City Creek Center

The City Creek Center is a mixed-use development with an upscale open-air shopping center, office and residential buildings, fountain, and simulated creek near Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. It is an undertaking by Property Reserve, Inc. (the commercial real estate division of the Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and Taubman Centers, Inc. The center integrates shopping and residential elements, with foliage-lined walkways and streams covering three blocks in the heart of downtown Salt Lake. The City Creek Center opened to the general public on March 22, 2012. This shopping, office and residential center encompass nearly 20 acres (8.1 ha) of downtown Salt Lake City. The City Creek Center is part of an estimated $5 billion sustainable design project to revitalize downtown Salt Lake City. The City Creek Center project itself has been estimated to cost around $1.5 billion. History: Development of the City Creek Center began in 2003, when a for-profit company owned by the LDS Church purchased the Crossroads Plaza Mall, a shopping center on the west side of Main Street from the ZCMI Center Mall. Both malls (known unofficially as the “Main Street Malls”) had been constructed in the 1970s. In 2001, the Boyer Company completed its new open-air Gateway Mall, four blocks to the west of Crossroads and ZCMI, drawing more business away from Main Street. Soon after, the Nordstrom store at Crossroads announced its intentions to leave the mall and open a new store at Gateway. The LDS Church purchased the mall in 2003 and redeveloped the area. The church enlisted the help of Taubman Centers, Inc. to help it redesign the malls into a single project and recruit retailers to fill it. In October 2006, the concept design of City Creek Center was announced. A ribbon-cutting ceremony took place on March 22, 2012. Overall Design and Transportation: The City Creek Center features 700,000 ft (210,000 m) of mixed use residential, office and retail space with the main mall itself featuring an open-air design, similar to the competing Gateway Mall. The City Creek Center also won an award for its retractable roof. The mall is intended to cater predominantly to pedestrian traffic. Multi-level sidewalks feature six total acres of green space, fountains, and a stream. A pedestrian skyway links the two city blocks across Main Street. The site is served by the City Center station of the TRAX light rail system, and a large underground parking lot capable of holding 5,600 vehicles. Skybridge: The skybridge connects the 2 upper floors of the shopping center across Main Street and acts as a pedestrian connector. The structure itself weighs 320,000 pounds and includes roof panels that can be opened, glass walls and interior benches. The skybidge itself is located directly above the City Creek Center's TRAX light rail station. The structure itself was constructed by Jacobsen construction. Landscape Architecture: SWA, which provided landscape architecture and urban design services, organized the site along the city’s street-grid to keep City Creek Center integrated to the urban fabric and took inspiration from the town’s original City Creek to create a 1.2 km waterway traversing the property as a pedestrian-oriented green space. Other elements of the landscape design support the overall concept of urban living, with pocket parks, roof gardens, and landscape connections throughout the project. Tenants- Retail: The City Creek Center is anchored by two national department stores: Nordstrom and Macy's. Nordstrom has a two-level, 124,000 sq ft (11,500 m2) store located on West Temple Street, across from the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center and Macy’s occupies a three-level store of 150,000 sq ft (14,000 m2), located on the east block of Main Street. In the original plan, a third anchor, Dillard's, was also planned for the mall. After public outcry about the alignment of the restored, historic Regent Street area in the project, and the associated realignment, it left insufficient space for the proposed 150,000-square-foot (14,000 m2) store, plans for a Dillard's at the Center were cancelled. More room for specialty retailers and an additional condominium tower were inserted into the plan in its place. There is approximately 300,000 sq ft (28,000 m2) of additional retail space for specialty stores. A Harmons grocery store is located on the east most (3rd) block, at the corner of 100 South and 200 East streets. The northeast area containing the Key Bank Tower and adjoining Eagle Gate Tower was completed in June 2009. It contains the Food Court with a view to the west. Several eateries are conveniently located, including McCafe (McDonald's), Chang Chung, Sbarro's, Red Iguana, and Bocata. The mall has a valet-assisted underground parking located under the Key Bank Tower. Deseret Book's flagship store opened March 2010 on the northeast corner of Richards Street, in the east building of the Richards Court, directly across from Temple Square. Other first tenants of the mall include The Disney Store, Porsche Design and Cheesecake Factory plus 100 more. Office: Several existing office buildings in the area maintain their positions in the City Creek Center development. The Key Bank Tower, however, was demolished, and its tenants relocated to the Beneficial Financial Group Tower nearby, which was renamed the Key Bank Tower. That building’s chief tenant relocated to the Gateway Tower West, which was renamed as the new Beneficial Financial Group Tower. Residents and media challenged an initial decision to demolish the old First Security Bank Building. The challenge was upheld and the building was renovated. Residential: There are approximately 300 housing units, consisting of condos and apartments, in the City Creek Center. They are located in five residential towers, one of which is 99 West. This residential skyscraper has replaced the demolished Inn at Temple Square on the northwest corner of the west block, South Temple and West Temple Streets. Richard Court located on South Temple Street, directly across from Temple Square, topped in early February 2009 with more than 45 percent sold. Construction finished for the 23-floor Regent building in 2011, located on the south side of the east block (100 South Street). The Regent was one of the last buildings completed in the City Creek Center. Other apartments are mostly built along 100 South Street, with some constructed along South Temple Street as well. Hotels: The Marriott Downtown at City Creek Hotel is the only hotel located in the City Creek Center. Prior to the City Creek development it was named the Salt Lake City Marriott Downtown. The original hotel was opened on October 15, 1981 by Marriott International and underwent a renovation when the block was redeveloped. Parking: City Creek Center has 5,600 vehicle spaces that are located on the two blocks underground City Creek Center. The parking is mixed use, serving monthly, daily and residential use. The parking is managed by Utah Property Management Associates, LLC., a sister company of City Creek Reserve Inc. Demolition and construction: Most of the City Creek Center was completed by the end of 2011 and opened in early 2012, encompassing nearly 20 acres (81,000 m2) across three blocks in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City as a revitalization effort to restore the city's downtown into a vibrant economic and cultural center. Demolition of the site’s old structures commenced in November 2006. By February 2007, the Inn at Temple Square had been completely demolished and work was underway to demolish the old parking structure for the Crossroads Plaza Mall. The destruction proceeded across the site from west to east, with several businesses remaining open until a short time before their scheduled demolition. Macy’s and Nordstrom had both closed by early February 2007. On August 18, 2007 the twenty-story Key Bank Tower was imploded and was one of the final steps to demolition completion. Demolition was completed by the end of 2007, and was followed by another six months of excavation and site preparation. By July 2008, most of the below-surface structures of the Crossroads block located to the southeast of the Main Street and South Temple Street intersection were complete. The parking structure beneath the future Nordstrom site was complete on the southwestern corner of the block. The central core of the thirty-two story condo tower, as well as the base-work for three additional residential structures located along the northern edge of the block, had begun initial construction by mid-2008. Building Envelope consultant, Morrison Hershfield provided services on issues from schematic through construction phases of the City Creek Center project. This included two underground parking garages, five residential/office buildings, multiple retail stores, one building rehabilitation, and areas around and beneath the man-made stream and fountain areas.The design of the air barrier system was developed based on a continuous air barrier membrane for all opaque wall areas tied in with the glazing and roofing/waterproofing systems. Rebar was set into place to the south of the newly relocated Key Bank Tower located on the eastern edge of the ZCMI block to the east of the Crossroads block by the end of July 2008. The remainder of the ZCMI block had just completed initial site preparation by this time with demolition of the remaining portion of the ZCMI Mall completed by January 2009. The food court section, located between Key Bank and Eagle Gate towers opened on June 10, 2009 after a 2-day delay. The first condominiums, Richard's Court, were finished during the spring of 2010. The first tenant, a Deseret Book flagship store, opened on the first floor of Richard's Court in April 2010. Public sentiment: A number of critics opposed the sky-bridge, which was built to funnel shoppers through the development. The critics included many South-end merchants who expressed concern that the sky-bridge would divert traffic from street-level stores adjacent to the development. They state a similar result occurred thirty years ago after the construction of the two malls that City Creek replaced, during which longtime merchants such as Auerbachs, Paris Company, Wolfs, and Broadway Music all closed shop and either relocated or went out of business. Some observers felt City Creek Center was an inappropriate project for the LDS Church. They argued that the high investment in consumerism and promoting conspicuous consumption neglected religious principles, and instead suggested that funds would be better spent on community resources, welfare services, or humanitarian outreach. Others disagreed, saying the Center brought jobs and beauty to the downtown, and the LDS Church had a duty to uplift properties near Temple Square and invest its private, commercial revenues. The LDS Church has stated that no tithing money was used for construction of the complex, with the project financed through the church's commercial real-estate arm, Property Reserve, Inc. In 2008, the Sierra Club praised the church for being "good stewards" of the environment in its City Creek Center development.

