Saturday, April 11, 1998
Dallas suburb spent $130,000 to accommodate
Taiwanese sect
GARLAND, Texas (AP) -- The Dallas suburb of Garland spent about
$130,000 in taxpayer money accommodating a Taiwanese religious
sect that came to town and waited for God to appear.
Police provided crowd control around the home of Hon-Ming Chen,
leader of God's Salvation Church, who predicted God would appear
at his south Garland house.
The prophecy went unfulfilled, but city officials said the
money was well spent because the episode brought the city $1 million
worth of publicity.
"We literally had the eyes and ears of the world watching
our community," City Manager Jeff Muzzy told The Dallas Morning
News.
About 150 sect members moved to Garland in December, setting
the stage for Chen's prophecy of God's appearance at 10 a.m. March
31. When the time came, Chen instead told reporters they were
all God.
It cost the police department $93,000 to provide space for
members of the media and control traffic into the neighborhood.
The fire department spent about $20,000 providing fire engines
and ambulances in case of an emergency.
The city also spent $19,400 on administrative planning, public
relations, transportation and media monitoring, officials said.
As for the sect, members say they plan to sell their homes
and leave. Many plan to move to Buffalo, N.Y., police Lt. Don
Martin said.
"They went up there to scope out a new area, and they
say they're going to slowly start putting their houses up for
sale. A couple of them are already up for sale," he said.
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Copyright ©1998,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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