A Taiwanese-based UFO cult was "discovered" this past week by the American media after a worried mother reported her 16-year-old daughter kidnapped to Sheriff's officials in Los Angeles County. While the group may or may not be considering suicide, a number of eerie similarities have cropped up between this group and the Heaven's Gate group that committed suicide this past march near San Diego.

Nan Hwa Chiang was reunited with her mother at the Sheriff's department on Mon. Dec. 22. Lt. Roosevelt Blow told the Los Angeles Times that "we have no evidence of a crime," although an MSNBC news report stated that a Sheriff's investigation is continuing. The girl was living in an apartment complex next to "God's Salvation Church" (the group's registered name in California) in San Dimas. MSNBC reported that her father, a church member, had reportedly died of cancer and requested she stay with her uncle, also a member. Her mother flew from Taiwan to get her, and is expected to return with her daughter.

The group -- usually known as "Chen Tao," or "True Way" in English-- believes that God will make his presence known this March 31 (a little more than a year after Heaven's Gate) when He inhabits the body of its leader, Hon-Ming Chen (whose last name is conveniently in the group's name). The event will be televised nationwide on channel 18, presumably by the power of the Holy Spirit. The group has no official name; in addition to Chen Tao, its literature gives names such as "God's Salvation Church," "God and Buddha Salvation Foundation" and "The Chinese Association of the Light of Soul." After the San Dimas fiasco, "God Saves the Earth Flying Saucer Foundation" was dropped as a name.

After the Salvation Church was exposed, group members made their move to Garland, TX (a suburb of Dallas), which they had already been planning for months. The Houston Chronicle quoted Tawnia Winchell, whose mother-in-law lives across the street from their principal residence, as saying that "They all came down here this past summer and bought up all the houses with cash. It's a trip." The Dallas Morning News reported that the group has bought 21 homes in the suburb.

As to why God has chosen Garland, member Chen-Sheng Wu told the Houston Chronicle that "Garland" sounds similar to "God's Land," although "we don't know if that's the reason" why God told him to move to the land of 110,000 people. Chen prophesies that the Western Hemisphere, and especially the United States, will be safe from the Holocaust of the next two years -- but more on that later.

It's not yet clear as to whether the group actually plans to commit suicide, although KCBS-TV news in Los Angeles reported that Taiwanese officials told the Sheriff's department that the group planned to commit mass suicide, according to the City News Service. But Yu-Chung Lo, deputy director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural office who had met the group in Garland, told the Associated Press that there is nothing to fear from Chen Tao: "I believe they would never commit suicide because as so far as I understand they are very gentle, friendly and most of them are highly educated." Reports haven't come in yet as to whether Mr. Lo had knowledge about Heaven's Gate or Jonestown before he made that statement.

Church members themselves deny that they're going to commit suicide: "To commit suicide is to kill God... It's killing your soul that was delegated to you from God," an unidentified follower in San Dimas told the AP. The Los Angeles Times quoted Lo: "When I asked them about it, some of them reacted very angrily, some of them said it was ridiculous." The Chronicle quoted an unnamed "Taiwanese cultural officer" from Houston who visited Garland said that some members of the group bought round-trip airline tickets, leaving open the possibility that not all members have made contingency plans. Lo himself appears to be erring on the side of caution: He told the Dallas Morning News that officials will visit the group periodically. "We are keeping a file on each person... Families in Taiwan want to know how their loved ones are," Lo said. He seemed less certain about the group's beliefs: "To me, it's just like somebody who believes in Santa Claus," the Chronicle quoted him as saying.

KXAS-TV in Dallas reported that the group began in Taiwan in the 1950s, though the evolution of the group wasn't fleshed out through a recent (December 1997) Lexis-Nexis search. Chen, a 42-year-old former sociology professor, told the Dallas Morning News through an interpreter that he began receiving messages directly from God in 1992, although he received prophecies from a "golden ball" as a small child. At their Tuesday news conference in Garland, Chen or his interpreter made a possible Freudian slip while announcing that "People worry about our mass suicide. But we are really worried about people's mass suicide when the great tribulation happens" in 1999.

Chen says that a series of events will lead to the '99 nuclear holocaust, starting when China attacks Taiwan next month. Eight months later, three nuclear power plants will explode in Taiwan, followed by October's nuclear bomb blast in the Middle East. By 1999, there will be full-scale nuclear war. But "America is the place that will be protected by God," according to Chen. "After the nuclear war, more than four-fifths of the world population will be killed. More than a hundred million of people (sic) are estimated to be the select of God and saved by God." The last U.S. Census reported that there were more than 100 million people; however, that census was taken in 1990.

God's plans weren't made clear in advance to Charles Amyx, who lives next door to Chen Tao's primary residence. At the press conference, he asked if he's going to be in danger later next year if he doesn't believe in Chen's doctrine. Chen tried to assure Amyx that "There isn't any danger... God comes not to judge people... it will all become clear March 31." But Amyx wasn't convinced, as he told the Chronicle: "They say my house isn't insured for acts of God, so I guess I'm not covered if God comes down in a spaceship."

Chen tells his believers that he was the father of Jesus in a previous incarnation, making him either God or Joseph. But he maintains that God has Chen's face, which makes him (and possibly Joseph) more Godlike. He introduced the current incarnations of Jesus and Buddha, ages 10 and 9, to the national media at Tuesday's press conference. Chen's Jesus is the Jesus of the East; the group is still waiting for the Jesus of the West, who they say is 27-30 years old and is living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Chen Tao reportedly placed ads in The Province and Vancouver Sun newspapers earlier this year, hoping to catch the eye of the holy man so he could meet the eastern Jesus at an airport terminal this past June 25.

How God is going to make his appearance isn't very clear. The Chronicle reported that members spoke excitedly about God's coming to Garland in an aircraft or airplane, which some referred to as a "Godplane." Aircraft from other dimensions will also appear; presumably, those other dimensions will have air in their outer space, if that is where the aircraft originated from. But the craft may appear to look like a cloud; KXAS quoted Chen as saying that "You can call it a cloud or a call it a flying saucer. It's just like a cloud." The group has been seeing many cloud formations lately in their trips across America, which constitute part of their spiritual training. One of the pictures they provided to the media showed a formation that they purported to spell "GOD," although the formation looked more like "007"; it was more likely a publicity stunt for the new James Bond flick. How exactly God will enter Chen's body is a mystery, but it's something we can look forward to across the Americas on channel 18.

But like many groups with doomsday prophecies, Chen Tao has left open the possibility that Mr. Chen is wrong about God's taking over his body. As Richard Liu, a translator for Chen, melodramatically put it: "If it should not happen, Mr. Chen will put his life on it. Whether he be executed, stoned to death or put on a cross, it doesn't matter." If history's any guide, he won't be.

MSNBC report: http://www.msnbc.com/news/132184.asp
KXAS report: http://www.msnbc.com/local/kxas/9238.asp
CCC News: http://www.cccnews.com

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