Believers, breeder await sacred cow

O’NEILL - Up here in ranch country, nestled in the gentle, rolling hills of a northeast Nebraska pasture, Dan Straka slips his red Ford 4 x 4 into gear and climbs to the top of a rise to survey his Red Angus herd.

For more than two decades, the stocky, clean-cut, college-educated cowboy has worked this 3,000-acre spread, producing a prized crop of cattle - animals traditionally bound for backyard barbecues, steak houses and hamburger joints.

But somewhere in his herd of about 600 there may be one unblemished specimen, a genetically pure red heifer calf, with a more noble purpose: an animal that could, depending on one’s religious beliefs, save or end the world. The sacrifice of this animal - sayeth some interpreters of the Bible and the Torah - will either usher in the coming of the Messiah or the Antichrist.

Its ashes will purify those who set foot on Israel’s sacred Temple Mount. And the ceremony, some believe, will set the stage for the Jewish Messiah’s coming, or Christ’s second coming following the world’s end.

The quest for this sacred cow started with a man on a religious mission.

Over time, it has yielded an unlikely alliance - a Pentecostal minister from central Mississippi, an Orthodox rabbi from Jerusalem and Straka, a German-Catholic cattleman from the edge of the Nebraska Sandhills.

"It’s something that most people couldn’t hardly grasp," Straka says with a sheepish smile during lunch in an O’Neill cafe. "And I’m not sure I can, to be honest with you."

His involvement with a project some believe could alter the world’s fate grew slowly. It began several years ago, when a soft-spoken gentleman from rural Mississippi found his way to this ranch six miles north of town.

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Clyde Lott is a Mississippi cattle rancher and ordained Pentecostal minister, a graying man in his early 40s whose quiet voice seems to rise only when he’s leading prayer.

It is with patience that he answers questions about his beliefs, often referring to himself as "we" in conversation, because he feels God is working through him.

He dismisses any notion he is fixated on the apocalypse. He’s only trying to follow his calling. But it is his apocalyptic, or "End Times," interpretation of the Bible that brought him to this largely Irish-Catholic Nebraska community.

A fundamentalist, Lott believes Christ will return soon. And, he believes, this hinges in large part on a ceremony detailed in Numbers 19 of the Old Testament - the sacrifice of a perfect red heifer calf.

He believes the End Time, and Christ’s following reign, can only happen after certain Biblical prophecies are fulfilled, including this sacrifice in Israel. He believes it is his calling to supply the perfect calf, one without so much as two white hairs.

"This is very miraculous work, to say the least," Lott recently said. That work has led to a project the magnitude of which he had not foreseen.

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Clyde Lott’s quest started about a decade ago.

While reading the Bible in his home office one spring evening in 1989, he began to wonder: How could the Numbers 19 prophecy be fulfilled when a perfect red heifer had not been born in Israel in 2000 years?

Soon after, he had an epiphany. Although it was the middle of haying season, he left his ranch near Canton and drove to the state capital in Jackson. He walked into the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and made an announcement: Israel needs red cows.

Not long afterwards, Roy Manning, Mississippi’s international trade director, wrote a letter to the U.S. agricultural attache in New York.

"We have been approached by a producer and seller of cattle from the State of Mississippi and I am quoting him in the following: ‘Red Angus cattle suitable for Old Testament Biblical sacrifices, will have no blemish or off- color hair, genetically red will reproduce red É These cattle will adapt quickly to Middle Eastern climate, also excellent beef quality.’ "

Months later, somewhat miraculously, the letter ended up in the hands of Chaim Richman, an Orthodox rabbi, at the Temple Institute in Jerusalem.

In his book "The Mystery of the Red Heifer," Richman says the Holy Temple - prophesied as the Third Temple on Mount Moriah - must be built for the Jewish Messiah to appear.

And for the temple to be built, one element is critical: Israel must have the ashes of a perfect red heifer. The ashes are required for a purification ceremony necessary to enter the temple.

In other words, no heifer, no temple; no temple, no Messiah.

Before long, the rabbi and the Mississippi cattleman were seriously engaged in trying to get just such a cow to Israel.

So Lott began searching for a place where export-quality cattle were raised, a place with winters cold enough to kill off certain bacteria and viruses, a place with a singular reputation for producing blue-chip Red Angus. A place precisely like the Sandhills of Nebraska.

"It was the hand of God that brought us together," he says.

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Dan and Mary Straka, both 47, grew up in Holt County, started ranching after they married in 1970 and developed a solid reputation as award- winning Red Angus breeders.

They are kind, common-sense people. Husker fans Dedicated parents with two grown sons in Omaha - one in medical school, the other an actor. Lifelong Catholics.

From his home overlooking acres of hayfields and prairie, Dan Straka recalls his first encounter with the Mississippi man about six years ago.

At the time, Straka didn’t know he was talking to a minister on a mission. The man asked if he’d ever consider selling a large quantity of heifers.

"I said, "Sure. That’s why I’ve got ‘em. I’m a cattleman.’ "

The Strakas would find out about Lott’s mission over several years of visits and a growing friendship.

