1988, conveniently enough this date was also Lundgren’s birthday.
It was around this time that member Kevin Currie decided enough was enough and left the group as he could no longer handle the teachings of Lundgren. The rest of the congregation started to prepare for the day of the siege. Lundgren ordered his flock to wear military style uniforms, they had to march everywhere and were trained, just as Jeffrey had been by his own father, to load, unload and fire guns proficiently. They regularly practised combat tactics and watched violent Vietnam style war films in order to psyche themselves up for the main event. Lundgren had them believe that they were the good people of the world fighting a true and just cause of worldly evil.
In 1987 a family that Lundgren had known from his religious seminars in Independence, the Averys, moved to Kirtland in order to join the Lundgren cause. Jeffrey had never liked the family but upon their arrival in Kirtland he could not do enough for them, he knew too well that they had collateral from the sale of their house and once he had convinced them that he would care for them like he would his own family, they donated $10,000 of their savings to him. They were convinced that it would make them better off in the future as surely giving up such a huge amount of money to such a saintly person would make them slightly more god-like themselves?
Lundgren had become so obsessed with his personal plight that it was not surprising when officials from the RLDS started to question his practices and went as far as to annul all the religious titles that he held. This angered Lundgren and he immediately cancelled his membership of the church, left his job, and moved into a large farmhouse property that would soon house both his family and many of his followers. They settled on their 15-acre farm and prepared for the day that they would meet God, which in turn would be their final day on planet Earth.
At the beginning of September, Kevin Currie the member who had left, decided he had made the wrong decision and reinstated himself as a member of Lundgren’s clan. Currie had felt extreme guilt after leaving the first time and decided to return and this time not listen to the part of his consciousness that was questioning Lundgren’s authenticity.
Throughout the latter part of 1987, Lundgren managed to stock pile a vast amount of ammunition and weaponry which his eldest son, Damon, was in charge of. Jeffrey Lundgren’s children had been part of their father’s ever growing strangeness since birth, they did not know a different life, to them their father spoke the truth and it was the only one they knew.
At the beginning of 1988 Kevin Currie once again left the group, this time for good, as he could not get certain quirks of Lundgren’s out of his head. All Currie had wanted was to be a godly righteous man, but as Lundgren’s teachings went on he became more and more disillusioned by them and his mind had stayed strong enough to break out while he still could. Currie wanted to make a clean break, but Lundgren’s strange ways kept playing on his mind, so much so that he filed a report to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI just presumed that it was a hoax, and if not a hoax a minor problem that could be sorted by the local authorities so they passed the information onto Kirtland police department. The police chief immediately started investigating Lundgren and his group as he had a feeling that it was much more than a hoax.
Lundgren had no idea that an investigation had started on him, but he was extremely angry that Currie had walked out for a second time, this anger was to build when a lady by the name of Shar Lea Olsen also decided to leave. Shar had joined the group in 1987 after she had spent the weekend in Kirtland visiting a couple of friends who were already solid group members. She had been extremely impressed by Lundgren and had wanted to learn more. But by the time Shar left she
It was around this time that member Kevin Currie decided enough was enough and left the group as he could no longer handle the teachings of Lundgren. The rest of the congregation started to prepare for the day of the siege. Lundgren ordered his flock to wear military style uniforms, they had to march everywhere and were trained, just as Jeffrey had been by his own father, to load, unload and fire guns proficiently. They regularly practised combat tactics and watched violent Vietnam style war films in order to psyche themselves up for the main event. Lundgren had them believe that they were the good people of the world fighting a true and just cause of worldly evil.
In 1987 a family that Lundgren had known from his religious seminars in Independence, the Averys, moved to Kirtland in order to join the Lundgren cause. Jeffrey had never liked the family but upon their arrival in Kirtland he could not do enough for them, he knew too well that they had collateral from the sale of their house and once he had convinced them that he would care for them like he would his own family, they donated $10,000 of their savings to him. They were convinced that it would make them better off in the future as surely giving up such a huge amount of money to such a saintly person would make them slightly more god-like themselves?
Lundgren had become so obsessed with his personal plight that it was not surprising when officials from the RLDS started to question his practices and went as far as to annul all the religious titles that he held. This angered Lundgren and he immediately cancelled his membership of the church, left his job, and moved into a large farmhouse property that would soon house both his family and many of his followers. They settled on their 15-acre farm and prepared for the day that they would meet God, which in turn would be their final day on planet Earth.
At the beginning of September, Kevin Currie the member who had left, decided he had made the wrong decision and reinstated himself as a member of Lundgren’s clan. Currie had felt extreme guilt after leaving the first time and decided to return and this time not listen to the part of his consciousness that was questioning Lundgren’s authenticity.
Throughout the latter part of 1987, Lundgren managed to stock pile a vast amount of ammunition and weaponry which his eldest son, Damon, was in charge of. Jeffrey Lundgren’s children had been part of their father’s ever growing strangeness since birth, they did not know a different life, to them their father spoke the truth and it was the only one they knew.
At the beginning of 1988 Kevin Currie once again left the group, this time for good, as he could not get certain quirks of Lundgren’s out of his head. All Currie had wanted was to be a godly righteous man, but as Lundgren’s teachings went on he became more and more disillusioned by them and his mind had stayed strong enough to break out while he still could. Currie wanted to make a clean break, but Lundgren’s strange ways kept playing on his mind, so much so that he filed a report to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI just presumed that it was a hoax, and if not a hoax a minor problem that could be sorted by the local authorities so they passed the information onto Kirtland police department. The police chief immediately started investigating Lundgren and his group as he had a feeling that it was much more than a hoax.
Lundgren had no idea that an investigation had started on him, but he was extremely angry that Currie had walked out for a second time, this anger was to build when a lady by the name of Shar Lea Olsen also decided to leave. Shar had joined the group in 1987 after she had spent the weekend in Kirtland visiting a couple of friends who were already solid group members. She had been extremely impressed by Lundgren and had wanted to learn more. But by the time Shar left she
Similar Books