New Mormon history

New Mormon history refers to a style of reporting the history of Mormonism by both Mormon and non-Mormon scholars which departs from earlier more polemical styles of history. Rather than presenting material selectively to either prove or disprove Mormonism, the focus of new Mormon history is to present history in a more humanistic and dispassionate way, and to situate Mormon history in a fuller historical context. Because it is a break from past historical narratives, new Mormon history tends to be revisionist. In many cases, the new Mormon history follows the perspectives and techniques of new history, including cultural history. Mormon historian Richard Bushman described it as "a quest for identity rather than a quest for authority". New Mormon historians include a wide range of both Mormon and non-Mormon scholars, the most prominent of which include Bushman, Jan Shipps, D. Michael Quinn, Terryl Givens, Leonard J. Arrington, Richard P. Howard, Fawn Brodie, and Juanita Brooks. History: The term was originally published in 1969 by the Jewish historian Moses Rischin in his article "The New Mormon History." Although Rischin coined the term, D. Michael Quinn dates New Mormon History as beginning in 1950 with Juanita Brooks’ publication of "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" by Stanford University Press. He notes, however, that it had been gaining momentum even before that, citing that B.H. Roberts—Church historian from 1901 until his death in 1933—“exemplified much of the philosophy later identified with the New Mormon History.” (Forsberg 2008) credits Leonard J. Arrington, beginning in the 1950s, with having "led the charge" of New Mormon History, with non-Mormon scholars Thomas O'Dea and Whitney O. Cross responding in kind with "less prejudiced and more informed monographs on Mormonism." New History: New Mormon History is but a reflection of the change in writing history overall that took root in the 20th century. Quinn states that “the New Mormon History includes all of the ingredients of the “new history” in America at large but has one crucial addition: the effort to avoid using history as a religious battering ram.” The new historical movement's inclusive definition of the proper matter of historical study has also given it the label total history. The movement was contrasted with the traditional ways of writing history which particularly characterized the nineteenth century, resisting their focus on politics and 'great men'; their insistence on composing historical narrative; their emphasis on administrative documents as key source materials; their concern with individuals' motivations and intentions as explanatory factors for historical events; and their willingness to accept the possibility of historians' objectivity. Differences from traditional Mormon history: Quinn, referring to Brooks’ history of the Mountain Meadows massacre, states that New Mormon History began with her in that she “avoided the seven deadly sins of traditional Mormon history.” Quinn identifies these “sins” as: 1. Shrinking from analyzing a controversial topic 2. Concealing a sensitive or contradictory interpretation 3. Hesitating to follow the evidence to “revisionist” interpretations that run counter to “traditional” assumptions 4. Using one’s evidence to insult the religious beliefs of Mormons 5. Disappointing the scholarly expectations of academics 6. Catering to public relations preferences 7. Using an “academic” work to proselytize for religious conversion or defection

Scripture of mormonism

Mormons believe in the Old and New Testaments, and the LDS Church uses the King James Bible as its official scriptural text of the Bible. While Mormons believe in the general accuracy of the modern day text of the Bible, they also believe that it is incomplete and that errors have been introduced. In Mormon theology, many lost truths are restored in the Book of Mormon, which Mormons hold to be divine scripture and equal in authority to the Bible. The Mormon scriptural canon also includes a collection of revelations and writings contained in the Doctrine and Covenants which contains doctrine and prophecy and the Pearl of Great Price which addresses briefly Genesis to Exodus. These books, as well as the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, have varying degrees of acceptance as divine scripture among different denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement.

