March 31.
Teacher Chen, as his followers call him, preaches a mix of Christianity and Buddhism and espouses elaborate theories of human evolution, extraterrestrial beings and agents of good and evil. But his basic message is simpler: Earth has been corrupted by evil and will suffer a "Great Tribulation" of economic crisis and devastating floods in Asia next year and finally a nuclear war that will leave Earth uninhabitable.
The good news, according to Chen, is that God will land in Garland on March 31 to prepare all people and animals to escape Earth in his flying saucers in September 1999. They will travel to the Kingdom of God, which is on a planet in another galaxy. He says anyone who repents for past failings will be saved but about 80 percent of the world's people are already too corrupted to change their ways and will likely perish.
A ring of truth?
Chen says he knows all this because God sends him instructions through the chunky gold ring he wears facing in toward his palm on the middle finger of his right hand. "God deposits his universal energy, his power, in the ring and it gives signs to Teacher Chen and tells him what to do, according to the vision he sees," Chen told Reuters through an interpreter in an interview outside his home. He said the ring will turn into a flying craft after God's arrival but its power lies in his own link to God. "If it is worn by ordinary people, it becomes an ordinary ring." Sharply criticised by some worried relatives in Taiwan, Chen and his band have also raised eyebrows in this lower middle class suburb northeast of Dallas, where they arrived late last year and quickly paid cash for at least 24 homes. The group includes several professionals, but few members speak English. Most dress almost entirely in white, with white straw cowboy hats as their main concession to Texas fashion. About 30 children are here with their parents and most group members are in the United States on tourist visas.
V Another suicide cult? They have plane tickets back to Taiwan but cult-watchers fear they might kill themselves if God does not show up, a concern fuelled by Chen's words and by memories of the Heaven's Gate cult members who committed mass suicide in San Diego last year in order to catch a ride to heaven on a spacecraft they believed was hiding behind the Hale-Bopp Comet.
Chen insists suicide is not an option for himself or his followers. "God prohibits us from killing even an ant let alone harming other people or ourselves." Instead, Chen says he will put his life in the hands of the people. If they let him go, he will walk away. If they call him a false prophet and execute him, so be it. "If the people choose, he could be stoned or crucified on a cross," his interpreter, Richard Liu, said.
Sect members believe God will take on exactly the same physical appearance as Chen when he arrives in Garland but insist that telling the two apart will be easy. "You will know which one is God because he can walk through walls, disappear and reappear again and talk in any language on Earth," Chen said. "Also, he will look a little younger and people can see him because he has a sense of humour and is full of love."
God on TV?
The group believes God will formally announce his imminent arrival in a special television broadcast that can be seen in the early hours of March 25 by tuning to Channel 18 anywhere in the world. Chen says the broadcast will show images of the neighbourhood around Ridgedale Drive, carry ads announcing God's arrival at the end of the month and provide "movies and programs to keep people entertained."
The television show is seen by Chen's followers as the key test of God's intentions. If it does not go on the air, they say they will no longer wait for his arrival. Most said they would sell their homes in Garland and go back to Taiwan, but none voiced any doubt in their leader.
"It must happen. We have seen proof of it in the last six months with new phenomenon in the heavens. It is visible and tangible," said Ching-Huang Chiang, who joined the group in 1993. Chiang, 40, said he was a university classmate of Chen but went on to work as an anti-corruption investigator for the Taiwanese government and was a man who "didn't believe in anything invisible, you had to show me proof."
