Cult Insanity

by Irene Spencer

  “Coffee,” I answered guiltily.

  “Irene, you know better than that! You’re supposed to be setting an example for these new converts, and you know it’s contrary to my wishes. Now just why are you drinking that coffee?”

  Mauro cut in, trying to defend me. “It’s okay, Verlan. I insisted she drink it, so it’s my fault!”

  Verlan ignored Mauro. “Irene, why are you drinking that?”

  My mind clicked frantically, trying to find a good excuse as I set the now-drained cup on the table. “Do you really want to know?” I asked, trying not to laugh. “I’m drinking coffee so I can stay awake tonight—to read the Bible!”

  THE OPPORTUNITY FOR ANOTHER PARTY of sorts came along a short time later.

  Señor Monroy, a retired government dignitary from the state of Guerrero, Mexico, was not a member of the church, but he was planning to build his home in the colony. Verlan wanted to cultivate this man’s friendship, allowing him to get to know our family, so he invited him to come to our home. When Señor Monroy arrived, just as Verlan was leaving to go back to work in Las Vegas, Verlan left strict instructions for me to give him the “royal treatment.”

  I promised Verlan that I’d see to it that he enjoyed himself and leave with a good impression. Since we’d had very few visitors over the years, I was overjoyed at the opportunity to entertain. Naturally, though, I was embarrassed that our humble circumstances made it impossible to serve him in the manner to which he was accustomed.

  When I told Verlan I was looking forward to entertaining, I hadn’t expected to actually be the entertainment!

  Our guest spoke no English, and every time I opened my mouth, I murdered the Spanish language. Whenever I spoke he’d get a big kick out of trying to decipher what I had actually said.

  Trying to salvage my dignity, I had invited Lucy over for supper because she spoke Spanish fluently and interpreted for me when necessary. Our neighbor, Mauro, just happened to drop by, so we invited him to stay and help entertain our illustrious guest.

  When the conversation died down, I was embarrassed by the silence, so I decided to tell Señor Monroy about my latest goof-up. Using my hands for emphasis, I talked in halting Spanish, asking Lucy to fill in a word every now and then. I told my captive audience how I’d made a big mistake the day before. An elderly convert, Brother Ray, was paying me to prepare his meals. I washed and ironed his clothes also. He’d brought over two identical pair of tan work pants to be mended. He had torn the new pair in the knee and asked me to cut the leg off the old pair to mend the new one. With all my responsibilities and my four small children underfoot, I was rushed as usual, trying to do more than I had time for. I hurriedly cut a leg off one of the pants, and when I grabbed the other pair I realized—to my horror—I’d cut the leg off the new pair. I knew Brother Ray would be angry, but what else could I do? I just sewed the leg back on, let the cuff out an inch or so, patched the tear, and handed them back to him.

  Our guest got such a kick out of my story so I decided to add a punch line. I tried to say, “I would rather wash for the old man five times than to mend his pants once.” My Spanish version was “Yo prefiero darle cinco lavados al viejo que remendar sus pantalones una vez.”

  Lucy and Mauro looked horrified! But Señor Monroy almost fell off his chair as he doubled over laughing, tears streaming down his cheeks.

  I got upset but wondered, Why are they all being so rude? I repeated my statement, and, trying to clarify it further, I added, “Well, it’s easier and a lot more fun.”

  Lucy flailed her arms as she begged me, between howls of laughter, to keep my mouth shut!

  When Mauro came up for air, he smartly held his arms above his head with his fingers in a holding position. Between peals of laughter he mimicked me, asking, “Can I hold it for you?”

  Now I was mad! “What the hell did I say?”

  He repeated it one more time in Spanish as the three of them cracked up all over again. “You said”—he laughed even harder—“you said . . . you’d rather . . . give the old man five enemas . . . than mend his pants once! That it’s easier and a lot more fun!”

  I ducked my head in embarrassment. Although I was purple with humiliation, I couldn’t help but join in the laughter.

