Concerned Christians fail to resurface

Denver Pos, Jan 3, 2000
By Kevin Simpson

Jan. 3 - For much of the world, Y2K fears were dismissed virtually overnight with a collective sigh: No news was good news.

But for families plagued by their own peculiar Y2K bug - a self-proclaimed prophet named Monte Kim Miller - the wait may be far from over. "I think it's going to be a slow process," said Jennifer Cooper, whose father, John Cooper, remains with the so-called Concerned Christians. "If they get out, they're not going to jump out and start calling. It'll be a long road back for them."

The approach of the year 2000 sparked concern that the Denver-based Miller, 45, might act out his apocalyptic prophecy that he would die on the streets of Jerusalem, and entice his estimated 90 followers into a doomsday scenario.

But in Israel, New Year's Eve passed with relative quiet, and authorities detained only a few people deemed potential threats. None were believed to be members of the Concerned Christians, who have been at turns deported and turned away in their attempts to settle there.

Mark Roggeman, an avid cult-watcher when he isn't working for the Denver Police Department, said the group seemed pointed toward what many believe to be the end of the millennium based on a bizarre 1996 conversation he and other cult experts had with Miller.

"When we talked to Kim in his living room three years ago, all he told us was he was on that time line of 3 1/2 years," Roggeman said. "We all assumed the end of the millennium. We figured Dec. 31." Israeli authorities also keyed in on that event when they detained and ultimately deported 14 Concerned Christians last January, citing fears of violence to hasten the Second Coming. The 14 arrived in Denver, shunned family and friends gathered at the airport to meet them, holed up at a local hotel and eventually left for Greece.

In October, Israeli authorities turned back other members of Miller's group attempting to enter the country. In recent weeks, about two dozen people deemed potential threats have been held in Israel, although none have been identified as Concerned Christians.

In early December, 16 members of the group were deported from Greece for having expired resident permits. They surfaced briefly in New York, where this time they interacted with a few family members who met them at the airport, but then disappeared once again.

Meanwhile, Kim Miller has remained a mystery. Some reports claimed he was living in England. Another report placed him on the Mediterranean island of Patmos, where the apostle John was banished by the Romans. Israeli authorities remained on the lookout for him and members of his group, and the New Year began with one reassuring certainty: Miller did not surface in Jerusalem to act out his prophecy.

Roggeman credits media coverage for playing havoc with Miller's plans. "He's got so many problems now," Roggeman said. "All this coverage really rocked this guy's world. By his prediction and prophesies, he should have been well in place, in Israel, and ready to go."

But some family members don't place any particular significance on the turning of the calendar to 2000. Miller may have meant 2001

"I don't consider this a breaking point at all - the Concerned Christians never said it was," said David Cooper, who has maintained sporadic e-mail contact with his brother John Cooper. "There's a premise that something would happen with the coming of the new millennial reign, sometime this year. And there were dates attached to Kim Miller and Jerusalem, but there was never a date as far as the whole group.

"It seems to be all quiet at this point. I think it's more or less what I expected." David Cooper says he has had no e-mail contact with his brother in the new year and has no idea of his whereabouts.

Roggeman says that where Miller's group departs from some other cults is in the repeated attempts to access the Holy Land, where his prophecy supposedly would be fulfilled.

"He made an effort to get there, where others might just redefine what the Holy Land is," Roggeman said. "He got 90 people to quit jobs, sell houses and leave. It's going to be interesting. How many stay if he does change the prophecy?"

Miller told followers in October of 1998 to leave Denver because it was about to be destroyed. They left jobs, homes and friends overnight. And while the city remained standing, experts say Miller's ability to change direction should not be underestimated. One former acquaintance of Miller has said the group leader might insist that, ultimately, his prophecy did indeed come true. He could claim the Columbine massacre as a metaphor for the destruction of Denver - particularly because the date, April 20, happens to be Miller's birthday.

Roggeman noted that when apocalyptic deadlines pass without incident, some leaders simply set new dates. But members tend to drop out at that point, although some remain committed rather than face the embarrassment of admitting their error.

"Their whole end was for this, 100 percent of all their energies was to this," Roggeman said of Miller's millennium prophecy. "Outside of this goal, they have nothing. They're not where they're supposed to be at this point." Bill Honsberger, a Conservative Baptist missionary who has tracked the group for years, said the ultimate fate of Miller's followers could lie in a basic question about how much of his own dogma Kim Miller really believes. "Is he a con artist? Does he really believe? Is he insane?" Honsberger said. "I don't pretend to know what's going on inside him. But to me, that's the key, the larger issue about what may happen here. They all could come home poorer but wiser.

"But if he really believes all this, if he's insane, anything could happen. They've set a framework into motion, like putting kindling around the flash point for fire. The potential is incredible."

Honsberger recalled a story that got passed along to him when 14 Concerned Christians, freshly deported from Israel, holed up at the downtown Denver Holiday Inn for several weeks last winter. A reporter supposedly stepped onto an elevator with a few members of the group and asked if they'd heard anything about the cult.

"One of the guys went off, saying, 'Kim Miller is a prophet, he said it would happen this year or next,' " Honsberger said. "That's intriguing, because Kim already could be hedging his bet. I'd love that to be true because it keeps these people afloat, keeps them alive. But do they have enough money to float for another year? That I doubt." The possibility that Miller, known for his fascination with numbers and his ability to twist them into prophecy, could delay any action for a year also has crossed Norm Smith's mind.

"They're saying 'in the new millennium,' but that doesn't numerically begin for another 366 days," Smith said recently. His son, Terry Smith, is among nine relatives in Miller's group. "They might hold us off for another year. That would be a pain in the neck."

Jennifer Cooper, whose dad, John Cooper, is believed to be financing the group, anticipated no major developments as the calendar turned to 2000. "My hope is that they're all getting tired of each other," she said. "Think of it this way: You go on a cruise with all those people and they only have one thing in common. Maybe the relationships are not so tight as they were before. I'm imagining that the longer this continues, the greater chance of that happening."

Jennifer Cooper has received some e-mails from her father, but they contained little in the way of new information. She also saw him briefly in New York after the group was deported from Greece.

"He hasn't really said anything," she said. "He told me he loved me. He told me that at Kennedy Airport, and since then again in an e-mail. But he's always told me he loved me."