Cult Members Shun Relatives
Family members of the 14 doomsday cult followers who were kicked out of Israel condemned the group and its leader after cult members arrived in Denver but refused to see their waiting relatives.
For three days, Anne Biondo waited in a lobby in hopes of talking to her daughter, one of 14 doomsday cult members holed up in a downtown hotel following their deportation from Israel.
Like other relatives of the Concerned Christians, Biondo left Denver on Monday without seeing her daughter. But she took away a sliver of comfort when Anne-Marie Malesic sent down a scribbled note with a hotel staffer reading "I love you, Mom."
A father of one of the 14 members of the Concerned Christians doomsday cult says no true religious group would encourage its members to cut off relations with their families. One mother sarcastically asked why the cult's beloved leader, Monte Kim Miller, wasn't at the airport to meet them.
While Monte Kim Miller was not at the airport, a Denver policeman said the cult leader repeatedly called his followers at their hotel. The whereabouts of Miller, who was not among those arrested in Israel, were unknown.
"I can't really tell you how, but I know without a shadow of a doubt, he has been calling them several times since they've been at the hotel," said Mark Roggeman, a Denver police officer who monitors the sect.
The group is accused by Israeli officials of plotting attacks in Jerusalem to hasten the return of Jesus Christ.
The cult members were expelled from Israel early Saturday on suspicion of plotting attacks. Security agents went with the 14 cult members, including six children, on the flight to Toronto.
About two hours later, the cult members boarded a flight for Denver.
After arriving in Denver, the cult members were kept out of sight and shuttled off to an undisclosed location at the airport at their request.
Israeli police feared the group could be a forerunner of hundreds of sects drawn to Israel at the close of the millennium. Many of the groups expect the second coming of Christ at that time. Israel has created a police task force to cope with the problem.
Experts suggest some cults could turn violent or stage mass suicides if their hopes are not met.
The Concerned Christians arrived in Israel in September, settled in two homes in the wooded Jerusalem suburbs of Mevasseret Zion and Moza, and were eventually placed under police surveillance.
The homes were raided earlier this week, and the 14 were detained. Three cult members were questioned by police about alleged plots to carry out violence at holy sites in Jerusalem in an attempt to hasten the return of Jesus.
The cult members denied wrongdoing, and no charges were filed. But they were ordered deported.