  With tears streaming down his face, Señor Monroy tried to console me. He swore my story was the funniest thing he’d ever heard.

  Reluctantly, the very next evening I again served supper to Señor Monroy, with Lucy’s help. After serving them, I served myself a small plate of homemade cottage cheese with tomatoes and a few string beans from our garden. Then I joined my guests at the table, instructing Lucy to do all the talking.

  Señor Monroy knew how terrible I felt from the night before, so he tried coaxing me into talking to him. He asked why I wasn’t eating the same food I’d served them. I told him I was dieting. Then trying to be polite and keep the conversation going, he asked, “If you’re dieting, where do you weigh yourself around here?”

  He was raising his spoon of soup to his lips, looking me in the eye, waiting for my answer. I blurted out in my terrible Spanish, “Oh, that’s easy. I just run over to my girl friend’s house and jump on her scale.”

  He burst out laughing so hard he blew soup right off the spoon. He couldn’t stop laughing and finally excused himself from the table, exclaiming, “Que precioso, que precioso (How precious, how precious).”

  I wished I hadn’t brought Lucy over to translate when I realized what I’d said. She spoke between bursts of laughter. “You said you run over to your girl friend’s house and jump on her nipple—pezon—to weigh yourself.”

  Later as Señor Monroy was departing, he assured me that this had been the most entertaining trip he’d ever had. He cautioned me to be sure not to learn perfect Spanish, for I’d always be a conversation piece in any crowd.

  LONELY, DEJECTED FLOREN was completely devastated. Like Verlan, he had found himself an American wife when he found Anna, but she had left him. So, when Mauro arrived back at the ranch with Esther, Floren lost no time in interrogating him, asking if he had any suggestions as to where he could find himself a wife. Mauro informed him that Esther had an older sister, Yolanda. He thought it might be an excellent idea if Floren proposed to Yolanda. It would give Mauro more security if Esther’s sister would marry Floren and move to the colony.

  I was shocked at how fast things went. In less than a week, Floren returned with Yolanda. He set up house in another one-room, cement-floor adobe shack and Yolanda became pregnant shortly thereafter. She and Esther were inseparable. When Yolanda was five months pregnant, I heard her wailing a block away. Her howls of despair could be heard by every person on the ranch.

  I hurried outside, wondering what was wrong. Was she hurt? Cut? Bleeding to death? I ran toward my wooden gate to meet her. She was so distraught, weak from crying, that she nearly fainted in my arms.

  “What’s wrong?” I demanded.

  Between her tearful sobs, she gasped, forcing her words out, “He blew out my candles! He said I can’t be Catholic and still be married to him.” Out of breath, she leaned her exhausted body on mine as I led her into my house. I gave her a glass of water, hoping she would be able to calm down. Floren had followed behind her, hearing my negative advice as he entered my kitchen. (I had told her to leave. She certainly was not here for the religion, so why suffer?)

  “You have no right to take sides with her,” he cut in. “I told her she could never light those damn candles in my home!”

  “You’ll be sorry,” Yolanda threatened between tears. “I’m leaving tomorrow.”

  I wondered again how a man thought he could take all a woman’s rights away. Wasn’t a woman able to make choices and think for herself ? How could anyone rip her sacred rituals from her, especially when she was so devout in worshipping God in the only manner she knew? How callous and heartless!

  Brokenhearted, Yolanda left on the bus the following morning. She returned to Villa Ahumada, where she lived wit
h her mother and gave birth to Floren’s son, Jesus, a name commonly used in Mexico. But they called him Chui. She never came back; it was always her sister Esther who took the bus to visit her.

  CHAPTER NINE

  A convert in his late teens, Karl Wachs, was reeled into the colony, hook, line, and sinker, consumed with a passion to be numbered among the saints. He arrived in our new Zion from Utah with a few changes of clothes plus a stash of rare early Mormon books packed in the trunk of his car. Ervil took the young zealot under his wing. Though disappointed in his puny frame and small stature, Ervil figured he would look beyond the boy’s frailties, at least long enough to get possession of the coveted books. Ervil was especially interested in the volumes of the Journal of Discourses. It contained sermons by all the early Mormon presidents and prophets.

