Are Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Really Mormons?
Were Chad and Lori's Beliefs
the Motive For Murder?
July 18, 2020
Hello Friends and Subscribers: You may have noticed that your weekly email didn't arrive yesterday. Writing yesterday's post on the pretrial conference and bail reduction put me a little behind. Here is the promised post. Thanks again for your support and your interest in my perspective on the case.
Prosecutors in a criminal case do not have to prove motive. That said, humans are meaning-seeking creatures, and juries look for reasons why something happened. Be assured that puzzling out the why of Chad and Lori’s actions is forefront in the mind of prosecuting attorneys. Motive is also essential because prosecutors do have to prove the defendant’s mental state, whether the crime occurred intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly. Chad and Lori’s religious beliefs are central to their mental state and motive.
I am not a member of the LDS Church, and my analysis is strictly that of a layperson. In this post, I attempt to point up differences and similarities so that we can begin to understand where the doctrine warp happened for Chad and his followers. This article is not a comment on the LDS Church, or the truth of its doctrine and the opinions and reasoning are entirely mine. On this site, I use the labels LDS and Mormon interchangeably. When I discuss mainstream church doctrine, I drew the information directly from their website at thechurchofjesuschrist.org.
The Mormon religion is a dynamic faith based on the teachings and prophesies of figures who are living or who have lived in the recent past. At the time the Church was formed, founder Joseph Smith was alive and preaching and teaching; the fundamental doctrines of the Church changed and flexed, based on Joseph Smith’s revelations from God. Because of this, a belief in individual and personal revelation is the very foundation of the Mormon Church. The underpinnings of LDS doctrine change and grow based on the revelations of its current living prophet. Thus, the history of the LDS church is a history of change.
The doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints begins with the Christian Bible, as supplemented by the revelations of Joseph Smith and other prophets. These revelations are preserved in the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and other writings which are considered to be of equal authority to the Bible. The body of LDS written doctrine is added to and revised by new revelations. Revelation and prophesy are subject to interpretation by the individual members. As church leaders move the Church in one direction or another, members can and often do disagree or doubt the truth of a prophet’s revelations. These disagreements created schisms within the Church that lead to breakaway groups.
One of the clearest examples is the Church’s stance on plural marriage. The original teachings of Joseph Smith did not include plural marriage. Whether it was because he received a revelation from God, or as some say because he had a wandering eye, he claimed that it was God’s plan for Mormon men to marry more than one wife. The idea was not popular when Smith first introduced it, and he kept his own plural marriages secret for a long time. Slowly, his inner circle began marrying second and third wives, until, by 1952, the practice became widespread. The LDS plural marriage practice was not popular among non-Mormons. LDS members were persecuted for their beliefs and often chased out of their settlements. When they arrived in Utah, they intended to establish a state, where they could worship as they chose. They flourished for a time, but as territories began becoming states, the polygamous lifestyle came under scrutiny. After bloody battles, persecution, and shunning, the United States Congress ultimately outlawed plural marriage, and in 1890, the fourth Mormon Prophet, Wilford Woodruff, issued his “Manifesto.” The document recognized that plural marriages were forbidden by the government, and advised the faithful to abandon the lifestyle. While plural marriage was only openly and widely practiced for about 40 years, no other teachings of the Church have resounded so loudly. Several large sects split from the LDS church over the issue of plural marriage, and the practice continues to this day in small, hidden communities.
The continued practice of plural marriage in these communities forced them to become insular, secretive, and isolated. Removed from the influence of the mainstream Mormon community, they quickly devolved into cults, complete with charismatic leaders and abominable practices like “blood atonement.” People who have been taught to believe that their leaders receive infallible revelations from God are easily convinced to comply with succeeding revelation, no matter how outrageous. This analysis is not an indictment of the LDS church. Undoubtedly, had the mainstream Church been able to provide a check to some of these prophet’s claims, the excesses associated with the likes of the LeBaron family, and Warren Jeffs would not have happened.
The doomsday prepper movement within the LDS church is another example of a departure from mainstream LDS thought. The Church draws heavily from the Bible’s book of Revelations and believes that the end times may be very near. They teach preparedness and self-sufficiency, encouraging members to set aside enough money and supplies to survive for one year. Like most LDS teachings, it’s sensible. Taken to the extreme, as with the fringe groups associated with the Daybell and Vallow case, it’s terrifying.
If we are to understand how Chad Daybell warped LDS teaching, we have to begin with an understanding of some underlying church doctrine. Central to all Mormon teaching is an understanding of heaven. The Church believes in pre-existence; the idea that souls exist in heaven before being sent to Earth, Souls in heaven are sent to Earth to be tested and perfected. People don’t remember their preexistent time in heaven because God creates a veil in their memory.
