MORMON FUNDAMENTALIST MENTALITY

            I think I was one of the first pundits to characterize organized fundamentalist groups as being about power, money and sex.  I have since added ego to the equation.  Ego fits in nicely with power, money and sex.  It is a rare man whose ego is not pumped up when exercising power and dallying with his personal harem.

            Of course the leaders and loyal members of the organized groups will disagree with me.  They will deny any selfish motives.  They will argue that their only motive is serving the Lord and building up the kingdom of God. 

            Power is “the ability to get what you want.”  It is “the ability to change the future.”  Kenneth Boulding, author of The Three Faces of Power said power comes from “threats, exchange and love.”  Boulding further delineated power as “power over,” “power to” and “power with.” 

            It is my opinion that all religious faiths are about power just as all governments are about power.  I suspect that Catholicism is the most powerful faith because of its vast wealth and influence over governments and true believers. 

            The LDS Church is the most powerful institution in the State of Utah.  Like the Catholic Church it is very influential politically and economically.  The Church development in downtown Salt Lake City is analogous to the Vatican.  If we include the Church owned and controlled profit corporations it would be by far the largest employer in the State. 

            Each organized polygamist group strives to emulate the LDS Church as it was in the Nineteenth Century.  Unfortunately, their focus is on the past.  When AUB built an endowment house and the FLDS built a temple it was a sign that they thought they were “spiritually” supplanting the LDS Church. 

            All Mormon fundamentalist groups share the same doctrine resulting in a similar mentality, differing only slightly in function.  Fecundity depends upon the leadership.  The narcissist personality seems to be the most prolific although there are exceptions.

            It was Rulon C. Allred’s charismatic and loving personality that built Apostolic United Brethren.  His method was “power with” and power to.”  He broke from the incestuous mode followed by other groups and opened AUB’s doors to outsiders, primarily the frustrated and radical members of the LDS Church.  As a naturopathic physician he wanted his people to avoid the possible genetic defects that could very well result from sex within the fifth consanguinity. He was an avid defender of the LDS Church teaching that his mission was to keep plural marriage alive and the Church’s mission was to spread the gospel worldwide.  He was even known to counsel want-to-be fundamentalists to stay in the Church and serve the Lord.  Rulon was assassinated by Ervil LeBaron in 1977.  He was succeeded by his brother Owen who announced he would magnify his brother’s legacy.  But that all changed in 1978 when the LDS Church decided to allow worthy African Americans to receive the priesthood.

            Owen, now deceased, was basically a good man but he had two weaknesses. He had a weakness for money and he was easily influenced by subordinates.  Rulon had put Owen in charge of AUB’s check book to discourage any accusations that he was misusing tithing money. When Owen became the leader it was suggested by Joe Thompson that he do the same thing, but Owen refused and kept control of AUB’s monies until 1995 when the Virginia Hill investigation began.

            When AUB assumed that they now held all the keys of authority mentioned in Verse 7 of Section 132 in the Doctrine & Covenants, it brought about a remarkable change in the AUB leadership.  It was then that authority became the primary subject in their sermons.  Where once they were critical of the Church for pretending to be “infallible” and preaching “blind obedience” over free agency, they were now “infallible” and stressed “absolute obedience to priesthood” – declaring: “God will not let His priesthood lead the people astray.”

            The AUB ruling priesthood council often me in private.  Now that they “held all the priesthood keys” they functioned as if the world revolved around them.  The world belonged to Jesus and as Jesus’ plenipotentiary envoys on earth, the earth was their inheritance.  In other words, they felt entitled. 

            The polygamists are not so irrational that they thought they could just take what they wanted or do what they wanted.  The sense of entitlement meant that there was no sin or guilt in using deception and stealth in getting what they rightly deserved because they were entitled.  Thus the terms “milking the gentiles” were coined in Brigham Young’s days, and “bleeding the beast” was coined by contemporary polygamists taking advantage by hook or crook, government handouts. 

            When men gather in secret, plan and scheme, under the delusion they have special authority and a special mission, they often fall victim to “the illusion of invulnerability.”  This phenomenon is said to have affected Richard Nixon when he authorized the Watergate burglary.  This same phenomenon took hold of Owen Allred and his priesthood cohorts when they decided to steal Virginia Hill’s 1.54 million dollars.

            Lying for the Lord is a clandestine, unwritten doctrine that you can read about on the Internet.  What it means is that lying to save God’s anointed and his priesthood is compulsory.  It first started in Nauvoo when Joseph, Brigham, Parley P. Pratt, John Taylor and a few others were secretly practicing polygamy.  Lying to protect the practice of polygamy has advanced to lying about anything, anytime, anywhere.

            The defendants in Hill vs. Allred, Jenson et.al, were exceptionally good liars – perjuring themselves over and over again – for their Lord.