The members of God's Salvation Church started moving in last summer. They have bought at least 30 homes, all with cash and all within a 21/2 mile radius. At least 150 followers have arrived from Taiwan, with more on their way.
They dress almost completely in white, including white sneakers and white straw cowboy hats. Their leader, Heng-ming Chen, whom they call "Teacher Chen," says he talks to God through his hand and discerns godly wisdom from golden balls that he sees floating in the sky.But what has really attracted the neighbors' attention here is the bold pronouncement in Teacher Chen's long guide to his religion, titled "God's Descending in Clouds (Flying Saucers) on Earth to Save People." On page 176, he promises: "At 10 a.m. on March 31, 1998, God shall make His appearance in the Holy Land of the Kingdom of God: 3513 Ridgedale Dr., Garland, TX 75041 U.S.A." He concludes: "I guarantee this on my life."
The modest, split-level, beige-brick home at 3513 Ridgedale Drive is the home of Teacher Chen, a 42-year-old former social-science professor who says he fathered Christ nearly 2,000 years ago and whose group includes two boys, Chi-Jen Lo and Che-Yu Chiang, whom he describes as the reincarnations of Jesus and Bud-dha.
In Garland, a working-class city of about 200,000 people just north of Dallas, the arrival of this religious group with its unusual garb and rituals has been greeted with some wariness but mostly bemusement.
"They told me that Garland is God's land, and I thought, `Well, OK, to each his own,' " said Bonnie Nichols, who lives three doors down from Chen. Said her husband, Carl: "They all seem nice enough. They're quiet. They keep their yards up and everything."
But back in Taiwan, where Chen's followers generally sold everything they owned before coming here, the group's gathering in Texas has been major news. It has set off a wave of concern from distraught relatives who describe Chen as a cult leader who has both swindled and brainwashed the members into paying him their life savings for the supposed privilege of taking a ride on a flying saucer to heaven.
Even more alarmingly, there have been recurring rumors reported in the Taiwan press that the group plans to commit mass suicide if God does not arrive on schedule in Garland on March 31.
Teacher Chen, in an interview in front of his home, staunchly denied that his group, which includes several former professors and engineers, has any suicidal tendencies.
"That is absolutely impossible," he said through his interpreter, Richard Liu, as the boy whom Chen describes as the reincarnation of Jesus, 10-year-old Chi-Jen Lo, stood a few steps away, drinking Mountain Dew soda and nibbling on raisins. "Our principle is respect for all life, including human life, and no one has the right to take a life."
At the same time, though, Chen says he has volunteered to surrender his fate to his followers if his prophecies prove untrue. "He is willing to be executed, stoned to death, put on a cross," Liu said. "It doesn't matter."
In Taiwan, the group is known as the most controversial outgrowth of a booming national interest in unidentified flying objects. Numerous associations and quasi-religious organizations that track sightings or predict arrivals of UFOs have cropped up around the island nation.
Chen's group, whose Chinese characters are best translated as "God Saves the Earth Flying Saucer Association," started its first American chapter in San Dimas, Calif., in 1995.
But it moved to Texas last year after the leader said he received a prophecy from God instructing him to move to the suburbs of Dallas. If you say it fast, Chen tells his followers and curious visitors, "Garland sounds just like `God's Land.' "
In most cases, intact families have joined the group, although late last year sheriff's deputies in Los Angeles County retrieved a 16-year-old girl, Nan-Hua Chiang, after her mother in California expressed fears that she was joining a dangerous pilgrimage with the group to Texas.
No one knows whether Chen's group may be an Asian version of Heaven's Gate, the reclusive group that committed mass suicide last March in a suburban house near San Diego in an attempt to rendezvous with Comet Hale-Bopp or whether members simply subscribe to an unusual set of beliefs and will simply accept the development if God does not appear here on March 31.