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Discourse Studies, Vol. 3, No. 3, 269-294 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/1461445601003003002

`Bible Babble': Naming the Interactional Trouble at Waco

ROBERT R. AGNE

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER

KAREN TRACY

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER

Outside Waco, Texas, on 19 April 1993, a 51-day standoff between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and David Koresh and the Branch Davidians concluded with a devastating fire. Despite the fact that FBI negotiators talked on the telephone with Koresh or his main spokesman almost every day, the negotiators were unable to bring the standoff to a peaceful end. A frustrating yet persistent aspect for the FBI negotiators was the Davidians' talk about the Bible and their religious beliefs, what agents dismissively described as `Bible babble'. In this study, we analyze several exchanges between Koresh and one of the FBI agents. The analysis shows how the FBI's identifying their problem as `Bible babble' contributed to the negotiation failure. Through their talk, Koresh was positioned as a biblical expert and the FBI agent as a novice. The FBI's talk also supported Koresh's face (not challenging the reasonableness of his beliefs). These two conversational patterns, we argue, legitimated God as a key party and Koresh as the person who could best speak for him. In the conclusion, we suggest how a renaming of the problem might have reshaped the FBI's moves.

Key Words: Bible-talk • Branch Davidians • crisis negotiation • discourse • identity work • interactional framing • problem naming • Waco


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R. R. Agne
Reframing practices in moral conflict: interaction problems in the negotiation standoff at Waco
Discourse Society, September 1, 2007; 18(5): 549 - 578.
[Abstract] [PDF]