Pt 34-C: The Mexico-LeBarons:
Their Messianic Missions (1)

“Fundamentalist ideologies can be thought of as mental parasites.
A parasite does not usually kill the host it inhabits, as it is critically dependent on it for survival. Instead, it feeds off it and changes its behavior in ways that benefit its own existence” 

Bobby Azarian, Ph.D.
Mind In The Machine:
How Religious Fundamentalism Hijacks the Brain
| Psychology Today

https://www.psychologytoday.com/…/how-religious-fundamentalism-hijacks-the-brain

The LeBaron Story (2) and Maud’s Story (3) are Mexico-LeBaron revisionist, whitewashed chronicles published to mislead unaware people in order to convert new members to the late Joel F. LeBaron’s Mormon fundamentalist “Church of the Firstborn” —

— which really was Joel’s and Ervil’s “Church” … largely Ervil’s brainchild, along with a rich spattering of other Fundi groups’ dogma; including that of their bright brother Ross Wesley Sr.’s original ideas Joel stole (said Wesley (4)) to create his own “Church of the Firstborn.”

Joel never gave his brother Wesley nor other fundamentalist groups credit for their ideas he used to help create his “church.”

But, because it was so obvious to those who had been there from the start, Joel ultimately HAD to admit he could not have gotten his Church off the ground, or gained converts, were it NOT for his brother Ervil’s ideas, power, and input — his writing and publishing “Priesthood Expounded” and other pamphlets; and otherwise being Joel’s mouthpiece — ” like Aaron was to Moses”!

That’s why Joel would NEVER stand up to what Ervil was doing: He knew his “church” only existed thanks to Ervil’s brains, writing, knowledge of the Scriptures, leadership, preaching talents, motivation, love of power, charisma, schematics, and more!

Contrary to what The LeBaron Story and Maud’s Story would have you believe (so as to make Joel and his father Dayer look like Prophets), it was“Ervil who wrote “Priesthood Expounded”—NOT Joel!

Ervil consorted some with Joel. But Ervil (like his brothers Ben and Ross Wesley Sr.) was a self-made Scriptorian, writer, and preacher—and Joel’s eighteen-months-younger brother and rival … who always took away from Joel “everything he ever started or got,” said Joel.

Cunning Ervil was able to do this though he had about three years less formal education than his older brother Joel! (Ervil left school in 9th grade, at age fifteen. Joel graduated from High School/12th grade.)

Ervil did the legwork to find the Scriptures and Info needed to back up Joel’s claim to priesthood authority — and to create a dogma for their new sect/cult … and to try, ultimately, to take over his weaker brother Joel’s initiation of a “Church.”

Back in the 1960s, when I was in the LeBaron cult, wiser members in “Joel’s church” observed this.

Joel knew the success of his Church was due to not only Ervil’s charisma and cons; but to his intellectual and leadership superiority, writing, and knowledge.

But then, Ervil left all the labor to his brothers — even let his wife and kids go to pot while he mostly sat about reading and studying Scriptures and such; while Joel and the others earned their keep by the sweat of their brow, attempting to support their families, though meager it was.

Nevertheless, it’s deceiving to say (as many do) those “Priesthood Expounded” words were Joel’s words! They largely were NOT!

But that’s what modern-day Church-of-the-Firstborners would have you believe … while they include a flood of ERVIL’S dogma in their present-day revised CotFotFoT teachings! LOL/OMG!!.

 Truth is, many of the the CotFotFoT ideas were gleaned from their eldest insane-but-brilliant brother Ben’s church and teachings — that their third eldest sibling Ross Wesley Sr. later borrowed and built upon as the basis for his own “priesthood authority” and church. 

(I will post some of my Uncle Ben’s handwritten letters later on in upcoming blogs, so you may compare some of their rantings and ravings!)

Joel and Ervil took these two older brothers’ ideas, along with others’ ideas, to form their own church and dogma—but Ervil was “the mouthpiece.”

Joel stood in the background, content to be seen as “God to the people — First Grand Head;” allowing Ervil to take over as “Second Grand Head”:
He knew Ervil would have balked and backed out much sooner, had he tried to stop him from running everything — except to pretend he believed Joel was “The one mighty and strong.”