  Ervil’s thirst for knowledge became insatiable. His inflating ego grew with each sermon he read. His visions of grandeur rose to greater heights as he consumed the early Mormon dogma, teachings that were an embarrassment to the contemporary LDS Church and had been conveniently discarded by them. When Ervil read about the “Danites”—avenging angels of God who took oaths to cut down sinners who opposed their leaders—he could hardly contain his ecstasy.

  He read that Joseph Smith had introduced polygamy as an absolute requirement for exaltation. The revelation was recorded July 12, 1843, and is now in the Doctrine and Covenants, section 132.

  Joseph’s brother Hyrum went to Joseph’s wife, Emma, to share the newly revealed doctrine. She read it with disgust and burned it in the fireplace.

  Joseph Smith claimed to be hesitant to pursue the “command of God” and proceed with plural marriage until an angel of the Lord had come to him three times. An angel did, and the last time the angel appeared with a drawn sword, threatening that if he did not enter into plural marriage that he and his people would be destroyed. The new prophet eventually married more than thirty women, including many who were wives of other men.

  The young Mormon prophet convinced his followers that other than Jesus Christ he was the greatest man to ever walk the earth.

  On one occasion he spoke of “blood atonement,” declaring that the apostle Peter once told him that he himself had hanged Judas; and apostle Heber C. Kimball claimed that others had kicked out his bowels.

  Ervil soon learned from these discourses that people could be blood atoned for many reasons.

  The first offense was for leaving the church. Heber C. Kimball stated, “If men turn traitors to God and his servants, their blood will surely be shed or else they would be damned” (Journal of Discourses, 4:375).

  For adultery and immorality, Brigham Young confirmed in the February 18, 1857, issue of Deseret News,

  All mankind love themselves, and let these principles be known by an individual, and he would be glad to have his blood shed. That would be loving themselves, even unto an eternal exaltation. . . . Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood? I could refer to you plenty of instances where men have been righteously slain, in order to atone for their sins. . . . I have known a great many men who left this church for whom there is no chance whatever for exaltation, but if their blood had been spilled, it would have been better for them. The wickedness and ignorance of the nations forbids this principle’s being in full force, but the time will come when the law of God will be in full force.

  This is loving our neighbor as ourselves; if he needs help, help him; and if he wants salvation and it is necessary to spill his blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, spill it. Any of you who understand the principles of eternity, if you have sinned a sin requiring the shedding of blood, except the sin unto death, would not be satisfied nor rest until your blood should be spilled, that you might gain the salvation that you desire. That is the way to love mankind.

  For covenant breakers, Jedediah M. Grant explained in the July 27, 1854, issue of Deseret News,

  What disposition ought the people of God to make of covenant breakers. . . . What does the Apostle say? He says they are worthy of death. . . . It is their right to baptize a sinner to save him, and it is also their right to kill a sinner to save him, when he commits those crimes that can only be atoned for by shedding his blood. . . . We would not kill a man, of course, unless we killed him to save him . . . the more spirit of God I had, the more I should strive to save your soul by spilling your blood, when you had committed sin that could not be remitted by baptism.

  For stealing, president Joseph Smith said, “. . . I want the elders to make honorable proclamation abroad concerning what the feelings of the first presidency is, for stealing has never been tolerated by them. I despise a thief above ground” (Times and Seasons 4:183–84).

  Brigham Young held the same view about stealing, “I should be perfectly willing to see thieves have their throats cut. . . . If you want to know what to do with a thief that you may find stealing, I say kill him on the spot, and never suffer him to commit another iniquity” (History of the Church 7:597).

  For taking the name of the Lord in vain, Brigham Young said, “I tell you the time is coming when . . . the penalty [for taking the Lord’s name in vain] will be affixed and immediately be executed on the spot” (Journal of Hosea Stout 2:71).

