Matching Tracksuits

Just a little over a week ago, religious huckster and conman David Pack said that Jesus would be coming back by the end of his group’s little religious retreat known as the Feast of Tabernacles. He was absolutely sure it would happen during that convention, and in a sermon leaked onto the internet that he gave during the first day, he said he would be shocked if they made it halfway through the conference before Jesus returned. As Wednesday rolled into Thursday, marking the halfway mark, I wondered what he was saying to his flock. “Just wait — I know it’s coming!” Who knows.

Well, the whole conference is over. Everyone was heading back to their homes today despite Pack’s assurance during his first-day sermon that they wouldn’t be going back home. Are they finally beginning to doubt the man? Are they going to leave his group?

The fallout will be interesting to watch, but it certainly is not without tragedy. Members of this group have given everything to this man. They’ve signed over their homes to them. They’ve taken out loans to send him the money. As with the Branch Davidians or the People’s Temple, they’ve surrendered their whole lives to this man in the belief that he is God’s appointed one on Earth, an apostle on the same level as the New Testament apostles. I don’t think they will end with a firey confrontation with government officials or in a mass suicide, but that doesn’t make the tragedy insignificant: anyone who leaves this church would have to start all over. I’m not even sure they could stay in their houses if they signed them over to the church.