The Baptist version of The Book of Mormon

That is, I believe the truths recorded in it. No, I’m not a convert to the Mormon faith, nor am I a member of any particular "spin-off" restoration group such as the RLDS (Reorganized Latter-day Saints), Hedrikites, or Strangites. I’m still a Baptist minister. To be exact, I’m "charismatic Baptist." That is, I still embrace the "born again" experience. I still believe you’re saved by grace. By the shed blood of Christ. Salvation is by faith alone in His finished work on Calvary. I still believe in the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. I believe and embrace those cardinal doctrines of Protestantism.

I know. I can hear you now. "…A charismatic Baptist minister who believes the Book of Mormon?! Impossible. That’s like a Protestant Pope…" No, it’s not. It’s not a contradiction.

The two go hand in hand, really--Protestant doctrine and the Book of Mormon. They’re not at odds. The Book of Mormon is filled with Protestant cardinal doctrines, believe it or not. In fact, I discovered, the Book of Mormon is more "Baptist" than the Baptist hymnal in places. I know that’s hard to believe, but it’s so. I read the Book from cover to cover and found as a Baptist minister, there is absolutely nothing in it that contradicts the Bible.

For example, the book uplifts the blood of Christ (Mosiah 1:118), declares that salvation is only by God’s grace (2 Nephi 7:42), defends the grand theme of salvation (Mosiah 1:108), and proclaims that salvation comes only through faith on the Lord Jesus Christ (Mosiah 3:8,9). Other themes such as repentance, atonement by Christ’s blood, redemption, and forgiveness run like a scarlet thread through the book as well (Alma 3:86, Helaman 2:71, Alma 13:13, Mosiah 2:3,4). Thus, our "tongue ‘n’ cheek" title, The Baptist Version of the Book of Mormon. I’m telling you, the grand themes of Protestantism are found recorded through and through. From cover to cover.

Reared in a small conservative Baptist church back in the hills of the Ozarks, I was taught with strong convictions that Mormons were no different from Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, or Armstrong followers. They all sooner or later knocked on your door. We were instructed by our parents to "…let none of them in the house. And don’t buy their materials…" All were cults. Certainly the Mormons were not within mainstream Christianity.

I was taught that the Book of Mormon was a lie. We have the Bible and no man was to add to the scriptures lest his soul be damned. And I was taught that the rapture could occur any minute. Establishing a literal kingdom on this earth was pure nonsense. And I believe my convictions were typical. Most protestant/pentecostal Christians today share similar sentiments.

(click on link for the rest) http://www.centerplace.org/library/bofm/baptistversionofbofm.htm

I put together this timeline, based on various anecdotal information Ridenhour drops throughout his website. I may have his age wrong in a few places but not by more than a year or two. Italicised comments are direct quotes from the website. Notice how it ends - it seems even the LDS didn't want him...

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His bio claims "Dr. Ridenhour has a Ph.D in literature with a specialty degree in composition theory from the University of Iowa. He has taught creative writing in both Christian and secular universities."

I have no idea when or where he found time to earn a PhD from the University of Iowa. If he ever lived in Iowa, his biography doesn't give him enough time to go all the way through undergraduate studies to a PhD. He dropped out of Memphis State University (Tennessee) pre-conversion (1962-3?), apparently failed to earn a degree at William Jewell college (Liberty Missouri) between 1965 and 1969, was in Virginia by 1980, Illinois until 1985, and was back living in Missouri since 1985. Where he had time to be in Iowa to attend I have no idea, but it had to be in the 70s if at all. But enough of that....

"Reared in southern Missouri, my family was steeped in the rituals of the Masonic Lodge. I was a Scottish Rite Mason"

1963, age 19

Drops out of Memphis State University & moves to Kansas City chasing after his con-man stepfather, after finding out his stepfather has swindled his widowed mother's money.

"...I was pimping, shooting up morphine, and literally living on the streets of downtown Kansas City."