"From my end of it, it started out strictly as a business transaction," Straka explains as he drives through his pastures on a cool, cloudy August day. After all, it was a chance for him to carve a niche in an increasingly tough industry. He was thrilled with the prospect of selling hundreds of heifers at a good price.

But he would find out: Opportunity comes with risks.

Although he plans to ship 150 to 500 pregnant red heifers to Israel in December, Lott and Richman haven’t raised enough money to buy all the cows and pay the freight. Total price per head: about $2,000.

Each day, Straka and Lott talk about funding, export requirements and other details.

"I’m running my end like any other ranch would run a business," he explains. "It’s not like I’m raising these cattle to donate them."

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Someday, Clyde Lott hopes to see as many as 50,000 Red Angus cattle in Israel, creating an entire beef industry there - a project that could cost $100 million.

"We’re trying to tear down anti-Semitic barriers and work together for a common cause, to see land barren in many areas become fruitful," he explains.

Notes Straka: "It started out as a small project to help Israel come up with a Numbers 19 heifer, and it’s escalated to much more than that. It’s become much more of a humanitarian effort than anything." Still, many hurdles remain.

Some of the land the Pentecostal minister and rabbi think ideal for grazing is in disputed areas - areas claimed by both Israelis and Arabs. So is Mount Moriah, where the Third Temple is to be built.

Mount Moriah is hotly contested because it is a sacred spot for all three major religions. A mosque still sits here, as does the Dome of the Rock, where Muslims believe Muhammad ascended to heaven. Some Jews and Christians believe the mount is the perch from which God finished creating earth and where other Old Testament events unfolded.

While Israel won control of all of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War, Muslims retained the Dome of the Rock. But it is this very spot where those including Richman believe the Third Temple must be built.

Relations between fundamentalist Christians and Orthodox Jews also have their volatile points. Yet, by all accounts, Lott and Richman have formed a very strong friendship. Although both men interpret the Old Testament similarly, their ultimate project goals differ drastically. Richman believes the Jewish Messiah will come when the Temple is built and the red heifer sacrifice complete.

Pentecostals like Lott, however, believe the Jewish Messiah is really the Antichrist. And it is the Antichrist whose presence will usher in the Second Coming of Jesus, after a type of Armageddon, or a final battle between good and evil.

And not all conservative Christians with similar beliefs agree with Lott’s plan. Earlier this year, he was asked to speak at Faith Community Church in O’Neill, where he got a mixed reaction from the cordial crowd of 50 to 100 people.

"I think he’s a real nice gentleman, and I think he’s done a great deal of research," says John Nickless, a church elder. "He’s put his heart and soul into the deal. The only place I differ from him is, I feel he was getting out in front of God and trying to hurry things up."

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The Strakas don’t publicize the project much - not that they have to in this town of less than 4,000. Gossip travels fast at Karen’s Kitchen, the downtown bakery where locals gather for coffee and 50-cent homemade pecan rolls.

If asked, they try to explain, even though they don’t pretend to have all the answers. They worry about coming across as fanatics, or as people who think they’re superior Christians. But they have found themselves enthralled by some of their Mississippi friend’s ideas.

They are intrigued not only with studying Scripture, but with learning the history of Israel and the Middle East. Someday, they’d love to travel to Jerusalem, maybe even to see the cattle they raised in the Sandhills grazing in the Holy Land.

When Lott visits their ranch, they still quiz him.

"When you get in a discussion with him, it’s very interesting," explains Mary Straka, a petite woman with dark hair and inquisitive eyes. "He has the type of personality that makes you very curious and makes you ask questions."

Sometimes, while talking about the project, they look at each other, smile and shake their heads.

"You can’t imagine the discussions we’ve had about this," she says. Once, a friend called to tell them he didn’t like the thought of their helping to bring about the world’s end. The Strakas’ answer: Nothing they do can change God’s plans and timing, whatever those may be.

"There have been many opportunities when we have come to a crossroads where things were very difficult," Mary says.

"But . . . it’s been an immense growing process for us."

It has made them think more about the importance of their faith, about helping others. Both have chosen charities to support if the project goes forward and the funding comes through.

But even then, there is no guarantee one of the cattle they raise will be chosen as the perfect red heifer.

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Sacred or not, Dan Straka is raising calves the same way he has for more than 20 years. On a typical morning, he combs the pastures for sick cattle. Finding one, he saddles a horse and rides out to treat it.

This is the part he loves. Riding through his land on horseback. The freedom, the openness, seeing the calves born, taking their first wobbly steps, watching life unfold each spring.

Here, there is the wind and the sage, the sound of the cottonwood leaves and the song of the meadowlark. None of that has changed. To him, this is a holy land, too.

Kara Gene Morrison who grew up on a farm near Neigh, NE, was graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1994. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. She joined the staff of the Journal Star in Lincoln, NE in 1998. Previously she worked for the Commercial-News in Danville, IL. Morrison enjoys traveling, making pottery and reading.