The dark side of the Message - A Logical Refutation of Branham's Message

“My best friend is in this cult and I truly think she is miserable but she can’t say anything because of her controlling husband. Sad. “– blogger

84 The cruelest variety of misogyny

After I decided to do some further reading on the Message after I was no longer involved with it, I read more message books than I had ever read before. This was because I wanted to form an unbiased conclusion on the veracity of Branham’s self declared supremacy as God’s only messenger for our age. I had never read the message book Marriage and Divorce in its entirety before; I had only read portions of it and listened to the rest expounded upon from the pulpit. Once I read the message book, it became the first time in my life that my eyes welled up after going through a book. I have read of how women have been mistreated and hated upon in the past, but never had I come across the level of verbal hatred towards women that I found in that book. I acknowledge that I promised a logical and not an emotional refutation, but I have to tell you –after I read that offensive literature, I said a silent prayer and expressed my appreciation that I was no longer a Message Believer.

The person I love the most in this world happens to be a woman. That’s my mother - she’s my hero.

We’ve been through mountains and valleys with her; we’ve shared sunshine and roses together – and the thorns as well. Even when I decided to quit the message, her love for me and my company was not affected one bit; we’re still as close as mother and son can be. How’s that for a parenting lesson to all the Message Believers out there who almost disown their children for abandoning the faith. My sister then happens to be one of the most adorable, upright women to ever walk the earth. I love her with all my heart. This is why I couldn’t stand the garbage that Branham spoke against women in that sermon, Marriage and Divorce, that was supposedly revealed to him by God as the last day messenger. This message book served as my final confirmation that I had done the right thing by walking away from the Message.

Women have been historically oppressed in horrendous ways. And in many parts of the world including where I came from, they still are mistreated just because they fell on the wrong side of the chromosome combination. Whether you’re talking about the Muslim world where they still have to cover themselves up fully save for the eyes, in Africa where they endure horrifyingly painful female genital mutilation, carry out most of the homestead chores and endure atrocious domestic violence, in India where they have honor killings of women who disgraced their families by falling in love outside their caste or in the USA where suffrage was granted fairly recently – the Message is no exception when it comes to verbally abusing and physically mistreating women.

William Branham says that women are inferior because Eve was deceived in the Garden of Eden, while Adam wasn’t. What a weight of claptrap – that because one woman erred very many ages ago, all women should henceforth be treated as garbage. Irenaeus, Branham’s chosen messenger for the Smyrnean church age, opened my eyes to the fact that actually, in the Garden of Eden story, the woman demonstrated greater will, strength and stringency to God-given instructions than Adam did. He says:

“And if thou sayest that it [the serpent] attacked her as being the weaker of the two, [I reply that], on the contrary, she was the stronger, since she appears to have been the helper of the man in the transgression of the commandment. For she did by herself alone resist the serpent, and it was after holding out for a while and making opposition that she ate of the tree, being circumvented by craft; whereas Adam, making no fight whatever, nor refusal, partook of the fruit

handed to him by the woman, which is an indication of the utmost imbecility and effeminacy of mind. And the woman indeed, having been vanquished in the contest by a demon, is deserving of pardon; but Adam shall deserve none, for he was worsted by a woman,--he who, in his own person, had received the command from God.” (FRAGMENTS FROM THE LOST WRITINGS OF IRENAEUS, XVI)

Therefore the argument that woman should be treated badly because she blundered at the Garden of Eden fails to make sense. There are numerous other biblical verses that chauvinists use to support their appalling opinions about women and we would tackle each and every one of them if our scope allowed us to. But this section deals with Mr. Branham’s opinions about women so we’ll painfully restrict ourselves to this topic.

Let’s go back to the beginning: Mr. Branham seems to know something the Bible doesn’t about where ladies came from.

“And Satan is really working on her today (in these last days), because he is her designer. I could prove that now, to go right back at the beginning. Who started to work on her, Adam or Satan?

God or Satan? See? That's her designer. It's her chief weapon to throw men to her filth.”

“You may question me about Satan being her designer, but that's the truth. Satan designed her.

He still does it.” (MARRIAGE.AND.DIVORCE_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-13 SUNDAY_ 65-0221M)

The Bible, the holy text that Message Believers claim to believe in, clearly says: “Then the LORD God made a woman from the ribhe had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.” Here we have a clear contradiction between the Bible and what Mr. Branham teaches. When you bring this verse to the attention of the Message Believer, you can be sure they’ll point you to the fact that designing is different from making. In short, they’ll imply that God contracted the devil to design the woman and then used that blueprint when making the woman, even though this is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible they claim to base their beliefs on. Some neutral Christians would consider this proposition of collaboration between the devil and God in the making of the woman to be extremely blasphemous, but of course according to many Message Believers, Mr. Branham possessed powers to add to what the scriptures said.

William Branham also has an opinion about the mental aptitude of women. He basically says that they are the most deceivable beings on earth. (Even among animals as we shall see shortly).