He moves to Oklahoma, continues his pimping days until he experiences a dramatic conversion. He moves to Liberty Missouri, applies at William Jewell College without a dime in his pocket, and receives a full ministerial grant paying for all his tuition fees and books. This happens sometime between 1963 and 1965.

"While studying for the Baptist ministry at William Jewell, and majoring in religion, I also was the youth pastor at Six-Mile Baptist Church in a small neighboring rural town, Buckner, Missouri. Rev. J.I. Willard was my pastor. It's safe to say I preached in over 100 local Baptist churches during my student days at William Jewell. I was also at that time a staff member on Youth For Christ under the wonderful ministry of Al Metsker, personal friends with Billy Graham."

1965, age 21

"Licensed" by Our First Baptist Church in Belle, Missouri, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, TN. Note his licensing comes from his boyhood church, a different church than the one he was simultaneously serving as a youth pastor for...

"I had my licensing ceremony, not in 1963 but 1965. August 10, 1965 to be exact. I have a copy of the clerk's church minutes. I called my sister, Joan Abel, not too long ago and asked if she could check with the church clerk and ask her to go back through the church minutes. My sister mailed me a copy. Mrs. Erline Robertson, church clerk back in '65 is still the church clerk. I couldn't believe it. She's still living there in Belle and was, of course, there that day during my actual ceremony....the handwritten church minutes taken by Mrs. Robertson on August 10, 1965...includes the statement "...Deacon's recommendation was to grant a license to preach to Lynn Ridenhour. Bro. Bledsoe made a motion to accept the Deacon's recommendation, was second motion carried..."

Sometime around 1968: age 24

Still a youth pastor at Six-Mile Baptist Church while dating his future wife. He & his future wife began speaking in tongues following a visit from a missionary, and shortly afterwards he resigned his Baptist pastorate.

1969: age 25

Marries his now-wife.

1972: age 28

"It was during the year 1972 that Joe Hoover, one of my Baptist deacons, came by our home, left me a set of tapes to a charismatic conference that he had just attended. I listened to the tapes and was filled with the Spirit. Our ministry purpose and direction, from that time on, took a drastic turn. I no longer pastored Baptist churches, but became heavily involved in the charismatic renewal. That does not mean that I left my Baptist roots. I still embraced those cardinal doctrines such as the born again experience that Baptists are so fond of proclaiming."

1979: age 35

"By the end of the seventies, the Holy Ghost had pretty much shattered my Fundamentalist Christianity. Though I was still pastoring Protestant churches, I felt much like a spiritual gypsy wandering in the wastelands. I lacked a home. For I had yet to be introduced to the glorious Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ."

1980: age 36

"In the early 80s, I taught at Jerry Falwell's Liberty Baptist College in the English department..."
Contract not renewed in 1981

1985: age 42

"In May, 1985, Dr. Kenneth Brown, neighbor, knocked on our door and handed me a Book of Mormon. I read it and had an instant conversion. I knew the book was true. And I knew the book was heaven-sent. At that time, I was on faculty at Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois, while pastoring a small country church seven miles from Carthage. The sign read: Fandon Christian Church, Rev. Lynn E. Ridenhour, Pastor."

"Our lives took on a new direction. In 1985 my wife, Linda, and I, and our lovely daughter, Lori, moved to Independence, Missouri——the Center Place of Zion. It was in the Center Place where I "got into" the Restoration."

1990: age 47

"I had a lot of fun writing The Baptist Version of the Book of Mormon: Protestant Doctrines Found Within the Book of Mormon. Though the title is somewhat tongue-'n-cheek, my thesis is not. Written in 1990, I was still not baptized."