There are three levels of heaven in LDS theology, the celestial, the terrestrial, and the telestial. The telestial kingdom is reserved for gentiles - all those who are not Mormon. The Terrestial kingdom is for Mormons, who were tempted by the craftiness of man and have not lived according to the covenants. Only those who have lived according to Mormon doctrine, and have been baptized and married are admitted to the celestial kingdom. There are also three levels in the celestial kingdom, and only those who have become exalted will live on the highest level, in the actual presence of God. Marriage is an essential part of LDS doctrine because the Mormons believe that the exalted who occupy the celestial kingdom are responsible for creating the preexistent souls to be sent to Earth for testing and perfection. This LDS doctrine of celestial kingdoms relies heavily on the Bible passage in John 14:2, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions,” as proof that these kingdoms exist in heaven.
Further, Mormon doctrine asserts that people can become gods. They teach that Heavenly Father (God) was once like us, but was exalted to his place as our God and that each man (women are excluded) can become “exalted” and thereby become Heavenly Fathers over their own kingdoms or worlds. Women are exalted only if they are married to an exalted man. Their role in the celestial kingdom mirrors their role on Earth: to produce children. Women are to “keep sweet, and be obedient and subservient to their husbands. On Earth, women must produce children to provide physical bodies for the preexistent souls in heaven who are waiting to be born. As Heavenly Mothers, their role will be to produce spirit children. The spirits of women who die unmarried must be sealed to men to assure their chance at the celestial kingdom, where men are permitted to have multiple wives.
The topic of reincarnation is a theological hot button in Mormon teaching and scholarship. There are scholars, such as Dr. Robert Beckstead, who believe Joseph Smith’s teachings included a scheme of reincarnation. Since the word “reincarnation” didn’t come into widespread use until long after Joseph Smith died, investigators parse Smith’s works for clues to his beliefs. Scholars argue that if you begin with a preexistent soul and a doctrine where souls may only progress to spiritual perfection while in a body, multiple incarnations make sense. Many people who surrounded Smith, including one of his wives, the scholarly Eliza Snow, believed in reincarnation and said they received instruction on the subject from Smith himself.
When Chad Daybell began teaching his followers about “multiple probations,” he was drawing directly on the writings of Joseph Smith and his contemporaries. Many of Chad Daybell’s teachings come from the early days of the Church. In fact, it was not until 1869 that then prophet Wilford Woodruff declared reincarnation a “doctrine of the devil.” Daybell delves deeply into the teachings of LDS prophet, Joseph Smith; but were the mainstream Church diverged through the revelations of later prophets, Daybell, and other splinter sects remain doggedly faithful to Smith’s original writings and teachings.
While the term “zombie” is foreign to LDS doctrine, the idea is not. Early Mormon scholars discussed and wrote extensively about many of the philosophical questions of the day. They wondered about the nature of man and the nature of consciousness and concluded that man was made of three parts: a soul, a spirit, and a body. The modern Church explains it this way: “In scripture, the term soul is used as a synonym for spirit to describe a person in four different phases of his or her eternal existence. Soul is used to describe a person in premortal life—before birth (see Abraham 3:23). During earth life, the soul is joined with a physical body (see Abraham 5:7). At death, the soul leaves the body and goes to the spirit world to await resurrection (see Alma 40:11–14). In the Resurrection, the body and soul are inseparably connected, which is called “the redemption of the soul” (see Alma 40:23; Doctrine and Covenants 88:15–16).”
Early scholars believed the body and soul could be severed. A body could be corrupted, making it unsuitable to be resurrected, and the soul could be subject to the “sleep of death.” The idea that the body and soul can exist independently of each other is central to Smith’s doctrine. Joseph Smith also wrote and taught about demons and the ability of demons to inhabit a physical body. It’s not a vast intellectual jump to conclude a person’s soul can be forced from its body so that an evil spirit can inhabit it, and that the only way to rescue the severed soul is to kill the body.
The mainstream Church evolved and matured through the revelations of its successive living prophets, to reflect a more scientific, inclusive, and moderate view of the world. At every one of those junctures, the seed of a schism was planted.
Next Week: Part Two A look at Chad’s specific beliefs as outlined by Ian Pawlowski.
Have questions? Email me at info@thelorivallowstory.com.
Lori Hellis is an author and an experienced criminal attorney. Her book, Children of Darkness and Light, The Lori Vallow Story, is expected out in 2022.
