Religious Zeal a Common Theme in Broken Minds

Self-proclaimed prophet Christopher Fink, who made news in 1998 for starving his baby daughter, is one of many cases in which religious zeal combined with mental illness. (The Salt Lake Tribune file photo)

BY CHRISTOPHER SMART
(c) 2003, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

    Brian David Mitchell, who calls himself Immanuel, allegedly kidnapped Elizabeth Smart after a divine revelation, joining a notorious cast of characters who has attributed actions to conversations with the Almighty.
    Names such as David Koresch and Jim Jones jump to mind. Both men led religious followers to their graves -- one in 1993 outside Waco, Texas, in a standoff with federal authorities, the other in a 1978 mass suicide in a remote location in Guyana called Jonestown.
    Utah has its special brand of religious fanaticism that has cropped up again and again. Often it is associated with polygamy, which the LDS Church disavowed in 1890 and for which members are excommunicated.
    In many cases, it also has been associated with the "one mighty and strong" as described in the Doctrine and Covenants, one of four books of LDS scripture. Section 85 of the Doctrine and Covenants says in part: "And it shall come to pass that I, the Lord God, will send one mighty and strong, holding the scepter of power in his hand, clothed with light for a covering, whose mouth shall utter words, eternal words . . . to set in order the house of God . . . ."
    Ervil Morel LeBaron believed he was the prophet, the "one mighty and strong" when he sought to tighten his grasp on his polygamist Lamb of God church in the late 1970s by executing rival polygamists Joe LeBaron, his brother, in Mexico, and Murray chiropractor Rulon Allred. LeBaron didn't carry out the murders himself, but rather directed his "soldiers" to accomplish the tasks.
    Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom prosecuted LeBaron and recalled the polygamist's motivations and intensity surrounding his beliefs. "Ervil thought he was the prophet of God," Yocom recalled. "He had been directed by God to lead the world in the latter days."