1996: age 53

"On April 6th., 1996, my family and I were baptized as members into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

"I had an arrangement with the local Bishop that I would continue ministering in other groups—both restoration and non-restoration. And I did. In order to teach and to carry out certain callings, the Bishop wanted me to become a baptized member. I did. Like Paul, I am willing to become "…all things to all men, that I might by all means save some, and this I do for the gospel’s sake…" In 1996 I was baptized. Why? It was never my intention to "become a Mormon" in order to join "the one true church." I became a member for ministry purposes, because I knew the Lord had led us there--knowing that our ministry would be temporary. And it was. We’re evangelists at heart. Thus, we rescinded our membership when our work was complete. And we left in good graces".

Interesting follow-up to Ridenhour's story, post-1985 (when he embraced the Book of Mormon:

Doc Mullenex came to me, saying that he had 200 acres of land down at the Lake of the Ozarks that he wanted to turn into a retreat for believers to come and relax. The land was all paid for and in a family trust. He wanted to not have to raise the capital by borrowing and going into debt, but he wanted to pay and develop the project as we brought in the funds. I said I would help....We set up a 20/20 program. Twenty weeks at the retreat and 20 hours of motivational materials. The package was marketed for, I believe, $1,500..."

The case itself, according to The Multi-Level Marketing Law Library...

1. During November and December of 1986, an individual named Lynn Ridenhour introduced a multi-level sales program to residents of Shawnee County and surrounding areas. This was done through meetings or seminars held at the Holiday Inn and Ramada Inn in downtown Topeka and at private residences located in and surrounding Shawnee County, Kansas. [Note: the Ridenhours lived in Missouri at the time]

2. The program was called the Top Flight Success System ('TFSS'). The TFSS program was marketed by Ridenhour on behalf of Products Management Corporation ('PMC'), an Oklahoma corporation. PMC was organized in 1976 but remained inactive until October of 1986. Prior to 1986, Ernest Mullenax [i.e. Lynn's "Doc Mullinex"] was president and a director of PMC. Mullenax's wife, Margaret, was an original incorporator of PMC. Subsequent to October, 1986, [Lynn] Ridenhour was vice-president, Mullenax was director, and both were control persons of PMC.

3. Participants joined the program by paying a $1500 entry fee. Payment of the fee entitled the payor to have his/her name placed on a chart in an entry level position as a 'passenger.' The charts consisted of four levels organized in a pyramid fashion. At the base of the pyramid were eight positions called 'passengers.' Above this in ascending order were four positions as 'crewmen,' two positions as 'co-pilots,' and one position as a 'pilot' at the apex. The system was metaphorically referred to as an airplane pyramid. Once eight passengers paid their money ('boarded the airplane'), the pilot cashed out, and the remaining participants split into two new pyramids with everyone advancing one level. Each new airplane in turn recruited eight new passengers, in which event the pyramids again multiplied. Theoretically, the process continued ad infinitum. The longer the TFSS program operated, the need for passengers increased exponentially.

4. The $1500 entry fee was paid in two checks. One check for $1250 was made payable to TFSS. A second check for $250 was made payable to PMC. The check made payable to TFSS was deposited into a TFSS account, and the money deposited was paid to the pilot of the chart the payor was entering. A pilot on a pyramid which successfully filled all eight passenger positions "cashed out" or exited the system with $10,000. PMC received $250 from every participant when they entered the program.

Again, from Ridenhour...

"...Mr. Phillip Gibson, assistant attorney general for the state of Missouri, indicted us for selling securities without a license. Our attorney, who was on the board, said that the definition of a security was "a return on investment," and that we were marketing memberships, not an investment. There was no promise of a return on investment. You and your family simply purchased for $1500 20 weeks of vacation time at our resort, plus 20 hours of positive mental attitude motivational materials..."

And now back to MLMLAW...

5. The offer and sale of participation units in the TFSS system were ostensibly joined with two products: 1) a 'Top Flight Vacation Card' entitling the holder to use of a recreational facility (to be developed later by a subsidiary of PMC) for 20 weeks a year for five years, and 2) a set of motivational tapes. The value of these products was insignificant in comparison to the value of the $1500 entry fee. Participants were encouraged and did, in fact, re-enter the TFSS system multiple times. Multiple sets of vacation cards and motivational tapes were of no additional value to the participants. There is no known or demonstrable market for the products outside the TFSS network.

