John Andrew Collins on ‘The Message’ and Cults
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/04/06
John Andrew Collins is the author and webmaster of William Branham: Historical Research. He was born and raised in “The Message” cult following of William Branham, and is the grandson of Willard Collins, former pastor of William Branham’s “Branham Tabernacle” in Jeffersonville, Indiana. From 1976 to 2012, John was unduly influenced to believe and practice many of the religious and cultural views expressed by William Branham and by men and women who were in Branham’s inner circle. After his escape in 2012, John began the process of deprogramming from the indoctrinated religious and world views Branham expressed on recorded sermons from 1947 to 1965. This process included re-evaluating every aspect of life, including personal experiences and beliefs that were core to his belief system, world view, and personality. In the early stages of this re-evaluation, John’s worldview was centered around indoctrinated apocalyptic theology that resulted from William Branham’s focus on doomsday through either doomsday predictions or alleged doomsday prophecies. As a result, early research focused upon differences between Branham’s theological views and that of evangelical or fundamentalist Christianity with the intent to categorize Branham’s doctrines into categories of Biblical, Extra-Biblical, and Anti-Biblical. Once establishing the baseline for religious views, John began to research the historical life events of William Branham. Branham’s “Life Story” was integrated into the religious views as core theology in “The Message”, due to William Branham’s usage of his accounts as the foundation for many doctrines expressed in his recorded sermons. While focused primarily upon William Branham, it was necessary to also research the men associated with or influential to Branham, as well as notable events in the historical timeline of United States and World History. When this research was organized chronologically, John began to notice patterns of data that appeared to suggest strategic usage of Pentecostal and fundamentalist extremism to advance the political views of men affiliated with or participating in the creation of William Branham’s ministry. William Branham: Historical Research is an ongoing project to document and organize that research data for public usage. He is the happily married father of three boys. He enjoys spending time with his family, playing his collection of stringed instruments, and visiting new places. His hobbies include music, art, video games, science fiction books or movies, or documentaries. When not writing, he relaxes by studying ancient world archaeology, geography, religion, and culture. Here we talk about the William Branham Historical Project.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: John, it’s nice to get together once again, especially after the marathon series culminating in Triumph Through Tribulation: William Branham’s Theology In and Out (2020): Available for free! On those interviews, was there any community feedback of former or current believers? I received some. From believers: all negative! As you might imagine. I’ve received more balanced commentaries from former and current Jehovah’s Witnesses.
John Andrew Collins: Yes, I can imagine the feedback you must have received from members of William Branham’s cult of personality back then. I can’t speak to those articles specifically, but I can say that this dynamic is slowly changing for the better. We are starting to see comments on social media and even have heard statements in some sermons by cult leaders now admitting that some of the things we’ve found in our research critical of William Branham are true. This is especially the case after publishing my book, Preacher Behind the White Hoods: A Critical Examination of William Branham and His Message.
They are not yet to the point of understanding the sum of all research, of course, but any progress towards sharing critical information in public is, in my opinion, a very positive change. Before the release of that book, most members of the cult were unaware that any information critical to William Branham even existed.
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Jacobsen: I used to have a friend in British Columbia here who was stuck in it. I tried to help him lean away from it. Because I cared about and loved this man, this friend. I didn’t want him to be harmed by living in this ideology or become a harm to those around him knowing the theology more. I’m a peacenik and believe in individual autonomy and reform. Never coerced anything, but the friendship did, eventually, dissolve, unfortunately. You have a more illustrious career and family background in “The Message” movement. What were some of the more crucial moments of psychologically leaving this movement? I am aware, as you described to Dr. Steven Hassan, the leaving was more of a process and took time, as with anyone.
Collins: While the journey of each person who escapes the cult is unique, there are some similarities. Those in the more destructive sects of the “Message” cult are often shunned. Shunning, in some cases, equates to severing all contact between the current members and the escapee. In other cases, it is an emotional shunning; contact is permitted, but current members will not allow themselves the same emotional connection to the escapee. At the same time, most escapees have been manipulated to seek approval from the leaders in the group through feedback from their peers. The emotional shunning is usually misunderstood and seen as “disapproval” by escapees who do not yet realize that they can be their own person without the approval (or, more specifically, without testing the disapproval) of their peers.
Everyone who escapes a cult will eventually go through a process of learning to judge for themselves what is acceptable or not. Some will accelerate this process through healthy support groups, sometimes promoted by the church but often by simply surrounding themselves with people who have a good moral code of ethics and a positive outlook. Those able to remove the cult’s indoctrinated themes of self-condemnation and replace those themes with a strategy for personal growth can be very successful. Yes, this process takes time, and they have years of “catching up” to do when compared to people raised in healthy, non-cult families, but the reward is worth the effort.
Jacobsen: How is progress on the educational and historical information gathering front for the William Branham Historical Project? Does “The Message” fit the formal classifications of a cult provided by experts like Hassan and others?
Collins: Last year, we accidentally uncovered a very important connection through our research: Gerald Burton Winrod. Winrod worked with Branham’s mentor and second-in-command of the 1915 Ku Klux Klan, Roy E. Davis. Winrod and Davis were very active in the political/religious arenas of the early 1920s, and both were directors of the Fundamentalist League. This connection was our “missing link” to several areas of research, most significantly Christian Identity. Winrod was very active in spreading antisemitism and white supremacy, and many of the racist and antisemitic themes in Branham’s sermons can be traced directly to Winrod’s politics or doctrinal positions. Branham’s “Serpent’s Seed,” or “Two-Seed Doctrine,” as it is called by white supremacists, can be traced directly back to Wesley A. Swift, who was influenced by Winrod. Branham (and Swift) convinced thousands of people that interracial marriages were not approved by God and that the Serpent in the Biblical Garden of Eden created a second and evil bloodline through a sexual union with the Biblical Eve.
