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Visions of Glory is a controversial book that details the near-death experiences of a man named Spencer. The controversy comes from how people like doomsday mommy Lori Vallow Daybell relied, at least in part, on books like this to justify murder. The cousin of Lori Vallow, Megan Conner even said, “my family members are dead because of Visions of Glory, how is that okay?”
I just happen to specialize in military history and ethics. To
answer the question the book contributes to deaths because it provide a blueprint
for a community of those who have near death experiences and arrogantly claim they
have special spiritual powers, they can see the righteousness of people around
them and the demonic forces influencing them, and then the book used opaque
language that minimized killing in the name of God. The result is a perversion
of spiritual language and ideas to justify murder.
The general tone of this book reeked of arrogance. This
person claimed that he was an elite member of a small group within the church.
A member of the 144,000 mentioned in the Book of Revelation, he called himself a
first citizen of Zion that received personal missions from the Lord from his
office in the temple (194-195). These descriptions refer to a future event
after he is translated and before the millennium, but as with everything
discussed in this review, if someone believes they are eventually the first
citizen of Zion with an office in the temple and ability to see the souls of
those around them (161), it’s easy to feel a sense of superiority now. In
addition to seeing the souls, he discussed how translated being used the portal
that let them travel from Zion, healed the sick, and raised the dead. These
gifts only worked according to the faith of those wielding them. Miracles based
on faith is a safe Biblical principle, but the way Spencer was better at it,
discussing the shortcomings of other translated beings reinforced a feeling of
superiority I found emanating from him.
His visions included seeing dark spirits roaming among the
people of the world tempting them (23). The most dramatic moment was watching a
young man view pornography and the misshapen minions and spirits working him
into a frenzy of desire that Spencer likened to dogs fighting over a carcass
(94). This incident left me questions. If he were in the room, and knew the
individual was following the suggestion of the minions to look up more and more
scintillating material, wouldn’t Spencer have scene pornography as well? Did
his vision include special pixelating software? Wouldn’t seeing a man in a
sexual act also have been porn? But that’s using critical thinking. I’m
supposed to be impressed with his spirituality and anti porn crusade. Most
importantly, given the way that convicted child abusers Ruby Franke and Jodi
Hildebrandt created pornography groups that castigated men, and abused children
in the name of fighting
demons, this vision of pornography use seems more like an excuse to abuse porn
users than a warning against evil spirits.
The final ingredient for murder is the casual way he talks
about killings. As a translated being fully knowing the will of the Lord he
felt “free to deliver men from mortality” (199). He said that “death was a
divine blessing” because the wicked men “no longer added iniquity to their
divine ledger.” Even though the Book of Mormon directly disagrees when it said
that the Nephites were “sorry” top send “so many of their brethren out of this
world into an eternal world, unprepared to
meet their God” (Alma 48:23). Spencer said “they were rarely consumed by fire”
(thanks?), the translated beings simply “started them on their immortal
journey”… and they “just fell to the ground and slipped into the eternities.”
That is an astounding use of language to minimize killing.
This is where arrogance becomes important. It’s one thing to meet a Loran Blood
type person online who judgmentally lectures you about judgment. Its another
when you combine that arrogance, with a sense that you’re already the elect,
who also has the (eventual) power to let people “slip into eternity.” Like I
said, what originally becomes a promised power is warped into current power by
the spiritually arrogant who share the near death experiences of Spencer.
Lori Vallow had similar
near death experiences to the person in this book that convinced her she had a
connection to the spirit world, and ability to see spirits.[1]
Chad Daybell, whom she married and in whose yard she buried her murdered children,
said
they were part of the 144,000, just like Spencer. Also like Spencer, Lori claimed
she could see dark spirits in her children, and if she was already translated
as she claimed, she likely felt enabled to “let the slip into eternity” lest
they “add iniquity to their ledger.”
So you take someone who is spiritually arrogant, claims a
special connection to God and power to see the wicked, and then claims a license
to KILL the wicked, while minimizing death, and it seems pretty obvious how Visions
of Glory kills people. It’s not the book itself. The book was a fairly
informative read that read like a mix between an extremely detailed dream and
the Mormon version of The Stand. But the creepy deaths come this radical
subculture of those who claim near death experiences and then arrogantly assert
special powers as they murder those around them.
A general rule to remember is that the scriptures should
challenge our beliefs. As I said in the last chapter of my latest
book, we might see the principled right of just war but should be wary of
certainty and look for ways to avoid asserting the right to use force. The
theorist Grotius pointed out that if a person can avail themselves of the legal
system, then they still have recourse short of war or violence.[2]
In other words, if we can rely on court orders, the legal system, and the
police, we can safely abandon the need for force. And while Nephi relied on the
word of the Lord to behead Laban. We are not Nephi, we’re unlikely to ever face
such an exceptional event, and unlikely to ever hear the word of the Lord that
requires us to abandon conventional morality. As a result, beware of those like
Lori Vallow Daybell or Spencer form Visions of Glory, who claim such special
insight and authority while using minimizing language around killing.
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[1]
Did the article really have to quote Patrick Mason in four paragraphs? What
special qualifications does he have besides being first on the reporter’s
rolodex?
[2] if
the attackers “formed a plot, prepar[ed] an ambuscade, poisoning, or readied a
false accusation [the planner] cannot lawfully be killed either if the danger
can in any other way be avoided, or if [the ruler] thought delays could afford
remedies.” Hugo Grotius, On the Law of War
and Peace, Stephen Neff trans., (Cambridge University Press, 2012), 83-84.