6. Ridenhour, on behalf of PMC, offered and sold the participation units in TFSS in meetings or seminars as described in paragraph 1. Interested persons and participants were encouraged to bring other prospects to the *922 meetings. Prospects were encouraged to join through expectation of a short-term return of $10,000 on a $1500 investment. As a result, over 250 individuals from the Shawnee County area purchased units of participation, and many of these individuals purchased multiple units.

7. As the program was originally structured, PMC centrally maintained investor charts and kept track of the placement of participants' names and their movement on the various charts. As mentioned, payments to the pilots were originally made to PMC d/b/a TFSS, which then made payment to the 'pilots' cashing out. As the program proliferated, these arrangements broke down and individual participants kept track of the charts, and TFSS checks were endorsed over for direct payment to the 'pilots.'

8. There is some factual dispute as to the degree of involvement of certain defendants in actively promoting the program and soliciting others to join. However, there is no dispute that all named defendants 1) knowingly purchased participation in the TFSS program with the expectation that they would progress through the levels and ultimately 'cash out,' earning a significant return, 2) knowingly permitted their names to remain in the system on various charts as they progressed through the levels, 3) 'cashed out' as pilots and actually received payments from other participants, and 4) retained such payments."

And back to Ridenhour...

"...The state of Missouri froze our assets, our bank accounts, and I was penniless for 18 months....Mr. Gibson, assistant attorney general, froze our bank accounts. We had $465,000 in three different accounts. He took every penny. The FBI asked me that evening if Mr. Gibson asked us for any cash the evening he was in our home while serving me with the indictment. He, in fact, did ask us if we had any cash. We had $3,000 stuffed away in a dresser drawers. My wife, Linda, went in the back room and got it, then handed him the money. She asked for a receipt. He gave her one..."

"...About a month later we read in the Kansas City Star where Mr. Phillip Gibson, assistant attorney general, had been arrested and charged with consumer fraud. It was all a scam and we were the victims. The FBI had been investigating the attorney general's office for three years. Bill Webster, attorney general of the state of Missouri, Phillip Gibson, assistant attorney general, and I can't remember the names of the other assistants, all went to prison, convicted on consumer fraud. They would slap a phony charge on a new business in the startup phase, indict them, scare them to death, threaten them with prison, and doctor the confiscated funds. For instance, the attorney general's office took $465,000 of our money, but only reported $150,000. Bill Webster, attorney general, and his cronies, were on the take. They pocketed the rest..."

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That brings our story up to around 1990. Remember that in 1985 they had just moved back to Missouri and been convicted of the truth of the Book of Mormon. Lynn wrote "The Baptist Version of The Book of Mormon" in 1990, following his conviction by the State of Missouri.

The Ridenhours had $3000 - in cash - lying around their house sometime around 1987-1999. They had an additional half-million in the bank, no doubt derived (at least in part) from the business described in detail in the court records. The court said there was "no dispute" Lynn Ridenhour had cashed out as a "pilot" in this pyramid scheme. And Lynn willingly handed over three grand in cash to someone later convicted of corruption, conspiracy, and embezzlement. And Ridenhour's conviction has never been overturned.

Missouri's Attorney General at the time, Bill Webster, pled guilty - not to consumer fraud, but on federal charges of public corruption while in office. Webster signed an agreement in June 1993 in which he pleaded guilty of conspiracy and embezzlement charges connected to his campaign for governor in 1992. Whether or not the AG was corrupt doesn't change the fact that Lynn Ridenhour was involved in a pyramid marketing scheme. He just got taken by a bigger crook.

How does the saying go? You can't cheat an honest man.

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