Interestingly, Dr. Hassan escaped the “Moonies” cult, which had a very similar doctrine. We have discussed this and other similarities between the “Message” and the “Moonies” in our evaluation of the cult groups. Hassan’s BITE Model of Authoritarian Control was also very helpful in this comparison. The BITE Model establishes a framework for examining the Behavioral, Informational, Thought, and Emotional control of members by destructive cults. Based on the feedback we’ve received from former members of the “Message,” there is no question that the group was and currently is destructive.
Jacobsen: You made an intriguing confession in the interview with Hassan. As with many who grow up in a sociocultural milieu steeped in religious orthodoxy and racism tenets, these can make racist believers. How do you deprogram from this ideology while getting out of “The Message”?
Collins: It wasn’t easy. I have always loved all people, no matter the color of their skin. So much so, that it was very difficult to admit that I had been indoctrinated with a set of racist and antisemitic doctrines. The “Message” cult also indoctrinates its members with a strong sense of pride, and pride often gets in the way of self-examination. Interestingly, if you are a Christian, pride is also commonly listed as a sin multiple times in the New Testament. In my opinion, the authors of the New Testament were aware of how much of a roadblock that pride can be in a person’s journey to better themselves.
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If the escapee is a Christian, reading the Bible can help a great deal with this process. Branham, like Swift, Davis, and others, claimed that their racism and antisemitism were based upon precepts established by the prophets and apostles of the Bible. Yet they are in direct conflict with the themes of equality found in the New Testament. The apostle Paul stated in Romans 1:16 that the Gospel was “first to the Jew, then to the Gentile,” for example. Branham fully disagreed with Paul when he rebuked ministers for spreading the Gospel to the Jews, saying that “the Gospel is not even to them.” Branham went so far as to call Jewish Christians “renegades.”
I will say that my deep love for people helped. Once I realized that Branham’s doctrines based upon racism and antisemitism had the sole purpose of dividing people into class systems, I realized that I had to swallow my pride and rise above it.
Jacobsen: Is this a common struggle of among believers leaving “The Message”?
Collins: As strange as it may seem, not all believers in William Branham’s cult of personality have accepted or believe in Branham’s racist doctrines or themes—despite being presented as “Divine Mysteries” intended to “correct” the Church and prepare the “elite” for the rapture. Some sects of the cult do not listen to Branham’s sermons as often as others, and they are largely unaware that themes of racism and antisemitism exist in the sermons. Yet almost all of them consider the sermons to be the “Spoken Word of God for the Last Days.”
However, those who have listened to and studied Branham’s sermons struggle with this. This is especially the case among former ministers who have escaped the cult. We have worked with a number of ministers who fully reject Branham’s authority on doctrine and scripture, for example, but some still maintain the Two-Seed doctrine established by white supremacists in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Jacobsen: How does being a father help ground you, especially after leaving “The Message” cult and taking on the colossal project of cataloguing the ideological roots and doctrines and messages of William Branham?
Collins: This might actually be the reverse! [laughing] Having been raised in a group that devalued the family unit and promoted the cult hierarchy, elevating the status of a central figure, I find myself learning as much about how to become a good father as I do about the history of the “Message.”
What I can say is that the two go hand-in-hand. While examining the bad actors in history and how their actions negatively influenced the country as a whole, it is very interesting to examine how their influence was corrected. The United States of today is far from perfect, but the problems of yesteryear have mostly been corrected after having learned from our mistakes. We are now at a place where many of these bad actors can be viewed as “misbehaving children,” and we can see why those things needed to be corrected. Whether one is examining the history of William Branham or any of the other bad actors of the twentieth century, there are patterns of influence that should be seen as red flags to any parent. When a parent who is also a researcher identifies one of these areas and makes the mental association between the bad actors and another child who might negatively influence their own children, it also creates a mental marker for a topic of further research and investigation.
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Jacobsen: How is your work turning the tide on this theology?
Collins: Correcting the problems introduced by William Branham and the other white supremacists is a much larger task than one person can achieve by themselves. Decades of influence through hundreds of key individuals have impacted millions of people in a negative way. Many of those influencers, though now deceased, still have outreach programs pushing that same (and sometimes worse) agenda(s). The tide will not be turned until there is a network of positive influencers that balance the scales between good and evil, racism and equality.
What I can say is that when my work is done, I will have done my small part in balancing that scale. Hopefully, there are others who do the same, and many more who pick up where I leave off when I am done. Anyone who wishes to help in or contribute to this effort can contact us on our website, william-branham.org.
Jacobsen: How are “The Message” believers protected against the outside influences like you?
Collins: As with all destructive cults, former members who present critical evidence against the central figure are demonized and vilified. Key figures of rank within the cult have launched campaigns of character assassination or worse against my partners and me, some of which were effective to a small degree. In Dr. Hassan’s BITE model, the “I” stands for “Control of Information,” and the “Message” meets and exceeds that criterion. Some former members are not permitted to use social media after realizing that critical information was spreading on Facebook, Twitter/X, and other platforms. Many sects were already not allowed to watch television or listen to the radio, and after certain interviews with former members were broadcast, more sects of the cult elevated their level of control to block current members from hearing them.
In the end, it is all about control. Where there are leaders of an authoritarian and destructive cult, there will always be rules and regulations intended to control and oppress the people by suppressing all opposing thoughts. Thankfully, the age of information has changed this dynamic, and current members are awakening to the fact that they are being manipulated and controlled. Personally, I see both the good and bad in the cult’s strategies of authoritarian control because of this. If things continue as they are now, with or without outside influences, people will eventually have their own Braveheart rebellion against tyranny.
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