Ben L. Roden, leader of the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventist Association, and his son, George Roden, published this pamphlet in 1974 as an attack on Catholicism and specifically the role of Catholics in the federal government. The pamphlet’s opening lines neatly summarize its message: "Watergate is a Catholic plot used by the Pope to cover up [Edward] Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick, impeach [Richard ] Nixon or bring him under papal control, and prepare the way for Kennedy’s election to the Presidency in ’76 and enforcement of National Sunday Laws." Although this particular conspiracy theory was perhaps unique--the Rodens declared that the Branch was "the first church in America to take a public stand against . . . the Vatican Watergate plot"--its individual elements of anti-Catholicism, fear of papal attempts to impose one-world government, and support for Nixon all appeared with some frequency in conservative political messages during the 1960s and 1970s.
While the Branch Davidian church is now best-known for the 1993 federal raid on its compound near Waco, Texas, the church’s origins lay in a schism from the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in the 1930s, and this pamphlet is replete with references to the split. This is apparent in the quotation appearing on the cover image, taken from Adventist founder Ellen G. White’s The Great Controversy, a book that laid out many tenets of Adventist theology and from which the Rodens frequently quoted in their text. The pamphlet also attacks the General Conference for refusing to criticize Catholics, because of the supposed ranks of Jesuit priests who had “infiltrated” the mainstream Adventist sect.