17 Hoosiers Expect to Be Spared the Wrath of God : Sect Waits for Killer Tornado to Fulfill Prophecy

Annie Sims, the preacher’s wife, delivered the prophecy at a noon prayer meeting late in December:

“The Lord said he was going to send a tornado, and many shall die,” she recalled, saying God spoke through her during the prayer service. “He was going to send his fury and vengeance on the people.”

So 17 faithful members of the Repairer of the Breach Church of God in Christ gathered at their small west-side church--a converted two-story frame house-- on Jan. 3 to await the wrath of God.

The congregation has been waiting, faithfully, peacefully, ever since.

Any day now, any moment, members believe, God will send a tornado spinning down from the heavens to smite the wicked and spare the righteous. And spare their church.

Their number includes a schoolteacher, a recent college graduate, a college freshman and a restaurant worker with a management degree.

Sacrificed Jobs

They have sacrificed jobs and education, as well as the respect of family and friends who question their sanity.

The congregation has been challenged by the power of the state too.

Five members have been removed under court order--though two of them have returned after undergoing forced psychiatric examinations. Two children were taken from their mother and returned to school, and a 51-year-old man was ordered to undergo kidney dialysis treatment.

But unlike a Mormon polygamist clan in Utah whose recent resistance of police ended in a shoot-out that killed one officer, these religious fundamentalists have quietly accepted the intrusions.

“We’re not against the court,” said M.L. Sims, the church elder and preacher, the husband of Annie. “If God allows it to happen, then that’s it.”

Sims, 36, says he’s also lost the support of national church headquarters in Memphis, Tenn., which ordered him to take down a sign proclaiming affiliation. “Until the Lord says to move it, it’s going to be up,” he said.

A woman who answered a call at the Memphis headquarters said no one was available to discuss the matter.

An Unshakeable Belief

Despite the challenges from outsiders, Sims and the church members welcome visitors and talk freely. All profess an unshakable belief in the tornado. None say they want to leave.

The 39-year-old Annie Sims first prophesied that the tornado would strike Jan. 3, then Jan. 24. Both dates passed uneventfully. The Simses now say God delayed the tornado to gain time to spread the warning. No new date has been set.

“It’ll be pretty soon,” said Sims. “It’s nationally known now.”

No one’s faith is shaken by the delay, or by meteorological precedent.

“Tornadoes can occur anytime, but most of the tornadoes in this area occur from March through June, and then again late in the fall,” said National Weather Service forecaster Larry Mowery, who said he can’t recall a midwinter tornado ever striking the area.

Religion Prof. Patrick Olivelle, chairman of the department at Indiana University, said apocalyptic visions are common religious themes.

‘Religion Is Not Logic’

“Of course there are always reasons why the end never comes,” he said. “I always tell my students that religion is not logic, and you cannot put logical questions to that.”

One of those waiting in the church, David Freeman, a 24-year-old graduate of Grinnell College with a major in Spanish, said: “There’s no doubt in my mind, or in anyone’s mind, that it’s going to come.”

Freeman stopped showing up for his bank teller’s job after Jan. 3, then called the bank to explain. “They didn’t really understand it,” he said. “But after the tornado comes they’ll understand, and they’ll congratulate us for standing up for the Lord.”

The family of Ruschell Harris, a Gary schoolteacher, and her 16-year-old daughter, Jeanetta, won the court order compelling the two to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

“Really, at the time, they felt I was so deeply under the influence of pastor that we couldn’t do our own thinking,” she said. “If I believe something, and it’s different from what you believe, does that make me insane and you not?”

Returned to Church

Harris said she and her daughter returned voluntarily to the church after a psychiatrist found them competent.

“I’m 47 years old. I’ve been teaching for 20 years. I’ve taken my daughter out of school,” Harris said indignantly. “Do you think I would be here if I didn’t believe it?”

Jeanetta Harris said it doesn’t matter that she’s missing out on school. “It doesn’t bother me because after the tornado, the school may not be there.”

A court gave custody of Patricia Sanders’ two sons, Allen Simmons, 13, and Charles Russell, 12, to a brother, who will return them to school. Child welfare authorities took the children from the church.

“I don’t fight that. They’re just doing their job,” Sanders said. “They don’t understand, because this is spiritual.”

The days are occupied with informal services, talking and just waiting.

“Praise God, because this world is coming to an end, and we want to be right,” Elder Sims chanted during one service. “People say we’re strange, they say we’re crazy, that we’re crackpots,” he intones, mopping sweat from his face with a towel thrown around his beefy shoulders. “But we’re just doing what God says to do.”

Congregation Sings

“Better be so ready, you may not know the day,” sang the congregation, now a choir whose voice reverberates off bright blue-painted plaster walls.

There is no television set or radio in the church, and no newspapers. Adult members take turns preparing meals in the fully equipped kitchen, and the teen-agers clean up. The Simses live upstairs. At night, the others fold up the metal chairs and spread out bedding.

The cramped quarters are part of the sacrifice. “We’ve all sacrificed here,” said 18-year-old Falease Lemon, who dropped out of Indiana University’s Gary campus. “God is going to pay us in return.”

Jacqueline Sims, the preacher’s 18-year-old daughter, said the waiting will be ended soon.

“We’ll be out there after the tornado,” she said. “Then the world will be a better place to live, with everybody doing God’s will.”