Angel Moroni

The Angel Moroni is, in Mormonism, an angel that visited Joseph Smith on numerous occasions, beginning on September 21, 1823. According to Smith, the angel was the guardian of the golden plates, which Latter Day Saints believe were the source material for the Book of Mormon, buried in a hill near Smith's home in western New York. Moroni is an important figure in the theology of the Latter Day Saint movement, and is featured prominently in Mormon architecture and art. Three Witnesses besides Smith also reported that they saw Moroni in visions in 1829, as did several other witnesses who each said they had their own vision. Moroni is thought by Latter Day Saints to be the same person as a Book of Mormon prophet-warrior named Moroni, who was the last to write in the golden plates. The book states that Moroni buried them before he died after a great battle between two pre-Columbian civilizations. After he died, he became an angel, and was tasked with guarding the golden plates, and with eventually directing Smith to their location in the 1820s. According to Smith, he returned the golden plates to Moroni after they were translated and as of 1838 the angel Moroni still had the plates in his possession. Angel's name and identity: There have been two conflicting accounts as to the name of the angel. Initially, Smith merely referred to "an angel" without identifying its name. Thus, in an 1831 letter from Lucy Mack Smith to her brother, she discusses Moroni as the person who buried the plates, but does not identify him as the unnamed "holy angel" that gave Smith the means to translate the golden plates. In Smith's 1832 history, he said he was visited by "an angel of the Lord", who mentioned the Book of Mormon prophet "Moroni" as the last engraver of the golden plates; however, Smith's account did not say whether or not the angel was referring to himself as Moroni. In 1835, Smith identified the angel as Moroni: in 1835, while preparing the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, he made additions to an earlier revelation regarding sacramental wine, and indicated a number of angels that would come to the earth after the Second Coming and drink wine with Smith and Oliver Cowdery. Among those angels, the revelation listed "Moroni, whom I have sent unto you to reveal the book of Mormon, containing the fulness of my everlasting gospel; to whom I have committed the keys of the record of the stick of Ephraim". Around this time, Cowdery was writing a history of Smith in which he identified the angel as the prophet Moroni from the Book of Mormon. In July 1838, Smith wrote an article for the church periodical Elders' Journal, in the form of questions and answers, that stated the following: "Question 4th. How, and where did you obtain the book of Mormon? "Answer. Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the book of Mormon was translated, in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County, New York, as a resurrected being, appeared unto me, and told me where they were; and gave me directions how to obtain them." However, on May 2, 1838, a few months before Smith's statement in Elders' Journal, Smith began dictating a church history that included a detailed account of his visits from the angel. In this text, Smith identified the angel as "Nephi", which is the name of the Book of Mormon's first narrator. Smith's 1838 identification as "Nephi" was left unchanged when the 1838 history was published in 1842 in Times and Seasons, which Smith edited himself, and in Millennial Star. In the latter, an editorial referred to the 1823 vision and praised "the glorious ministry and message of the angel Nephi". After Smith's death, the identification as "Nephi" was repeated when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) published its first edition of the Pearl of Great Price. It was also repeated in 1853 when Smith's mother Lucy Mack Smith published a history of her son. As a further complication, Mary Whitmer, mother to one of the Three Witnesses and four of the Eight Witnesses, said she had a vision of the golden plates, shown to her by an angel whom she always called "Brother Nephi", who may or may not have been the same angel to which Smith referred. Nevertheless, based on Smith's other statements that the angel was "Moroni," and based on both prior and later publications, most Latter Day Saints view Smith's 1838 identification of the angel as Nephi as a mistake, perhaps on the part of the transcriber or a later editor. In the version of Smith's 1838 history published by the LDS Church, as well as the portion canonized by that denomination as the Pearl of Great Price, the name "Nephi" has been changed by editors to read "Moroni". The Community of Christ publishes the original story, including the identification of "Nephi", but indicates "Moroni" in a footnote. Description: Descriptions of the angel Moroni vary. In one of Smith's histories, he described him as an "angel of light" who "had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen .… His hands were naked and his arms also a little above the wrists .… Not only was his robe exceedingly white but his whole person was glorious beyond description". According to Smith's sister Katharine, the angel "was dressed in white raiment, of whiteness beyond anything Joseph had ever seen in his life, and had a girdle about his waist. He saw his hands and wrists, and they were pure and white. Appearances to Joseph Smith and others: Smith said that on the night of September 21, 1823, Moroni appeared to him and told him about the golden plates that were buried in a stone box a few miles from Smith's home. Smith said that the same angel visited him various times over the course of the next six years; Smith also said that the angel visited after him to retrieve the golden plates after Smith had finished translated a portion of the writing on the plates into the Book of Mormon. In addition to Smith, several other early Mormons said they had visions where they saw the angel Moroni. Three Witnesses said they saw the angel in 1829: Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris. Other early Mormons who said they saw Moroni include Emma Hale Smith, Hyrum Smith, Luke S. Johnson, Zera Pulsipher, W. W. Phelps, John P. Greene and his wife Rhoda, John Taylor, Oliver Granger, Heber C. Kimball, Lucy Harris, and Harrison Burgess. Mary Whitmer may also have seen Moroni, although she referred to the angel she saw as "Brother Nephi." Mortal life of Moroni the prophet: According to the Book of Mormon, Moroni was the son of Mormon, the prophet for whom the Book of Mormon is named. Moroni may have been named after Captain Moroni, an earlier Book of Mormon figure. Before Mormon's death in battle, he passed the golden plates to Moroni. Moroni then finished writing on the plates and concluded the record, presumably burying them in the hill Cumorah in western New York. Theological significance: Because of his instrumentality in the restoration of the gospel, Moroni is commonly identified by Latter Day Saints as the angel mentioned in Revelation 14:6, "having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." The image of the angel Moroni blowing a trumpet is commonly used as an unofficial symbol of the LDS Church. Moroni appears on the cover of some editions of the Book of Mormon, and statues of the angel stand atop many LDS temples, with most statues facing eastward. In 2007, the LDS Church claimed that an image of the angel Moroni in an advertisement violated one of the church's registered trademarks. Theorized origin of the name: Some scholars have theorized that Smith became familiar with the name "Moroni" through his study of the treasure-hunting stories of Captain William Kidd. Because Kidd was said to have buried treasure in the Comoros islands, and Moroni is the name of the capital city and largest settlement in the Union of the Comoros, it has been suggested that Smith borrowed the name of the settlement and applied it to the angel who led him to buried treasure—the golden plates. Complementing this proposal is the theory that Smith borrowed the names of the Comoros islands and applied them to the hill where he found the golden plates, which he named Cumorah. Latter Day Saint apologists have reasoned that this line of argument commits the logical error of appeal to probability; they believe that it is unlikely that Smith had access to material which would have referred to the then-small settlement of Moroni. Mormon scholar Hugh Nibley noted the prevalence of names in the Book of Mormon with the root "mor" and suggested that the root may be of Egyptian origin with the meaning of "beloved". Sculptors: The Nauvoo Temple was the first Latter Day Saint temple to be crowned with a figure of an angel. This angel, not officially identified as Moroni, was a gilded wooden weathervane sculpted by an unknown artist in 1844. This figure was positioned in a flying horizontal position holding an open book in one hand and a trumpet in the other. Cyrus Dallin sculpted the first angel which was identified as Moroni. This angel was placed on the Salt Lake Temple during the capstone ceremony on April 6, 1892, one year to the day before the temple was dedicated. Dallin's design is a dignified, neoclassical angel in robe and cap, standing upright with a trumpet in hand. It stands 3.8 meters high, was molded in hammered copper from the plaster original, and covered with 22-karat gold leaf. Torleif S. Knaphus fashioned a replica of the Dallin angel in the 1930s, but the casting of his angel was never placed on a temple until many years later. In 1983, castings of this angel were placed on the Idaho Falls Temple (8th operating temple), and the Atlanta Temple (21st operating temple). Millard F. Malin's angel, which was placed on the Los Angeles Temple in 1953 is known as the second Angel Moroni statue. His angel was cast in aluminum, stands 4.7 meters high and weighs 953 kilograms. It has Native American features, wears a Mayan style cloak and holds the gold plates in its left hand. Avard Fairbanks sculpted the third Angel Moroni statue which was placed on the Washington D.C. Temple, dedicated in 1974. This angel was created as a one-meter model which was sent to Italy where it was enlarged, cast in bronze, and gilded. The finished statue is 5.5 meters high and weighs over 4,000 pounds (1814 kg). The Seattle Washington, Jordan River Utah, and México City México Temples each have a 4.6 meter casting of this statue. Karl Quilter sculpted his first Angel Moroni in 1978. Two sizes were made, one three meters high, the other just over two meters. These statues were designed to reduce the cost and weight of the previous Angel Moroni statues, in order to become a standard part of the temple architecture. The Quilter angels are made of fiberglass and covered with gold leaf. In 1998, with the construction of many new smaller temples, Quilter was commissioned to create a new angel. This angel was similar in design to his previous angels, but he gave Moroni a slightly larger build, with its left hand opened, and the body turned slightly to show more action. The Bern Switzerland Temple's Angel Moroni is patterned after Quilter's 1998 design. Quilter's Angel Moroni is now on over one hundred temples around the world.

