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Benjamin Lloyd Roden (January 5, 1902 – October 22, 1978) was an American religion leader and the prime organizer of the Branch Davidians.
Little is known of Roden's early life but he grew up on a farm in Bearden and attended high school there before going to a teacher's college and then practicing as a teacher for a brief period. Thereafter, he spent some time working on oil fields, first in Oklahoma and later in Odessa, Texas.
Roden married Lois Roden on February 12, 1937. With Scott he had two daughters and four sons, including George Roden.
By 1940, the Rodens were members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) in Kilgore, Texas. It is possible that the appeal of the SDA lay at least in part in its similarities to some aspects of Judaism, such as practising the Biblical Sabbath and abiding by the dietary laws of the Old Testament, but in addition the couple had been given Bible Readings for the Home Circle as a wedding present by Lois's mother. That book was a publication of the SDA and it is probable, although not certain, that somewhere in Lois's family there was already an involvement with that church.
The Rodens later moved from the church at Kilgore to that at Odessa, where Ben became a head elder. Somewhere around this time, in the early- to mid-1940s, the couple became influenced by the Shepherd's Rod movement, which had splintered from the SDA, and probably visited its base at the Mount Carmel Center, near Waco, Texas, even if only briefly. They were disfellowshiped from their SDA church, which caused them offence because they had helped to finance the church building and felt that they therefore had a right to use it. Various accounts exist of a stand-off between Lois and the church, with her occupying it for several days and receiving supplies from Ben and their son, George.
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