Judging by how Ervil behaved and what he did, I believe Ervil knew all along that Joel was no prophet; just his puppet — knew it was really HE, Ervil, who held “the keys” and was “the OM&S;” that is, he, Ervil Morrell LeBaron, “held the keys to being the OM&S wolf in sheep’s apparel.”

But getting back to the CotFotFoT doctrine, I’d love to know how much, if any of their “priesthood expounded” and other LeBaronism bluff-‘n’-stuff actually came from their father Dayer LeBaron. To my knowledge, Grandfather Dayer didn’t record anything in writing. Some OM&S prophet he was!

One of the earliest converts, Noel Pratt, said of the Church of the Firstborn of the Fullness of Times, “It is Ervil developing all the doctrines — Ervil in charge of and running everything! It’s Ervil’s Church, not Joel’s!!”

Noel Pratt eventually left the “Cult”/Church of the Firstborn because, after MUCH complaining and many efforts to get Joel to DO something—take CHARGE of Ervil who was running/ruining everything, pulling shenanigans — he got nowhere!

Joel was living high-up in Mexico’s mountainous plateaus; scrabble farming, peddling corn, etc., to support his quickly-expanding family. (Now that he was “the prophet,” he had no trouble getting seven wives in a hurry!)

He had no trouble avoiding his brother “Evil Ervil,” either, codependent though he was — as long as he stayed up that treacherous mountain trail; while he let Ervil do Ervil’s treacherous things below — just what “little brother” wanted!

The treachery included Ervil’s totally neglecting his wife Delfina and his many children, while he ran the show in the LeBaron colony/”Zion” … where “the Prophet Joel” SHOULD have been!!

Instead, Ervil was running everything “down below” like HE was the “profit,” and God to the people — as he towered above us at 6-foot-six in his mighty, manipulative boots.

(His side-kick Bill Tucker, eleven years younger, stood beside Evil-Ervil at 5-foot-six in his boots! (Puss in Boots) Made quite a contrast — quite a pair! We referred to them as “the little giant” and “the big giant.”)

I well remember those beginning years when the CotFotFoT was getting off the ground, having been an astute young observer and writer living in Colonia LeBaron from 1960 to 1967. (My family and I had been members since 1957 when I was eleven.)

I saw and heard plenty from Ervil. Not only was he my Mother’s brother and living near us, but during the years 1962 to 1967 my husband Bill was Ervil’s best buddy. He, William Preston Tucker, and Ervil were practically inseparable!

Bill spent countless hours helping Ervil edit “Priesthood Exounded,” for example. Except for maybe two or three pieces, everything in print that came out of the CotFotFoT during those years, and somewhat earlier, was written by Bill/William P. Tucker and Ervil M. LeBaron.

To make it look like they were doing better than they were as a church, Bill and Ervil often put other’s names on their various articles — even penned Stephen Silver as the Editor — their inside joke! (Steve was generally nowhere in town when their pieces went to print. I’m speaking of “The Ensign,” etc.)

Suffice it to say, The Mexico-LeBarons didn’t have to wait for the destructions they proclaimed were going to hit the United States:
The destructions were already ping-ponging aplenty right in their OWN back yard; but most members chose to look the other way!

The “eVile/Evil-Ervil” of the 1960’s was but a fore-runner of what was to come.

(1). *messianic: adjective (mes·​si·​an·​ic | \ ˌme-sē-ˈa-nik  \Definition of messianic:
1: of or relating to a messiah — this messianic kingdom
2: marked by idealism and an aggressive crusading spirit — messianic zeal/on a messianic mission

(2) * See my “Review of Verlan LeBaron and Esther LeBaron Spencer’s ‘The LeBaron Story’ ” found in my Posts and at this link: https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/stephanyspencer.com/44566

(3) *See: “My Review of Charlotte LeBaron’s ‘Maud’s Story,’ ” found in my Posts and at this link: https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/stephanyspencer.com/6393

(4). check out Ross Wesley leBaron’s “Holy Order” page on Facebook
~NOTE: skirt through the posts till you find Dale Van atta’s 1977 interview of Ross Wesley leBaron listed in this site:

https://www.facebook.com › Holy Order ›  Ross LeBaron and the Church of the First Born … In 1943, Ross Wesley LeBaron published a pamphlet identifying the seven… ….. Esther Melita [Johnson], married David Tully LeBaron, Sr. and they lived in …

Continued March 22, 2019: “Pt 34-D: The Mexico-LeBarons and Their Messianic Missions