I know we always disagree on this Mickey. Chad Daybell IS LDS, and so is every single character in this whole saga.
Their origins are alllll LDS. LDS is absolutely NOT on trial here. These people, bound by power, money, and false additional doctrine made their own beds.
But LDS is still part of the origins of the story.
Just like we analyze a bizarre criminal's childhood and influences....... so be it for all within the Daybell case.
It is unfeasible to exclude the "business/ teaching practices" of LDS,
And I always think you are both right.
LDS has everything and nothing to do with this case. First and foremost, the victims are LDS.
As Leah Scottile wrote, to paraphrase, if you think this is a true crime story, you are missing the point. It is about extremism and LDS radicals and white horses and thin threads from which constitutions are rumored to hang.
And yet it is a true crime story about Tylee, JJ and Tammy. Who were killed by murderers caught up in an extremism that produces very few murderers and does not feel like the theology Jane Doe or Richard Roe learn about in ordinary Mormon Sunday school. But take away the theology and continue the smothering and shooting, they are just as dead. Nobody got casted to death.
But the extremism is a social concern. Therefore, the reluctance of the LDS church- or business fairly enough- to publicly condemn dangerous pepper movements and explicitly contrast them with LDS prudence with resources is a problem. The LDS church should also contextualize rugged pioneer life as a cultural experience that taught Mormons their independent resource-saving habits, and deemphasize the second coming, which the church teaches ordinary people can't time out. The LDS should condemn ordinary people claiming special gifts. Because those are things the church can do to prevent extremism that harms their own worshipers.
Charles, Tylee and Tammy were devout, dedicated members of the LDS church. JJ was still too young to baptize! As Prior likes to point out, most of the people victimized by grifts associated with PAP and AVOW are LDS. How many LDS people retire to poverty because they spent too much on rodent proof food storage and not enough on their 401k's?
But boiled down to the criminal elements, this is just a greedy murder story. LDS has nothing to do with it.
MOO