“POLYGAMY:
 Paid for primarily by your tax dollars!”
Rebecca Kimbel

“Religions are the smelters and founders of imagination. The more any religion’s imagination—Hindu, Christian, Jewish, Muslim [Mormon], Buddhist—is shaped in an isolated bubble, or in a dark cave, the more its imagination is likely to sale off in dangerous directions.

People who are connected to the world and exposed to different cultures and perspectives are far more likely to develop the imagination of “11-9” — The world of “Strategic Optimists.”

People who are feeling disconnected, for whom personal freedom and fulfillment are utopian fantasy, are more likely to develop the imagination of 9/11.

Thomas L. Friedman
The World Is Flat:
 A Brief History of the 21st-Century

Continued from “Pt 34-F:
The Mexico-LeBarons:
Button, Button! Who’s Got the Button?”

I left off in the last blog saying IF Grandpa Dayer was, as the story goes, ordained by his grandfather Benjamin F. Johnson to carry-on “the scepter of power/the Johnson Mantle,” then there’s some real explaining to do—and not only when it comes to BFJ:

On the one hand, Grandfather Dayer” had supposedly received the sceptre of power, so HE was, therefore, the Pontiff—Head of God’s kingdom on earth: The one mighty and strong come to set the house of God in order.”

On the other hand, during his whole life he did little, to speak of, with this special anointing or mantle except talk about it! Then, shortly before he died at age 65, he supposedly passed his mantle/”scepter of power” down to only one of his sons!

But, wouldn’t you know it, ALL of Grandfather’s seven sons by my grandma Maud claimed (at one time or another) to hold their father Dayer’s supposed sceptre of power/Johnson Mantle!

Most of them claimed their father passed it on to them, exclusively, when he, Dayer, died –– just whichever son proved worthy enough was the son to whom Grandpa (supposedly) gave his special Pontiff position/Priesthood! (If that doesn’t beat all!) [3]

But what’s worse, during the time-period around 1971-1972, Dayer’s sons Ben, Ross Wesley Sr., Joel, and Ervil were ALL claiming, concurrantly, to be SOLE heir to Joseph Smith’s “keys to the kingdom”/the scepter of power/the Johnson mantle. (The Mexico-LeBarons used multiple names and titles to describe this “special position of priesthood power.”)

But, to make matters even worse, Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr.’s oldest son, Ross Wesley LeBaron Jr. ALSO claimed — concurrently with Dayer’s four sons mentioned above — to be God’s sole mouthpiece on earth, the Pontiff — the Patriarchial heir to Joseph Smith’s mantle! [2]

I believe cousin Owen LeBaron (lifespan: 1918-1975) was also claiming, concurrently with the above five LeBarons, to be the “One Mighty and Strong”!

If that be the case, that makes at least six LeBarons who were all claiming, at the very same time, to be successor to Joseph Smith’s mantle; ie, the Pontiff — the OM&S — the sole heir to Joseph Smith’s keys to the kingdom of God on earth!

So, Button, button: Who DID get that button? It seems to me the “button” they got passed down to them was INSANITY.

Sadly, Bipolar Disease is the “MANTLE /“Mental” my Grandpa Dayer LeBaron and Great-great-grandpa Benjamin F. Johnson unwittingly passed on to their progeny!

Only in delusion, illusion, or dishonesty does one claim to be “The One Mighty & Strong” — God’s one-and-only representative and mouthpiece to His people on earth!

(Continued in next blog.)

*This concludes today’s remarks. Thanks for visiting
— and for feedback.
See you in the next blog block—
in my own little corner of the World-Wide Web!
~ Stephany Spencer-LeBaron

[1] https://holyorder.org/2017/08/26/ross-lebaron-interview-to-dale-van-atta-1977/

Year of Polygamy Podcast

[2]. AUGUST 14, 2018/ ANTÔNIO TREVISAN TEIXEIRA

In the latest episode of the Year of Polygamy podcast, ANTÔNIO TREVISAN TEIXEIRA (Scholar and Historian/Researcher) was interviewed by Lindsay Hansen Park about Ross LeBaron and his Church of the Firstborn. Listen to this very interesting Podcast Interview at the following link:
https://www.yearofpolygamy.com/year-of-polygamy/episode-160-ross-lebaron-and-the-church-of-the-first-born/

[3]. One concerned member of my extended family sent me this elequent bequest:

“Maybe you could add that Floren really was quite different from his other brothers?
He NEVER tried to usurp “the Johnson mantle” or take any praise, recognition, or honor to himself — or seek a following. 

Floren could have started a church or picked up the COTFB [Church of the First born] and taken off with it. He didn’t!

Over the 25 years he was my father-in-law, I saw men come and go who would have loved to start it up with him, who tried to get him to do baptism, ordinances, marriage sealings, and confer priesthood. But he never would! He severely rebuked them for even asking him to.

Once, when discussing religion with a group of several men who had come from Chihuahua and the USA to visit him, as they were pressing him to take the lead in starting a “Bishop’s storehouse” and United Order, he stood up at his kitchen table where they were seated and slammed both fists down hard, and said:
“I’D RATHER BE SHOT AT SUNRISE THAN TO TAKE A STEP IN THAT DIRECTION WITHOUT A “THUS SAITH THE LORD!”

He was such an honorable man. People can be 100% convicted, dedicated, and completely sincere, and still be completely wrong. Consider the Muslims.”

*My Rebuttal:
I respect your sentiments, but need to point out Floren was around 67 years old when you married his son, around 50 before you were even born, and I was around 30; 9 years old when my parents started investigating Joel’s “Church;” 11 when they joined it. MUCH water and many changes had flown beneath the bridge by the time you entered upon the Mexico LeBaron religion-making scene.

I recall when Uncle Floren (years before you were born) broke away from Uncle Verlan’s group and formed a gathering place of his own because he believed the others weren’t doing it right … and HE knew how it should be done and carried out.

But somewhere along the line — perhaps in his failure to build a stable following and stronghold, and his losing a number of wives in his attempt to create a new gathering place/Zion — he took a different bend … an honorable turn in the road; the one you knew and loved so much.

I hate to be “The Bad-News Bear-er,” but here’s another discrepancy in the Church of the Firstborn lore: Floren’s taking Joel to “Farmington Canyon, Utah,” etc., was never heard of between 1955 and 1967 — the years I was affiliated with the COTFB. It’s part of the revised version/the re-written story of how “Joel said” he was appointed to be the “one mighty and strong.”

In other words, you grew up with the revamped COTFB’s so-called “documented history.” People who were there at the start of the Church of the Firstborn of the Fullness of Times, yet refute what I’ve said, are part of the fabrication-factory — the spin mill that has colluded to white-wash the LeBaron story; ie, remake the history of the Church of the Frstborn!

There’s more on this topic in my previous blogs … and blogs to come. Meanwhile, people must do their own reading and much research. But, sadly, most people believe what they want to believe; read and listen only to what agrees with what they believe.

Continued April 26, 2019: “Pt 34-H: The LeBaron Madmen: Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button?”