'Holy Ghost' cult stirs Idaho debate after move from Utah

SALT LAKE CITY -- There's rising concern in Idaho about a religious cult that packed up and moved out of Utah earlier this summer. Neighbors near Pocatello are upset about the group's plan for a massive new residence.

The group is called the Church of the Firstborn and the General Assembly of Heaven. It was based for years in a Magna duplex.

In June, KSL News followed a caravan as the cult consolidated its members and moved to Idaho. They left Utah for greener pastures in Idaho, but their new neighbors worry that the pasture is getting too crowded.

Church of the Firstborn and the General Assembly of Heaven leader, Terrill Dalton "I just feel that these people have purchased a piece of property that does not suit their needs, and now they're asking all of us to suffer the consequences," said Idaho resident Deanna Shannon.

Before they moved to Idaho, the group stirred law enforcement interest in Utah. Leader Terrill Dalton purports to be the Holy Ghost and the Father of Jesus, but a former follower accused him of sexual improprieties and assassination plots.

The Secret Service raided the duplex and questioned cult members. However, there was no evidence to justify charges.

When the group relocated to Idaho, they moved into a semi-rural home just inside the boundary of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, raising worries from neighbors

"There's too many people coming and going, and you don't even know who they are," said tribal member Tonna Edmo.

On Monday night, the tribe held a public hearing on the cult's plan for a big new residential facility. About 100 concerned neighbors showed up.

"They want to build a three-story, 38-room building," Edmo said. "And how many people are they going to put in there?"

Some neighbors worry about the group's beliefs and lifestyle, but the biggest worry was that they'll have too big an impact on community resources.

"Individuals that have their homes are concerned about the environmental problems--the water table, the aquifer, the sewage," said tribal member Nancy Eschief Murillo.

The tribal land-use commission has not made a decision yet on the cult's building plans. They're accepting public comment.

What? cults moving out of Utah?

The group is called the Church of the Firstborn and the General Assembly of Heaven.

For those who don't know, this is a cult-subsidiary of one of the largest cults, the Lds church.

From the article: Leader Terrill Dalton purports to be the Holy Ghost and the Father of Jesus...

Let's keep things in perspective. This group wants to build a 38-room building in their new landing place. When Brigham Young brought Mormons to their new digs in Utah, he didn't have a lot of followers, either.

And even though this cult leader is badly mistaken on who the Holy Ghost is, he at least had one generic thing right
-- the Holy Ghost impregnated the Virgin Mary to bring about the birth of Jesus
-- even when just 6 short years after bringing the Mormons to Utah, Lds "prophet" Brigham Young flunked that same question:

When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human family... (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, p. 50, 1852)

This is called a "two-fer" cultic error -- Young saying the Father impregnated Mary; and claiming that Father-god impregnator was the first man, Adam!

So, Terrill Dalton should just stick with it. He, too, one day, can have a prominent university named after him.

Oh, and BTW, Brigham Young didn't stop there with his theological miscues about who the father of Jesus was:

When the time came that His first-born, the Saviour, should come into the world and take a tabernacle, the Father came Himself and favoured that spirit with a tabernacle instead of letting any other man do it. (Brigham Young, JoD, vol. 4, p. 218, 1857)

IOW, Brigham taught that God the Father came down & had sex with Mary to impregnate her ("tabernacle" is just another Biblical word for "body")

Need more proof? The man Joseph, the husband of Mary, did not, that we know of, have more than one wife, but Mary the wife of Joseph, had another husband. (Brigham Young, JoD, vol. 11, p. 268, 1866)

And: The birth of the Saviour was as natural as are the births of our children; it was the result of natural action. He partook of flesh and blood--was begotten of his Father, as we were of our fathers. (Brigham Young, JoD, vol, 8, p. 115, 1860)

(You'll never see Lds missionaries working among Roman Catholic populations pull out these quotes!)

The man Joseph, the husband of Mary, did not, that we know of, have more than one wife, but Mary the wife of Joseph, had another husband.

I have begun to wonder at the amount of polyandry in Mormonism -- how the egos of the men could abide the accompanying humiliation. This article sheds a little light upon the nature of the human politics in the man-woman-god relationship amongst Mormons.

I suppose that cuckolded Mormon men can console themselves as being Joseph-like to Mary and Jesus. I suppose the polyandrous woman sees herself as assured of being called to heaven by the most successful husband, and the polygamist alpha male sees himself as the future god populating planets with all his new children.

On the mortal plain all of that is revolting enough, but what is truly repugnant is that relation to God is crowed out of the Mormon husband-wife-God relationship -- God's role is usurped by the arrogance of the man who is the husand-becoming-god. And this perversion of the husband-wife-Savior (family) relationship is maintained in LDS theology even though they proclaim they are no longer polygamous. The LDS husband is still going to be the one who calls the wife(s) to heaven and usurps God's role for everyone in his family.

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