God in Mormonism

In Mormon theology the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church or Mormons) teaches that "God" usually means God the Father-Elohim, whereas "Godhead" means a council of three distinct divine beings: God the Father-Elohim, God the Son-Jehovah (or Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. The divine Father and the divine Son have perfected, glorified, physical bodies, while the divine Holy Spirit is a spirit and does not have a physical body. This conception differs from the traditional Christian Trinity; within Mormonism, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are not said to be one in substance or essence; instead, they remain three separate beings, or personages, completely united in will and purpose, as one God. It also differs substantially from the Jewish tradition of ethical monotheism in which elohim (אֱלֹהִים) is a completely different conception. This description of God represents the orthodoxy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), established early in the 19th century. Early Latter Day Saint concepts: Most early Latter Day Saints came from a Protestant background, believing in the doctrine of Trinity that had been developed during the early centuries of Christianity. Before about 1835, Mormon theological teachings were similar to that established view. However, founder Joseph Smith's teachings regarding the nature of the Godhead developed during his lifetime, becoming most fully developed in the few years prior to his murder in 1844. Beginning as an unelaborated description of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as being "One", Smith taught that the Father and the Son were distinct personal members of the Godhead as early as 1832. Smith's public teachings later described the Father and Son as possessing distinct physical bodies, being one together with the Holy Ghost, not in material substance, but in spirit, glory, and purpose–a view sometimes called social trinitarianism. Mormons view their concept of the Godhead as a restoration of original Christian doctrine as taught by Christ and the Apostles. Elements of this doctrine were revealed gradually over time to Smith. Mormons teach that in the centuries following the death of the Apostles, views on God's nature began to change as theologians developed doctrines and practices, though they had not been called as prophets designated to receive revelation for the church. Mormons see the strong influence of Greek culture and philosophy (Hellenization) during this period as contributing to a departure from the traditional Judeo-Christian view of a corporeal God in whose image and likeness mankind was created. These theologians began to define God in terms of three persons, or hypostases, sharing one immaterial divine substance, or ousia—a concept that some claim found no backing in scripture, but closely mirrored elements of Greek philosophy such as Neoplatonism. Mormons believe that the development process leading up to the Trinity doctrine left it vulnerable to human error, because it was not founded upon God's established pattern of continued revelation through prophets. Teachings in the 1820s and early 1830s: The Book of Mormon teaches that God the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are "one", (meaning "one" in perfect unity and harmony of purpose and doctrine]) with Jesus appearing with a body of spirit before his birth, and with a tangible body after his resurrection. The book describes the "Spirit of the Lord" "in the form of a man" and speaking as a man would. Prior to the birth of Jesus, the book depicts him as a spirit "without flesh and blood", with a spirit "body" that looked the same as he would appear during his physical life. Moreover, Jesus described himself as follows: "Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters." In another passage of the Book of Mormon, the prophet Abinadi states, "I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people. And because he dwelleth in flesh he shall be called the Son of God, and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son—the Father, because he was conceived by the power of God; and the Son, because of the flesh; thus becoming the Father and Son—and they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth." After Jesus was resurrected and ascended into heaven, the Book of Mormon states that he visited a group of people in the Americas, who saw that he had a resurrected, tangible body. During his visit, he was announced by the voice of God the Father, and those present felt the Holy Spirit, but only the Son was seen. Jesus is quoted, "Father, thou hast given them the Holy Ghost because they believe in me; and thou seest that they believe in me because thou hearest them, and they pray unto me; and they pray unto me because I am with them. And now Father, I pray unto thee for them, and also for all those who shall believe on their words, that they may believe in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one." The Book of Mormon states that Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit are "one." The LDS Church interprets this "oneness" as a metaphorical oneness in spirit, purpose, and glory, rather than a physical or bodily unity. On the other hand, some Latter Day Saint sects, such as the Community of Christ, consider the Book of Mormon to be consistent with trinitarianism. Some scholars have also suggested that the view of Jesus in the Book of Mormon is also consistent, or perhaps most consistent, with monotheistic Modalism.

Starbucks not christmas enough?

I've heard some pretty stupid things in my life but really? The Starbucks cups aren't Christmas enough? Who woke up and made them the decider of the world?

Susa Young Gates

Susa Young Gates (March 18, 1856 – May 27, 1933) was a writer, periodical editor, and women's rights advocate in Utah. Susa Young was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to Lucy Bigelow, LDS Church president Brigham Young's twenty-second wife. She entered the University of Deseret at age 13 and became the editor of the student newspaper. In 1872, she married Alma B. Dunford and had two children, but the couple divorced in 1877 while he was serving an LDS Church mission. One of these children was Leah Dunford, who later became the wife of John A. Widtsoe. In 1878, Young entered Brigham Young Academy in Provo, Utah, where she founded the music department. In 1880, she married Jacob F. Gates. She had 13 children with him, seven of which did not survive to adulthood. Her son Bailey Dunford, from her first marriage, also died young. B. Cecil Gates and Emma Lucy Gates Bowen are her children. Gates and her husband served as church missionaries to the Kingdom of Hawaii in the late 1880s. During this time two of her children died of diphtheria. She would later recount her experiences here in a novel The Little Missionary. In 1889, she founded the Young Woman's Journal, a periodical targeted to adolescent Latter-day Saint females. In 1897, the church's Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association adopted the Young Women's Journal as its official organ. Gates stepped down as editor of the Journal in 1900, but continued to contribute occasionally until it ceased publication in 1929. Around the turn of the century, Gates was ill for three years after suffering a psychological and physical breakdown. However, she eventually returned to health. In 1909 a novel by Gates entitled John Stevens' Courtship was published. In 1915, Gates founded Relief Society Magazine a periodical targeted at members of the Relief Society. The magazine became the official publication of the church's Relief Society and Gates edited it until 1922. Gates also wrote nine books, including a biography of her father, two novels, a history of women in the LDS Church, and a 1911 history of the YLMIA. Gates was active in promoting women's rights and women's suffrage. She was a founding organizer of the National Household Economics Organization, served as a delegate and speaker to five congresses of the International Council of Women and was a delegate and officer of the National Council of Women. Gates was also a primary organizer of the Utah chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, and the National Woman's Press Club. She attended several Republican National Conventions. Gates was also a member of the Board of Regents of Brigham Young University and Utah State Agricultural College. In her later years, Gates was active in genealogy and LDS Church temple work. She was the head of the Research Department and Library of the Genealogical Society of Utah. She managed the genealogy departments in the Deseret News and Inter Mountain Republican and edited and wrote columns for both papers. Gates died in Salt Lake City at the age of 77.