“There cannot be nothing else; there's nothing made to be that way. Also there is nothing that could be so easily deceived as a woman. Now, the fall proves this statement to be true, the fall in the beginning.” (MARRIAGE.AND.DIVORCE_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-13 SUNDAY_ 65-0221M)

Really? There’s nothing that is as easily deceivable as a woman? I beg to come against this statement in the strongest terms possible. Women are not idiots. Women have now taken advantage of the equal opportunities being increasingly offered to them by society to do amazing things. We now have women in the highest areas of life: presidents, Nobel laureates, astronauts, nuclear scientists, Supreme Court judges – any particular field has female top performers. This goes to show that women are not any less

intelligent than men. We can put this question into an experimentation procedure. If anyone thinks that women are the easiest thing to deceive, let them try to successfully deceive a female police officer, or a female magistrate – and then we’ll visit them in jail to make conclusions on the deceivability of women.

According to this prophet, a woman is the filthiest among all female animals ever created, because all other female animals are original creatures but she isn’t. In short, Branham is of the opinion that our grandmothers, mothers, sisters, daughters and wives/girlfriends belong to the filthiest group of animals on earth – they are women, after all. He says that women are more immoral than dogs. Dogs will attack and inflict deadly injuries on people, eat human corpses and mate with every other dog – but they allegedly still possess higher morals than women. He further says that women can stoop lower than a hog (a pig), dog or any other animal:

“Notice, there's nothing designed to stoop so low or be filthy but a woman. A dog can't do it; a hog can't do it; a bird can't do it; no animal is immoral, nor it can be, for it is not designed so it can be. A female hog can't be immoral; a female dog can't be immoral; a female bird can't be immoral. A woman is the only thing can do it.”

“There is no hog, no dog, or no other animal designed like her or can stoop as low as she can stoop. Now, that is true. With regards to my sisters, I just want you to watch. No animal can be immoral. You call the dog a slut (the female dog). You call the male--hog a sow, but her morals is a million miles beyond many a Hollywood stars. That's how low she's designed to stoop. She can't... Just think of this now: there's nothing in the world made in God's creation that can be immoral, stoop that low.” (MARRIAGE.AND.DIVORCE_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-13 SUNDAY_ 65-0221M)

Branham further says that unlike any other animal, women are designed for filth and unclean living.

This, he says is because women will have sex for pleasure and will have it any time, but animals mate only for procreation. William Branham portrays women as thick, filthy and as being creatures that are always ready for sex.

“She is designed alone for filth and unclean living. A dog can't; no other female can. It's just the woman that can. A dog or any other animals: once a year, and that for her babies, not for sexual pleasure, but for her babies. The old sow hog, the old slut dog: once a year, one moment; that's for her babies. But a woman is designed for any time she desires. (I've got some stuff crossed out here now; you can imagine the rest.) A dog can't; woman can. (I hope that the Holy Spirit reveals to you the rest of this I crossed out here.)” (MARRIAGE.AND.DIVORCE_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-13 SUNDAY_ 65-0221M)

The seventh messenger also has something to say about ‘immoral women’. Although the last time I checked Christians are told not to be judgmental, and that no sin is greater than the other in the eyes of God, Branham says that a woman who lacks morals is a human garbage can:

“An immoral woman is the lowest thing that can be thought of in the earth. Excuse this, young ladies. She's nothing but a human garbage can, a "sex exposal." That's all she is. A immoral woman is a human sexual garbage can, a pollution where filthy, dirty, ornery, lowdown filth is

disposed by her. Why's she made this way for? For deception. Every sin that ever was on the earth was caused by a woman.” (MARRIAGE.AND.DIVORCE_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-13 SUNDAY_ 65-0221M)

In the animal kingdom, we have a huge variety of organisms. There are deadly parasites, snails, slugs, snakes and monkeys just to name a few. But among all these, the woman is the lowest of them all. She falls at the bottom of the pack – at least according to Mr. Branham.

“All right. When in God's sight, the Word, she is the lowest of all animals that God put on the earth... Watch.” (MARRIAGE.AND.DIVORCE_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-13 SUNDAY_ 65-0221M)

It is bizarre to say the least for Branham to paint such a terrible picture of women in comparison to their male counterparts, and sadly, animals. First of all we unfortunately need to remind ourselves here that women are human beings. William Branham will have you believe that a woman is ‘lower than an animal’, but that only demonstrates serious mental issues on the part of the speaker. Secondly, men desire sex in equal, and some would argue a higher measure, than women. I don’t know why that fact doesn’t make men ‘lower than animals’. It was God who designed some animals to exhibit increased sexual activity during some seasons – it’s also that very same God who designed the woman to be responsive to certain sexual gestures directed to her by her male counterpart without checking the calendar. We’re different from animals – that’s just the way we’re created. If Branham had an issue with the fact that women don’t adhere to mating seasons like dogs, he should have raised that issue with God, who made the woman as she is – he shouldn’t have taken it out with our beloved sisters.

