Women were told never to cut their hair, one of the many rules controlling them. Women who disobeyed "weren't worth a good, clean bullet," the sect's founder taught.
By Emily Hamer
Lee Enterprises Public Service Journalism Team
In 1959 sermon, Branham acknowledged having hated women
Reflecting on his youth, William Branham recalled in his 1959 sermon "My Life Story," that when he saw drunk teenage women, he concluded "they're not worth a good clean bullet to kill them with."
By Tim Steller
Arizona Daily Star
Sarah Kiser is pictured in her home in Bristol, Va., Aug. 16, 2024. She wears a pair of bright pink pants and a tank top that shows her shoulders, clothes she would have been barred from wearing in her former fundamentalist church. Under the faith she used to follow, "The Message," she had to always wear long skirts to cover her figure so she did not temp men to lust.
Rev. William Branham and his wife Meda Branham in the late 1940s. Branham married Meda after his first wife died in 1937. Branham preached that a man's wife should be his "sweetheart," not a "doormat." But he also preached that a man who lets his wife smoke cigarettes "don't love her or he'd take a board and blister her with it."
Sarah Kiser got married at 18 to a man more than six years older than her in 2017. They dated for about nine months but weren’t allowed to be alone together, so she barely knew him, she said. Her first kiss was at the altar.
Sarah Kiser got married at 18 to a man more than six years older than her in 2017. They dated for about nine months but weren’t allowed to be alone together, so she barely knew him, she said. Her first kiss was at the altar.
Sarah Kiser is pictured in her home in Bristol, Va., Aug. 16, 2024. Kiser said her former faith, "The Message," taught her that women were supposed to be meek, quiet and submissive to their husbands.
Sarah Kiser is pictured in her home in Bristol, Va., Aug. 16, 2024. Kiser said she is working on healing after enduring an abusive childhood and marriage in "The Message."
Sarah Kiser is pictured in her home in Bristol, Va., Aug. 16, 2024. She wears a pair of bright pink pants and a tank top that shows her shoulders, clothes she would have been barred from wearing in her former fundamentalist church. Under the faith she used to follow, "The Message," she had to always wear long skirts to cover her figure so she did not temp men to lust.
Rev. William Branham and his wife Meda Branham in the late 1940s. Branham married Meda after his first wife died in 1937. Branham preached that a man's wife should be his "sweetheart," not a "doormat." But he also preached that a man who lets his wife smoke cigarettes "don't love her or he'd take a board and blister her with it."
Sarah Kiser got married at 18 to a man more than six years older than her in 2017. They dated for about nine months but weren’t allowed to be alone together, so she barely knew him, she said. Her first kiss was at the altar.
Sarah Kiser got married at 18 to a man more than six years older than her in 2017. They dated for about nine months but weren’t allowed to be alone together, so she barely knew him, she said. Her first kiss was at the altar.
Sarah Kiser is pictured in her home in Bristol, Va., Aug. 16, 2024. Kiser said her former faith, "The Message," taught her that women were supposed to be meek, quiet and submissive to their husbands.
Sarah Kiser is pictured in her home in Bristol, Va., Aug. 16, 2024. Kiser said she is working on healing after enduring an abusive childhood and marriage in "The Message."