Blackfriars Massacre

The 1978 Blackfriars Massacre, also known as the Blackfriars murders was an American Mafia massacre that occurred on June 28, 1978, in Downtown Boston in Boston, Massachusetts. The massacre claimed four criminals known to the police and a former Channel 7 (now WHDH-TV) Boston television investigative news anchorman and reporter, John A. Kelly. The massacre was allegedly over the sale of cocaine. The shooters who carried out the murders have never been caught. Suspects- The Boston Police Department suspected the responsibility of the murders to be orchestrated by one or some of these suspects: -James J. "Whitey" Bulger, of Somerville, Massachusetts, alleged leader of the Winter Hill Gang, an Irish-American crime family operating in the region of Boston, Massachusetts who was a Top Echelon Informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). -Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, of Roxbury, Massachusetts, former member of the Winter Hill Gang and ex-top echelon informant for the FBI -Nicholas Femia, of East Boston, Massachusetts, associate of the Patriarca crime family and later the Winter Hill Gang who was involved in extortion and armed robbery -James Martorano, contract killer and associate of the Winter Hill Gang and later the Patriarca crime family who was a close friend of Kelly -Robert Italiano, of East Boston, Massachusetts -William N. Ierardi, of Lynn, Massachusetts, drug dealer Targets: The main targets that were the intended reason for the murders were John A. Kelly and/or his business partner and friend, Vincent E. Solomonte. The victim, bar manager John A. Kelly, is not to be mistaken for corrupt DEA agent John Kelly, friend of FBI Special Agent John Connolly, or Patriarca crime family mob associate John ("Red") Kelley who were all active at the same time in the Boston underworld. Maurice Lewis, a lifelong friend of Kelly, stated, "I always thought of him as suitable for the cast of The Wild Bunch.... He was born a little too late for the adventure he craved. He was attracted to mobsters like a moth to a candle. Early on, he found a beat that would set him apart from the rest. He started to cultivate mob contacts as a way of getting into investigative reporting back before it became fashionable. And he loved that movie image. I don’t think he ever thought of it as anything other than a movie. But it was very real, and he just kept getting in deeper and deeper." Although he was fired over a political scandal with city hall, co-workers thought that Kelly was on the verge of making a comeback to the world of investigative journalism. According to former colleague Maurice Lewis, Kelly was scheduled to give up his job as manager of The Blackfriars Pub in two to three weeks in order to begin work as a freelance producer at WLVI-TV, Channel 56. His first pilot was scheduled to be taped on July 14 of that year. He also spoke of buying a bar or restaurant and managing it himself. While he managed Blackfriars for Solomonte, he hired Stephen Flemmi's longtime mistress Marilyn DeSilva to work at the popular discothèque as a waitress. John, as a Channel 7 investigative reporter, in a November 1976 interview, said, "I suppose my role with those people (organized-crime figures) is a dual role in a sense. I went into the relationship looking for stories. If you want a story on a gangster, go to a cop. If you want a story on a cop, go to a gangster. I went into that situation for that reason, and I suppose I came away with more." Kelly's alleged criminal associations: Mel Bernstein, who was WNAC-TV's news director, stated that Kelly was a great admirer of Edward Francis Harrington, the former head of the New England Organized Crime Task Force and the United States Attorney in Boston, and says it was Harrington who first suggested to Kelly that if he really wanted to do investigative reporting he ought to develop underworld contacts. "It's true that he kind of relished those associations... but he always maintained that those relationships were there because he needed sources. I accepted that only on the basis of who he was and what his job was. Every reporter has to have his sources." Police Commissioner diGrazia informed reporters after the scandal at city hall that there was a witch hunt-type campaign to get Mayor Kevin White. His office's public relations workers were covertly leaking information on Kelly to reporters they considered cooperative. Soon after Chief diGrazia leveled his charges, The Boston Globe released an investigative article that revealed a police report indicating that John Kelly had been seen by law enforcement officials "in the company of known members of organized crime" on roughly 25 separate occasions. When firearms and cocaine were found at the scene of the massacre, allegations and speculations of Kelly being an active member in Boston's organized crime came to light. John Kelly's friend and fellow co-worker Maurice Lewis later commented to The Boston Phoenix that there was no evidence that Kelly had been profiting from drug deals, though he stated that at the very least Kelly was a fringe member of organized crime. Lewis said, "He had no new car and no new clothes. He was driving a gold Cadillac Eldorado, but it was about three years old and it wasn’t his. It was Vinny's (victim Vincent E. Solomonte), and it was all beaten up. Jack never hid anything. If he were a big drug dealer, he’d let the world know. Jack ain’t gonna be wearing moccasins if he can be wearing $150 shoes. And he left home wearing moccasins that morning." Suspected robbery and aftermath: Three gunmen had burst into Blackfriars, a Downtown Boston bar located at 105 Summer Street. The Irish themed pub was named after Blackfriars which was mentioned in William Shakespeare's play Henry VIII. John A. Kelly of Framingham, Massachusetts, the club manager, was found lying face-down, two gunshot wounds in the head, in the cramped, blood-spattered subterranean basement, along with the bodies of Charles Magarian of North Andover, Massachusetts, Peter Meroth of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, Freddie Delavega of Somerville and Vincent E. Solmonte of Quincy, Massachusetts, who was the club's owner. The men had been killed while in the middle of a game of backgammon that had started up after the disco closed for the night. The bullet-riddled corpses were discovered by the janitor when he came in for work. Investigators suspected that the five men were surprised at around 2:00 a.m., and herded into the office where they were all shot by one or more intruders wielding at least one shotgun and a .25 caliber semi-automatic pistol. At the scene, investigators discovered a small arsenal of firearms and small quantities of cocaine and marijuana, as well as $15,000 in loose cash in an open safe. The drugs and cash led the police to conclude that the motive behind the massacre was not a robbery. The prevailing police opinion was that it looked to be a classic gangland style slaying. The massacre allegedly was over several kilos of cocaine. One of the murder victims, Vincent E. Solomonte, was later discovered to be a close associate and friend of Winter Hill Gang member Stephen Flemmi. The homicide investigators concluded that the five men were all murdered "gangland style." Jack Kelly left behind a wife and four young children. Investigation: Retired corrupt FBI Special Agent Michael J. Buckley said in court that he told FBI Special Agent John Connolly that Ierardi later admitted that he had fabricated the involvement of Bulger and Flemmi in the unsolved massacre. Nicholas Femia: Suspect Nicholas Femia was a hulking, overweight man with a cocaine addiction who wore flashy, flamboyant clothing and had a troubled relationship with James J. Bulger, with whom he had become an associate through the Winter Hill Gang in 1976. Nicholas lived with a girlfriend of Stephen Flemmi's mistress, Marilyn DeSilva, in an apartment across the street from Chandler's Restaurant, a South End restaurant co-owned by Martorano. He first began as a career criminal under the tutelage of Joseph Barboza. Nicholas was introduced into the gang to assist with extra muscle for their extortion and "protection" rackets. When suspect Nicholas Femia began hanging around the Winter Hill Gang's current headquarters, Lancaster Foreign Motors garage, James J. Bulger wanted it established that Nicholas had nothing whatsoever to do with the massacre, although his involvement is considered highly suspect by law enforcement circles. Bulger did this to reduce any pending surveillance and subpoenas or investigations by ambitious policemen who would try to prosecute Bulger because of his association with a high profile suspected killer like Nicholas. Soon after Nicholas joined the Winter Hill Gang, a brief notice appeared in one of FBI Special Agent John Connolly's reports clearing Nicholas of any involvement in the Blackfriar's massacre. As James J. Bulger grew older, he became more obsessed with physical fitness. James often wore tight jeans and T-shirts, and grew increasingly disgusted with Nicholas's protruding gut. Later, after Bulger and Nicholas parted ways, Connolly put another report in Bulger's file, suggesting that Nicholas had in fact been one of the triggermen in the Blackfriars killings. Nicholas would later remain under police surveillance for an assortment of crimes until he was shot to death during the unsuccessful shakedown of an autobody shop on Condor Street, East Boston, in 1983. Femia remains one of the suspects in the massacre, but his involvement has yet been proven. Murder trials and outcomes: Suspects Robert Italiano and William N. Ierardi, two suspects who were concentrated on by authorities during the initial homicide investigation, were later tried and acquitted in court in 1978. The massacre remains unsolved. Even though the crime was never officially solved, it is documented as being connected to organized crime. The Blackfriar murders is featured on Boston.com as a "Mob Tour" attraction. As for the individual suspects, they faced different fates: -James J. "Whitey" Bulger – On August 19, 1999, became the 458th Ten Most Wanted fugitive listed by the FBI, wanted for racketeering under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 19 counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering and narcotics distribution. On June 22, 2011, after sixteen years on the run, he was arrested.[5] -Nicholas Femia – After Nicholas and James J. Bulger parted ways, FBI Special Agent John Connolly put another report in Bulger's file, suggesting that Nicholas had in fact been one of the triggermen in the Blackfriars killings. His involvement in the Blackfriars massacre was never successfully proven and remains unsolved. Nicholas would be recognized as one of the few associates in the Winter Hill Gang that were able to part from the group and not be murdered in retribution for something foul for their actions, like Richard Castucci and Louis Litif. Femia would later be shot to death during an alleged robbery of an auto body shop in East Boston on December 16, 1983. His killer was the owner of the shop. There was a question as to whether Femia intended to actually rob the shop since the police report of the incident stated Femia was sitting next to a desk in the office of the shop when he was shot execution style. He was 43 years old at the time of his death. -Stephen Flemmi – Starting in 1999, he turned state's evidence and gave evidence which helped lead to the arrests and convictions of Winter Hill Gang associate Kevin Weeks, former childhood friend Frank Salemme and FBI handlers John Connolly and H. Paul Rico. -James Martorano – The brother of John Martorano, he would later align himself with the Patriarca crime family and be promoted to the rank of caporegime. In 1995 he was convicted of racketeering, extortion and conspiracy to commit murder. -William N. Ierardi – He was convicted of drug dealing in 1987 and turned state's evidence in trial of Stephen Flemmi and others The Blackfriars Pub itself is long gone. The Summer Street building in the Church Green Buildings Historic District that once held the pub now houses office space and retail stores such as Dunkin' Donuts.

