Brian David Mitchell – A Mormon Predator

            I’ve been following the trial of Elizabeth Smart’s kidnapper with particular interest in what the psychology experts have to say.  According to newspaper accounts clinical psychologist, Richard DeMier, diagnosed Mitchell as paranoid schizophrenic.  He apparently thought that Mitchell’s fantasies about dueling the antichrist and other spectacular religious feats peculiar to Mormonism was proof of a schizophrenic mind.

            I suspect that had Dr. DeMier been familiar with the mysteries of Mormonism his diagnosis might have been different. 

            Daniel Peterson an expert on Mormonism at Brigham Young University pretty well cleared the schizophrenic air.  Illusions like “One Mighty and Strong,” and old women bearing children are not strangers to Mormons.  Mass murderer, Ervil LeBaron thought he was the One Mighty and Strong sent by God to set the (LDS) Church and fundamentalists in order.  He died in the Utah State Prison, not the Utah State Hospital.   If we should draw solely on Peterson’s evaluation that Mitchell is schizophrenic then it stands alarmingly telling that a large number of other Mormons are also.

            Two aged biblical matrons who gave birth to special sons are Abraham’s Sarah and the mother of John the Baptist.  If they had children in their twilight years, why not Barzee?  If God communicated with Abraham and Joseph Smith, why not Brian David “Immanuel” Mitchell?

            I’m not a psychologist but as a sex crime specialist I learned from behavioral scientists what motivated sex offenders and how to identify personality disorders because that knowledge in my opinion is a must for successful sex crime investigation.  On that note, all I know about the trial is what I read in the newspapers but I didn’t see where pedophile was defined or why the pedophile behaves as he does.  In my opinion Mitchell had those pedophile characteristics and also narcissistic characteristics which are not uncommon among Mormon fundamentalists.  I would think that, that  knowledge coupled with the infamous plural marriage revelation would have helped a jury in understanding why and how Mitchell went about the religious business of kidnapping and brainwashing a young, vulnerable plural wife – a pattern of methodical sanity, not insanity.  Surely a belief in God and obeying his commandments is not a symptom of lunacy?

            I can point out conniving and charismatic men who currently reign over fundamentalist groups who claim to communicate with God, Joseph Smith, the Three Nephites and some of the old biblical patriarchs, in other words, important deceased biblical characters - and their illusions or delusions or deceptions are protected by the First Amendment. 

             By Mormon fundamentalism I mean taking Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and extrapolating a new or mutated brand of Mormonism that elevates these self-styled prophets over their gullible followers. 

            Brian David Mitchell is a Mormon fundamentalist of the polygamist caste.  He attempted to obtain a plural wife by conventional means but he was too weird even for fundamentalists.  As Mormonism demonstrates, sometimes amusingly and other times callously, within a religious genre, weird is okay.

            The beliefs and objectives of Mitchell, that Richard DeMier thought bizarre, were Mitchell’s version of esoteric Mormonism.  And I find it interesting that government, the courts and media seem to shy away from that fact.  Brain David Mitchell is a product of Mormon fundamentalism – a Mitchellized, modern Mormon replica of Joseph Smith.

            As a Mormon prophet obeying the “new and everlasting covenant” (a sacred euphemism for plural marriage) Mitchell was duty bound to sire children, and as a prophet, his children will be of a special pedigree.  After all, that’s what Mormon plural marriage is about, isn’t it? – raising up a righteous seed, not an excuse to copulate?

            Mitchell did not sin within the Mormon concept, for kidnapping appeared to be his only way of obeying the law as canonized in D & C Section 132 – which tens of thousands of Mormon fundamentalists profess trumps the law of the land. 

            My friend Carmine wonders why I keep writing about Mormonism and polygamy – deliberately annoying those peace loving trucklers of Joseph Smith - because it is such a rich, fascinating subject teeming with phenomenal behavior.  Elizabeth is without a doubt a brave, compelling young lady, holding up valiantly under the microscope.  Mitchell has made her a celebrity – the hard way. 

            Mitchell is a fox who would rather spend his days in a mental facility than share a cell with Ron Lafferty – who after years in solitary is probably legitimately insane. But think of all the fascinating reading, wondering and speculating men like Mitchell, the Lafferty Brothers, Ervil LeBaron and Warren Jeffs – Mormon icons of the Old Testament kind - have provided we with shallow, humdrum lives.