    Yocom attempted to understand LeBaron's view in order to prosecute him. "The problem is to try to understand their belief system and how he was operating in order to show the motive." LeBaron was found guilty of Allred's murder in 1980 and later died of natural causes at the Utah State Prison.
    About the time LeBaron was sending henchmen to slay Allred under his dictum of blood atonement, law enforcement officials in Summit County were pursuing another polygamist, John Singer. A German-born TV repairman and convert to the LDS Church, Singer, too, believed he was communicating directly with God. He had run afoul of Summit County officials when he took his children out of public school. Singer then took a second wife, as he said God had directed him, a Kamas woman named Shirley Black who was already married. Singer sealed himself to Black at a religious font he had created behind his house near the foothills of the Uinta Mountains.
    After several bungled attempts at capturing him, law enforcement officials approached Singer's Marion property on snowmobiles on Jan. 19, 1979, as he checked his mailbox. Wielding a pistol, Singer ran, but was killed by a shotgun blast to the back.
    His death set the stage a decade later for another standoff with "one mighty and strong" -- Addam Swapp.
    Swapp and his younger brother Jonathan had watched the Singer saga unfold on TV from their central Utah home. Believing Singer and his family had been wronged, the Swapps set off to Summit County where Addam eventually married two of John's daughters, Heidi and Charlotte. He also forged a close bond with John's widow, Vickie.
    Later, Addam said he had a revelation from God to blow up the Marion LDS stake center on Jan. 16, 1988.
    The explosion, which was intended to bring Singer back from the dead, sparked a 13-day siege with law enforcement officials who surrounded the Singer place on snowy Upper Ranch Loop Road. The standoff ended in a shoot-out where Addam Swapp was wounded and Utah Corrections Lt. Fred House was killed.
    "Addam believed a divine power would see him through. God advised him to blow up the church," said his defense attorney John Bucher.
    Mormon doctrine encourages the individual to seek personal revelation from God for oneself or one's family, but not for others. "You can talk to God directly," Bucher said.
    Bucher, who is not Mormon, has defended a number of high-profile polygamists, including Tom Green. "They all want to be the one mighty and strong. They want the old Joseph Smith stuff back . . . an arm of God answering to God. When you have this in your head, you start thinking you ought to do something about things."
    Vickie Singer was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison for the bombing but was released after 3 1/2 years. Addam Swapp was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for the bombing and 15 years in state prison for manslaughter in the death of House. Timothy Singer got 10 years for the bombing and 15 years for the House shooting. Jonathan Singer was sentenced to 10 years for the bombing and 1 year for negligent homicide in the shooting.
    The belief that anyone can receive revelation is a thread that runs through many of Utah's most bizarre crimes, said historian D. Michael Quinn. "It will probably always be a problem, I would say, in Mormon culture because Mormon culture maintains this faith that God continues to speak both to individuals as well as to the church as a whole."
    According to Dan Lafferty, it was God who directed him and his brother Ron to slay his sister-in-law and her infant daughter on Pioneer Day, July 24, 1984.
    "I'm not going to offend God by saying something inappropriate like, 'I wish I'd never done it,' " Dan Lafferty told The Salt Lake Tribune in July 2000, 16 years after the killings. "I'll never say that. If you're a child of God, it'll make sense to you someday. I'll never say I'm sorry I did it."
    Dan and Ron Lafferty had been excommunicated from the LDS Church for their extremist views and had joined a polygamist cult called "School of Prophets." The two drove to the American Fork home of their younger brother, Allen, because they were angry that his wife Brenda Wright Lafferty had supported Ron's wife in her decision to leave him. Dan branded Brenda and Erica, her infant daughter, as "daughters of perdition."
    The murders were the "Lord's work," Dan later testified in court. "I was in tunnel vision at this point," he testified. "I said, 'I'm going to take care of this, I'm going to use a knife.' "
    Dan says he continues to have revelations in his prison cell that cast him as a modern-day Elijah, a prophet who has been called to prepare the world for the Second Coming of Christ.
    Dan Lafferty was sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Ron Lafferty was sentenced to death but continues to appeal, based on Dan's testimony that Ron did not commit the murders.
    One of the most horrific acts driven by religious belief occurred in Salt Lake City on Thursday morning, Aug. 3, 1978 when Rachal David threw her seven children, one by one, off the 11th floor balcony of a hotel at 200 South West Temple. She then jumped to her own death. Rachal David was the widow of a self-proclaimed prophet who called himself Immanuel David. It is believed that Rachal David wanted to join her husband who had committed suicide two days earlier. Only one of the children survived.
    To his followers, Immanuel David was the "center of the universe" and a descendant of the biblical House of David. A New York native, David had converted to the LDS Church in the early 1960s when he was known as Bruce Longo.
    David had told followers that he was the Holy Ghost and had been directed to lead the LDS Church. He reportedly sent letters to LDS officials proclaiming authority from God to lead the church.
    Although religious history is filled with violence, these kinds of acts can't be explained by religious zealotry alone, Quinn noted. "It's hard to explain because it seems not only a radical religious point of view, but seems to be, in common terms, crazy. You can say it's religious enthusiasm gone amok. It's a combination of deep faith with a disordered personality."
    Over the years, other Utahns have fit that profile. In 1993, Cody Judy took hostage LDS Apostle Howard Hunter, who was soon to become LDS Church president, in front of 15,000 shocked onlookers at a BYU meeting. Judy said he had a bomb and that God had directed him to lead the LDS Church.
    Judy was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison but was paroled in November 2000 and recently ran unsuccessfully for Congress.
    Another self-proclaimed prophet, Christopher Fink, made news in 1998 with his former wife, Kyndra, after their 21-month-old child was hospitalized for severe malnutrition. Disillusioned with the LDS Church, Fink created his own cult based on revelations from God.
    The Finks fed the toddler watermelon and lettuce and little else in order to fulfill their religious beliefs.
    The Finks took the infant from state custody and fled to the mountains of Montana. They were on the run for 16 days before being arrested. Prosecutors later dropped kidnapping charges in exchange for a guilty plea from Christopher Fink on felony child abuse charges. Christopher was sentenced to 18 months in jail and Kyndra divorced him.
    Elizabeth Smart's disappearance is just the latest tale of claims of divine revelation gone bad. When Brent Ward, former U.S. Attorney for Utah, heard of her abductors, it brought back memories of the Singer/Swapp clan whom he had prosecuted.
    "There was a pattern of extreme religious beliefs on the part of the Singers and Swapps. . . . There are some definite similarities."
    How deep those similarities run could be revealed if Mitchell, or Immanuel, goes to trial. But if history is a guide, it may not be the last time Utahns hear of self-proclaimed prophets.
    "The Mormon community is alive with one essential position of faith, that God continues to reveal new things, new doctrines, new words," said Quinn. "That leads to the possibility of disruption."
    _________
   
   Tribune reporter Heather May contributed to this story.