16 alleged cultists held in Greece

Denver Post, December 4, 1999
By Kirk Mitchell

Dec. 4, 1999 - Suspected members of the Denver-based Concerned Christians - 11 adults and five children - have been taken into custody by Greek police in and around the seaside town of Rafina, about 15 miles east of Athens. Relatives of group members, as well as cult watchers in Colorado, say they hope this will disrupt any of the group's plans for violence, including a possible suicide pact ordered by group leader Monte Kim Miller.

"This is the month he said something would happen,'' said Nelma Smith, who has nine family members in the group, including son Terry Smith. "We pray they don't have a suicide pact. I hope something intervenes.''

She, like other family members, have not heard whether their loved ones were among those detained in the sweep.

All those detained were U.S. citizens with expired resident permits, police said.

They likely will face deportation.

Authorities said a sweep was under way for a total of up to 60 possible members of the group, which was founded in Denver but reportedly has used Rafina as a base since 14 members were expelled from Israel in January. Israeli officials claimed the group may have been plotting attacks at holy sites in Jerusalem to hasten the return of Christ. At the time, some followers were already living in Greece.

Cult watcher and Denver police officer Mark Roggeman said his sources said the roundup of cult members began last weekend.

"I heard they were looking for others,'' Roggeman said.

He said because of the timing of the detentions with less than a month before the end of the millennium, it must disrupt whatever plans Miller had for carrying out his prophecies. According to Greek police sources, Greek officials feared group members could be contemplating violence or suicides on the eve of the millennium. Greek media reported that residents complained some of the followers were preaching about the end of the world. Roggeman said he has heard from family members of the cultists that Miller was planning on taking a boat ride from Greece to Israel - a half a day's journey - on or around Dec. 18.

But the detentions may thwart Miller's plans, Roggeman said.

Miller prophesied the Apocalypse would begin with an October 1998 earthquake in Denver. He and about 50 disciples have not been seen publicly since September 1998.

He consistently has emphasized that he would be killed in Israel and be resurrected as the millennium ends, said Hal Mansfield, director of the anti-hate group, Religious Movement Resource Center in Fort Collins. "This has got to devastate these people,'' Roggeman said. "This group of people has given up everything they have to be with Miller. If they are deported and nothing happens, that has got to shake up their world.'' Few people in the Rafina area seemed to have any direct knowledge of the group. A neighbor said the members shunned contact with outsiders and appeared to live a communal-type lifestyle in a villa surrounded by a fence.

Israeli officials are keenly worried about possible attacks and disruptions from religious-oriented groups drawn to the Holy Land for the millennium. Greece, too, could attract groups anticipating the end of the world.

Biblical tradition says the Book of Revelation was dictated by St. John the Divine on the Aegean island of Patmos sometime after A.D. 95. Revelation includes accounts of a fiery destruction of the world and heaven-directed vengeance upon sinners.

"That's where Kim spends his whole life is in the Book of Revelations,'' Roggeman said.