For the first time ever, Fundamentalist Ben Shaffer tells the horrific story of how his brother, Samuel Shaffer radicalized into a dark brand of Mormon fundamentalism, eventually landing him in jail. On the heels of the Lafferty story and largely because of Hulu’s new limited television series, Under the Banner of Heaven, Ben Shaffer has decided to share this deeply personal story.
SHOW NOTES:
- Knight’s of the Crystal Blade documents
- Knights of the Crystal Blade: Cultists used social media to spread doomsday revelations
- Ben Shaffer’s blog
- The Righteous Branch website
- Ben’s review of Under the Banner of Heaven
- Ben’s youtube channel
- Ben’s previous interview on Year of Polygamy
- Shirlee Draper’s article for Juvenille Instructor
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Wonderful podcast. Thank you for doing this, Ben, and for your vulnerability. I admire you so much.
Btw Lindsay mentioned LDS people hearing of horrible behavior and “rallying around” the perpetrator. We’ve all seen this in cases of pedophilia and those charges. I did also want to mention Ted Bundy. He was a member of an LDS ward, and when he was in jail in SLC, that ward rallied around him, made him cards, some members were character witnesses etc. I think as LDS, we are so blind to fault and so quick to “look for the good”, that we allow evil to exist amongst us. I think it is important that people feel safe calling it out. And it is so easy to be “othered” when you do so. I don’t know the answer, but obviously we need to find one.
I believe this would better be titled “When Mormon Fundamentalists Radijcalize”. Which, of course, are very specific Mormon Fundamentalists. Those, in particular, who demonstrate cult like tendencies. They are, like almost all other religions, a small minority of the rest of those of a particular religion. Christians have them. Muslims have them, Hindi, Buddhists, etc. all have them. They are a small minority, and certainly don’t represent the general population of any particular religion.
These two men, or only John Coltharp, appear to be true pedophiles using religious interpretation/belief to justify their actions. They couldn’t justify it outright with the scriptures, but most likely did so using Jewish Rabbinic and Islamic Imam interpretations.