Ironically, one may argue that men have historically demonstrated a greater ability to engage in horrendous atrocities compared to their female counterparts. If we were to come up with a list of the most evil people in history, obvious candidates would include the likes of Idi Amin Dada, Pol Pot, King Leopold II of Belgium, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and so forth. The first woman to make it to the list would appear way down - at the bottom of the pack. In real fact, it’s the women who have been victims of cruel treatment from their male counterparts. Comparing women to animals and calling them filthy, immoral and ‘lower than dogs’ is disgraceful and despicable.

William Branham suffered from a strong hatred towards women. He says that his struggle with hatred towards women began in his youth:

“But I can remember when my father's still up there running, I had to be out there with water and stuff, see young ladies that wasn't over seventeen, eighteen years old, up there with men my age now, drunk. And they'd have to sober them up and give them black coffee to get home to cook their husband's supper. Oh, something like that, I said, "I..." This was my remark then, "They're not worth a good clean bullet to kill them with it." That's right. And I hated women. That's right. And I just have to watch every move now, to keep from still thinking the same thing.” (LIFE.STORY_

LA.CA FOOTPRINTS.BOOK SUNDAY_ 59-0419A)

It is now clear that he never dealt successfully with his hatred towards women, and this caused him to lead millions of people who call themselves Message Believers to consider women inferior beings. Let’s now turn our attention to Branham’s opinions about the role of women in society. It’s important to note

right from the start that Branham was of the opinion that women should stay at home. They shouldn’t go out to pursue careers and take jobs. To put it like he did, they should be behind the stove cooking. In other words, if a woman has a singing talent, she shouldn’t go out and pursue a music career. If a woman can sprint like Usain Bolt, she shouldn’t pursue an athletics career. Women should also avoid careers like law and medicine – which require long hours of input from the individual. They should also avoid working at all especially since we have men out there without jobs - whose employment they might be precluding.

“They've took our women and stripped them, out yonder in the offices, and the driving taxicabs, and up-and-down the street. where they ought to be at home behind the stove cooking, and fixing the dinners.” (INVASION.OF.THE.USA_ JEFF.IN V-26 N-1 SUNDAY_ 54-0509)

“Now, I'm not much of this modernistic taste of women working. When I seen these women with these uniforms on riding around in this city on motorcycles as police, it's a disgrace to the--any city that'd let a woman do that as many men that's without work. It shows the modern thinking of our city; it shows the degrading. We don't have to have them women out there like that. They ain't got no business out there like that. When God gave a man a wife, He gave him the best thing He could give him outside of salvation; but when one goes to trying to take a man's place, then she's about the worse thing that he could get ahold of.” (CHOOSING.OF.A.BRIDE_ LA.CA V-2 N-28 THURSDAY_ 65-0429E) contribute a seed of reproduction. He says that they only provide a medium for incubating the baby until it’s born (tape number 63-0323). This is despite the fact that we know that conception takes place through the fusion of a male sperm and a female ovum. It’s a 50-50 contribution. I acknowledge this to be a fact because I took the color of my mother and not that of my father; and I took my dad’s nose and not my mother’s!

Because the woman is inferior, when she smokes a cigarette she apparently commits a greater evil than when a man smokes one. He says that smoking is the ‘lowest immoralist thing that any woman ever done’ - what about other gruesome acts perpetrated by women? He goes one step further and declares that ‘a cigarette smoking mother is the greatest fifth columnist America's got’ (tape number 50-0813E) - what about smoking fathers? He further says that 80% of children born to these smoking mothers die before they are eighteen months old (tape number 50-0813E). How’s that statement for fabricated statistics.

After they have found the love of their life, gotten married and are preparing to live happily ever after, wives may be put away on very flimsy grounds. William Branham said that husbands may put away their wives for cutting their hair (tape number 56-0805) and keeping their previous sexual encounters secret

(tape number 59-0628E). Good riddance to a prophet who thinks that I should put away my wife if she thinks she’ll look prettier if she has short hair. Speaking of looking pretty, Branham said that when he saw a woman with makeup on, she looked liked someone with leprosy or pellagra (tape number 62-1122). Although not all men are fans of makeup, that’s some pretty rough speech especially because it’s coming from the pulpit. The prophet is also of the opinion that allowing women to vote is an evil thing (tape number 60-1113).

Message Believers will take great offence if you call their religion a cult or a sect. They say they are different from the Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the like. I remember one morning a Christian radio station was holding a discussion about the criteria for identifying a cult when someone called in and talked about a new cult he had heard about, the Message of the Hour. In response, a Message Believer called in and aggressively defended the Message, saying that they do not satisfy the common characteristics of a typical cult. I was proud of this gallant soldier for defending the truth I believed in against accusations of cultism. Now I am not sure anymore. After carrying out necessary investigations, it’s now clear that Branhamism is definitely a fully fledged Christian cult.

In document A Logical Refutation of Branham's Message (Page 83-95)