  For not receiving the gospel, Brigham Young stated, “The time is coming when justice will be laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet; when we shall ask, ‘Are you for God?’ and if you are not heartily on the Lord’s side, you will be hewn down” (Journal of Discourses 3:226).

  Regarding marrying a black person, on August 22, 1895, George Q. Cannon said that the prophet Joseph Smith taught this doctrine: “. . . The seed of Cain could not receive the Priesthood . . . and that any white man who mingled his seed with that of Cain should be killed, and thus prevent any of the seed of Cain’s coming into possession of the priesthood.” Wilford Woodruff, later president of the LDS Church, recorded in his journal a speech Brigham Young gave January 16, 1852. He stated, “And if any man mingle his seed with Cain, the only way he could get rid of it or have salvation would be to come forward and have his head cut off and spill his blood upon the ground; it would also take the life of his children.”

  For apostasy, Brigham Young threatened, “I say, rather than that apostates should flourish here, I will unsheathe my bowie knife and conquer or die” (Journal of Discourses 1:83).

  Liars, too, were to be blood atoned. According to Brigham Young, “I . . . warned those who lied and stole and followed Israel that they would have their heads cut off, for that was the law of God and it should be executed” (Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 500).

  For counterfeiting, Brigham Young said, “I swore by the eternal gods that if men in our midst would not stop this cursed work of stealing and counterfeiting their throats should be cut” (ibid.).

  After reading the violent accounts, Ervil believed he had been shown how to implement full control of his flock. He claimed that God had unequivocally given him the knowledge of the civil law through the Bible and the Doctrine and Covenants. He started preaching the death penalty for adultery, stealing, marriage to an African American, for not receiving the gospel, using the name of the Lord in vain, lying, for those who dishonor their fathers, those who worship false gods, and for apostasy. He claimed to be God’s avenger. He had found a license to kill in the name of God.

  Possessed by this hidden knowledge that he now knew how to control the saints, he would weed out the wicked, thus preparing for a perfect society that would be prepared to meet the Savior.

  Ervil was ecstatic because he knew the Mormon Church and all its splinter groups would eventually have to bow down to the new kingdom, or the wrath of God would subdue them. Ervil would soon implement regimentation and build up an army for God.

  Joel announced that his own position was like unto Moses; he alone had access to speak to God. Ervil was next in line because he held the office of Second Grand Head or Patriarch.

  With this appointment to second in com
mand, Ervil felt a new sense of worthiness, and his charismatic demeanor took on a new intensity. At every opportunity, Ervil reminded his listeners how the LeBarons had been despised by those who knew them. Filled with increased arrogance and feelings of superiority, he would say, “Mark my words. My brothers and I will eventually rule the world.”

  NEW CONVERTS TO THE CHURCH of the Firstborn experienced the shock of their lives upon their arrival at the ranch. The dry, barren landscape, the mud huts, poverty and isolation, made them question whether they’d made the right decision. Their only hope was the promise that the prophet Joel would lead them into the millennium. Their security lay in the fact that Joel told them many times during Sunday’s lengthy meetings that he knew the beginning from the end. He spoke with authority: “No one will stand between me and Jesus Christ, for I will be the last prophet before the Second Coming of the Lord.”

  The future might have been bright, but for “Firstborners,” the present looked pretty bleak. Since the only land to build on belonged to the LeBaron brothers, the brothers divided the upper east land into lots and sold them to the saints. Once their new homesteads were established, however, the converts realized they had no way to support their families, let alone the great cause. The disgruntled men were forced to leave their loved ones in Mexico and return to the States to work. This put great stress and burdens on the new believers, and Joel spent hours trying to console them.

  “I’m the One Mighty and Strong,” he told his flock. “I will set the house of God in order. It should take no more than forty years before the final winding-up scene.”

  They calculated that from 1955 to 1995 Joel would prepare a people so that Christ would come and dwell in their midst. His followers clung to Joel’s every word.

  “I am the promised seed of Joseph Smith by which all the nations will be blessed. I hold the scepter, which gives me authority to usher in the millennium. I will redeem Israel.”