Latter Day Saint movement and engraved metal plates

Engraved metal plates hold a special significance in the Latter Day Saint movement (Mormonism) because in 1827, the founder of that religion, Joseph Smith, Jr., claimed to have obtained a set of engraved golden plates from an angel and from them translated the Book of Mormon, a religious text of that religious tradition. Latter Day Saints believe that other engraved metal plates exist, most of which are mentioned in the Book of Mormon. In addition, Mormon apologists argue that the golden plates are part of a long tradition of writing on engraved metal plates in the Middle East. The golden plates: The golden plates are a set of bound and engraved metal plates that Latter Day Saint denominations believe are the source of Joseph Smith, Jr.'s translation of the Book of Mormon. Although several witnesses said they saw the plates, Smith said that he returned them to an angel. Most Latter Day Saints assume their authenticity as a matter of faith. Joseph Smith said he discovered the plates on September 22, 1823 on Cumorah hill, Manchester, New York, where he said they had been hidden in a buried box and protected for centuries by the angel Moroni, the spirit of an ancient American prophet-historian, who had been last to write on them. Smith claimed that the angel required him to obey certain commandments prior to receiving them and that his inability to obey prevented him from obtaining the plates until four years later, on September 22, 1827. During this period, Smith also began dictating written commandments in the voice of God, including a commandment to form a new church and to choose eleven men who would join Smith as witnesses of the plates. These witnesses later declared, in two separate written statements attached to the 1830 published Book of Mormon, that they had seen the plates. The Book of Mormon is accepted by adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement as a sacred text. Other plates referred to in the Book of Mormon: In addition to the Golden Plates, the Book of Mormon refers to several other sets of books written on metal plates: -The brass plates originally in the custody of Laban, containing the writings of Old Testament prophets before the Babylonian Exile, as well as the otherwise unknown prophets Zenos, Zenoch, Neum, and possibly others. -The large plates of Nephi, the source of the text abridged by Mormon and engraved on the Golden Plates. -The small plates of Nephi, the source of the first and second books of Nephi, and the books of Jacob, Enos, Jarom and Omni, which replaced the lost 116 pages. -A set of twenty-four plates found by the people of Limhi containing the record of the Jaredites, translated by King Mosiah, and abridged by Moroni as the Book of Ether. Kinderhook plates: In 1843, Smith acquired a set of six small bell-shaped plates, known as the Kinderhook Plates, found in Kinderhook, Pike County, Illinois. Although Smith did not translate the plates, William Clayton, his secretary, wrote that Smith said they contained "the history of the person with whom they were found and he was a descendant of Ham through the loins of Pharaoh king of Egypt." As Richard Bushman has written, "Joseph may not have detected the fraud, but he did not swing into a full-fledged translation as he had with the Egyptian scrolls. The trap did not quite spring shut, which foiled the conspirators original plan." After Smith's death, the Kinderhook Plates were presumed lost, and for decades The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) published facsimiles of them in its official History of the Church. In 1980 the Kinderhook Plates were tested at Brigham Young University and determined to have been manufactured during the nineteenth century. Today, the LDS Church acknowledges that the plates were a hoax. Vooree Plates and the Book of the Law of the Lord: James J. Strang, one of many rival claimants to succeed Smith in the 1844 succession crisis, said that he had discovered and translated a set of plates known as the Voree Plates or "Voree Record." Like Joseph Smith, Strang produced witnesses to testify to his plates' authenticity. Although Strang's attempt to supplant Brigham Young proved abortive, Joseph Smith's mother, Lucy Mack Smith, and for a time all living witnesses to the Book of Mormon, including the three Whitmers and Martin Harris (although perhaps excluding Oliver Cowdery), accepted "Strang's leadership, angelic call, metal plates, and his translation of these plates as authentic." Strang equally claimed to have discovered and translated the Plates of Laban spoken of in the Book of Mormon. As with the Voree Plates, Strang produced witnesses who authenticated them. Strang's purported translation of these plates was published in 1850 as the Book of the Law of the Lord, which together with the Voree Record, is accepted as Scripture by members of Strang's diminutive church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite). Metal plates in Mormon studies: William J. Hamblin argues that the golden plates are part of a long tradition of writing on engraved metal plates in the ancient Mediterranean. Some examples of brief hieroglyphic inscriptions on bronze are known from ancient Egypt. Some ancient European and Mesopotamian cultures did keep short records on metal plates, but extant examples are rare, have comparatively brief texts, and are extremely thin. A six-page, 24-carat gold book bound together with rings, alleged to be written in Etruscan, was found in Bulgaria; and in 2005, an eight-page golden codex bound with rings, allegedly from the Achaemenid period, was recovered from smugglers by the Iranian police. The Pyrgi Tablets (now at the National Etruscan Museum, Rome) are gold plates with a bilingual Phoenician-Etruscan text. In the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, archaeologists later discovered the "Copper Scroll," two rolled sheets of copper that may describe locations where treasures of the Second Temple of Jerusalem may have been hidden. Another Israelite example is the tiny "Silver Scrolls" dated to the 7th century BCE (First Temple period), containing just a few verses of scripture, perhaps the oldest extant passages of the Old Testament. Nevertheless, there is no known extant example of writing on metal plates from the ancient Mediterranean longer than the eight-page Persian codex, and none from any ancient civilization in the Western Hemisphere.

Kidnapping of Colleen Stan

Colleen Stan is an American woman who was kidnapped and held as a sex slave by Cameron and Janice Hooker in Red Bluff, California, for over seven years between 1977 and 1984. At the trial of her abductor, her story was described as unparalleled in FBI history. Kidnapping and imprisonment: On May 19, 1977, Cameron Hooker (born on November 5, 1953) kidnapped 20-year-old Colleen Stan as she was hitchhiking to a friend's birthday party. Stan stated that she was an experienced hitchhiker and had already allowed two rides to go past before accepting the ride with Hooker. "She felt confident climbing into the blue van", because Hooker's wife, Janice, and their baby were also in the car. According to Stan and Janice Hooker's testimonies, once they were alone in an isolated area, Hooker pulled off the highway and put a knife to Stan's throat. Earlier, Cameron and Janice had reached an agreement that Cameron could capture a slave to take Janice's place, as up until that time Cameron had been using Janice to act out his bondage fantasies. There was to be no sex with Stan according to the agreement, but this was later to change. On the first night of her kidnapping, Stan was strung up by the hands and beaten by Cameron. She was then left blindfolded and suspended while Cameron and Janice had sex together below her. After her kidnapping, Stan stated that she was tortured and kept locked in a box 23 hours a day until, in January 1978, she was given a contract and forced to sign herself into slavery for life. She said that Cameron led her to believe that she was being watched by a large, powerful organization called "The Company" which would painfully torture her and harm her family if she tried to escape. She was assigned a new slave name, "Kay", forced to call Cameron "Master", and was not allowed to talk without permission. Cameron wanted his new slave to be like the woman in the Story of O. Shortly after he named his slave K, Cameron started raping Stan. This consisted of oral rape as Cameron did not want to have sex with Stan vaginally as he considered that a breach in his agreement with his wife. He also penetrated Stan with various implements vaginally and anally. The Hooker family, together with Stan, then moved to a mobile home in Red Bluff, where Stan stated that she was kept locked in wooden boxes under the matrimonial water bed. In 1978, Janice gave birth to a second baby on the water bed above Stan. Stan states that her faith in God, and belief that someday she would be free, helped her survive, and that her greatest fear was not of Cameron but of "The Company" which she said Cameron reinforced on a daily basis. To avoid painful punishments, she said she tried to be a good slave and that due to this she was allowed out to jog, work in the yard, and care for the Hooker children alone in the mobile home. Even with an open door, neighbors, and a telephone, Stan made no attempt to escape; she said that her fear of "The Company" kept her from seeking help. Stan was even allowed to visit her family by herself in 1981. While at home, she did not reveal the truth about her situation and again stated that this was because of her fear of "The Company" and what they would do to her and her family. Her family thought she must have become involved in a cult because of her homemade clothes, lack of money, and absence of communications over the years. Her family did not want to pressure her fearing she would go away forever. Hooker posed as Stan's boyfriend and returned the next day. Stan's family took a photograph of the pair together, which shows them smiling and happy. Stan explained this at the trial as being due to her happiness at visiting her family. According to Stan, Hooker feared he had given his slave too much freedom — he took her back to his mobile home and locked her in the wooden box under his water bed; she remained in the box 23 hours a day for the next three years. Bodily functions were dealt with by her using a bed pan which she hooked under herself with her feet. It was stated in court that the Hooker children were told "Kay" would go home and that at night, after the children had gone to bed, Hooker would take her out of the box to feed and torture her. She was not allowed to make any noise and she had to lie still twenty-three long hours at a time, in the dark with little air to breathe. In the summer conditions were especially harsh on her as the temperatures would swelter to over 100 degrees in her box. She ate scraps of food which were always cold. Escape: It wasn't until 1984 that Stan was reintroduced to the children and neighbors; she was also allowed to get a job as a maid at a motel. Hooker wanted Stan to become his second wife, which was a turning point for Janice Hooker. Other sources (the TV program Girl in a Box) state that Janice's breaking point came when her husband started talking about getting four more female slaves. Janice Hooker stated that she had also been tortured and brainwashed over the years by her husband, and that this had started on their first date. Janice said that she survived her relationship with Hooker by denial and compartmentalization. By August 1984, her world was falling apart. Janice told the police that she went to Stan and told her that Hooker was not part of "The Company." She did maintain however that the organization did exist. In her television interview for Girl in a Box, Stan told the interviewer that she then went to the bus station and called Hooker to inform him that she was leaving him (and that he reacted by bursting into tears) and she then caught a bus home. In the months that followed, she did not contact the police but continued to call Hooker regularly. She explained this at the trial by saying that she did this because she wanted to give Hooker, at Janice's request, a chance to reform. Three months later Janice Hooker reported her husband to the police. Janice Hooker informed the Red Bluff Police, Lt. Jerry D. Brown, that Cameron Hooker had kidnapped, tortured and murdered Marie Elizabeth Spannhake who had disappeared in 1976. Authorities were unable to locate the remains of the woman, and with no physical proof, no murder charge was brought. After the escape: Once back home, Stan went to school for an accounting degree, married, and had a daughter. She also joined an organization to help abused women. Both she and Janice have changed their last names and continue to live in California. There is no communication between the women. In March 2009, a version of this story, written by Jim Green, was published under the title Colleen Stan, The Simple Gifts of Life (ISBN 978-1440118371). The trial: Chris Hatcher, forensic psychologist and criminal profiler, testified for the prosecution at the start of the 1985 trial. Janice Hooker testified against Cameron Hooker in exchange for full immunity. Hooker was in the end sentenced to consecutive terms for the sexual assaults, for the kidnapping, and for using a knife in the process, for a total of 104 years imprisonment. Originally not eligible for parole until 2023, California's Elderly Parole Program moved his hearing date up seven years to 2015. On April 16, 2015, Hooker's request for parole was denied. He is eligible for another hearing in 2030. In popular culture: The case was documented in a book Perfect Victim: The True Story of the Girl in the Box by prosecutor Christine McGuire and Carla Norton It was the inspiration for an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit Season 1 episode "Slaves". It inspired the name for the Texas experimental/noise group Black Leather Jesus by Richard Ramirez. It was the inspiration for an episode of Ghost Whisperer ("Ball & Chain", Season 4). The Stan case is referenced in Kathy Reichs' book Monday Mourning. In 1996, American art-rock band Elysian Fields released the song "Jack in the Box," on their first album Bleed Your Cedar. The song describes the experience of the box that Hooker kept Stan imprisoned in under the bed he shared with his wife, and alludes to the power Hooker had over her. In 1998 Cameron Kingsley Hayes depicted the kidnapping in a painting called In 1977 Cameron Hooker picked up a hitchiker, 19-year old Colleen Stan… In 2008, the episode "Kidnapped" of the Investigation Discovery series Wicked Attraction profiled the case. In 2012, the episode "The Apartment" of the SyFy series Paranormal Witness told the story of the disappearance of Marie Spannhake at the hands of Cameron and Janice Hooker with a small mention of this kidnapping. The alternative rock band Blake Babies has a song entitled "Girl In A Box" on their album Sunburn. The case has also been an inspiration for the Criminal Minds season seven episode entitled "The Company." The TV film Marian Again resembled the situation. In 2012, a short opera composed by Patrik Jarlestam (SWE) and Jonas Bernander (SWE) based on the kidnapping premiered in Stockholm, Sweden, called Den 4444:e dagen (The 4444:th day).

Murder of Hae Min Lee

Hae Min Lee was a Woodlawn High School senior in Baltimore, Maryland, who disappeared on 13 January 1999. Her body was found 9 February 1999 in Leakin Park, the victim of murder by manual strangulation. Adnan Masud Syed, her ex-boyfriend, was convicted of first degree murder and is currently serving a life sentence for her murder. In February 2015, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals approved Syed's application for leave to appeal. While her murder initially generated only local interest, it was the subject of the podcast Serial, which brought international attention to Syed's trial. Background: Hae Min Lee was born in South Korea in 1980 and immigrated with her mother Youn Kim and her brother Young Lee to the United States in 1992 to live with her grandparents. Lee attended the magnet program at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore, Maryland. She was an athlete who played lacrosse and field hockey, and was remembered by her French teacher as "one of those rare people you meet in life who is always happy, always joyful and full of love". Her lacrosse coach characterized her as a leader and a dedicated athlete. She was also responsible for picking up her cousin from kindergarten after school each day, and she had an after-school job at LensCrafters. Investigation: Lee disappeared on 13 January 1999, her family reported her missing that day. Baltimore County Police opened a missings persons case for Lee. During the missings persons case Baltimore County Police spoke with a number of Lee's friends, including Syed. On 9 February 1999, Lee's body was found by a civilian in Leakin Park. On 12 February 1999, the Baltimore County Police allegedly received an anonymous phone call suggesting that Lee's ex-boyfriend, Adnan Masud Syed, was responsible for her murder, and that Syed had threatened to kill Lee. The murder investigation of Lee was conducted by Batimore City Police. On 17 February 1999, telecommunications company AT&T provided Baltimore City Police with Syed's cell phone records (without cell tower information). On 18 February 1999, DEA supeonas subscriber information relevant to Syed's phone for the day of 13 January 1999. On 18 February 1999, AT&T provided Syed's cell phone records (including cell tower information). It has been reported that officers noticed a number of calls on the day of Lee's disappearance to a number that was allegedly linked to a woman named Jen Pusateri. When questioned, Pusateri allegedly told police that a friend of hers, Jay Wilds, who had known Syed from high school, told her that Syed had killed Lee. The police allegedly questioned Wilds, who allegedly told them that he had helped Syed bury Lee's body and dispose of her car. Syed was arrested on 28 February 1999 and charged with first degree murder. Trials and appeals: Syed's first trial ended in a mistrial, but after a six-week second trial, Syed was found guilty of first degree murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and robbery on 25 February 2000. Syed was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years. On 6 February 2015, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals approved Syed's application for leave to appeal. On 19 May 2015, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals remanded the case to Superior Court for potential hearing on the admissibility of alibi testimony of Asia McClain. On 9 November 2015, the Superior Court decided it will hear the case. According to the investigation by Serial, McClain's account of her encounter with Syed on the day of the disappearance would have been helpful at trial, although dismissing the state's timeline also has the effect of making this alibi less exculpatory. Justin Brown, Syed's current appeal lawyer, has also claimed that new evidence about the reliability of incoming call data from AT&T is suspect and should be reviewed by an appeals court, stating that "the cell tower evidence was misleading and should have never been admitted at trial." On 6 November 2015, ″Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Martin Welch ordered that Syed's post-conviction proceedings would be re-opened ′in the interests of justice for all parties.′″ Aftermath- Serial and Undisclosed podcasts: From 3 October to 18 December 2014, the murder trial of Adnan Syed was the subject of the first season of the podcast Serial, hosted by Sarah Koenig. The podcast episodes generated international interest in the trial, and had been downloaded more than 68 million times by mid-February 2015. In 2015, lawyer Rabia Chaudry (an advocate for Syed who had introduced the case to Koenig) and others began producing a podcast called Undisclosed: The State vs. Adnan Syed. The Innocence Project DNA testing: The Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Virginia Law School has identified another potential suspect and will be requesting new DNA tests be taken. Deirdre Enright of the Innocence Project said that they are waiting to hear back from Maryland whether they can file for DNA testing while the appeal motion is pending. Other persons involved: -Jay Wilds – key witness at Syed's trial -Rabia Chaudry – friend of Syed's family and an attorney

James B. Allen (historian)

James Brown "Jim" Allen is an American historian of Mormonism and was an official Assistant Church Historian of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1972–1979. Biography: Allen is a native of Logan, Utah and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). In the late 1940s, he was a proselyting missionary in the California Mission under Oscar W. McConkie. Allen served in his church throughout his life, including as a Bishop of a student ward at Brigham Young University (BYU) in the 1960s and a stake high councilor. In politics, he also served for a time as a District Republican committeeman. Allen was a significant historian of Mormonism with a strong grasp of its controversies. When his colleague Davis Bitton asked in an article "How many historians who are deeply familiar with the sources on Mormon origins still find it possible to remain in the fold", Bitton listed Allen among the first names he gave of people who fit this description. Allen lives in Orem, Utah and is married to the former Renée Jones. They have five children and twenty grandchildren. One of his daughters married the writer Orson Scott Card. Allen's younger brother, John H. Allen, was a Colonel in the United States Army Reserve, the commander over the Judge Advocate General units of the 96th Sustainment Brigade, and a Federal Bankruptcy Judge. Education: As an undergraduate student, Allen attended Utah State University (USU) in Logan, Utah, receiving a B.A. in history in 1954. During a history seminar as a senior, he met Leonard J. Arrington, a new professor who would come to strongly influence Allen's career. Allen's paper from that seminar was published in Utah Historical Quarterly in 1955 and became the basis for his graduate studies. Allen pursued his M.A. in history at BYU, with Dr. Richard D. Poll as his major professor. In 1956, he completed his thesis, The Development of County Government in the Territory of Utah, 1850-1896, which drew from his earlier published article. In 1963, Allen received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Southern California (USC). His dissertation, The Company Town in the American West, was later published as a book by the University of Oklahoma Press. Career: Starting in 1954, Allen worked for the Church Educational System (CES) in a variety of roles. In Kaysville, Utah he was a seminary teacher, as well as in Cowley, Wyoming, where he was also the coordinator of seminaries from 1955-7. He taught at LDS Institutes of Religion for nine years, and was director of the institutes in Long Beach and San Bernardino, California while pursuing his doctorate at USC. Allen joined the religion faculty at BYU in 1963, and then the history department in 1964. In the early 1970s was the doctoral major professor and mentor of Ron Esplin, who would become another notable Mormon historian. He was chair of the history department from 1981–1987, and afterward held the Lemuel Hardison Redd Jr. Chair in Western American History, until his 1992 retirement. From 1992-2005, he was a senior research fellow with BYU's Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History, and served on its executive committee for a time. From 1999-2000, Allen and his wife served as full-time missionaries for the Church Education System at the Boston Institute of Religion. In 2002, he taught in the History Department of Brigham Young University—Hawaii as a volunteer. Mormon History Association: In 1965, Allen was one of the founders of the Mormon History Association (MHA), along with Leonard J. Arrington. He would go on to serve as its vice-president in 1970 and president in 1972. Representing the MHA, Allen wrote and edited the "Historian's Corner," a semi-annual column in the quarterly BYU Studies from 1970–1982, when he was succeeded by Ronald W. Walker. Assistant Church Historian: In 1972, Allen was called to be an Assistant Church Historian for the LDS Church, at the request of Leonard J. Arrington. He served half time in that capacity, continuing his BYU professorship at the same time. Arrington had assembled a team of professional historians to engage in new academic research with use of the church archives. Amongst the first major publications to emerge was The Story of the Latter-day Saints, a comprehensive single-volume history of the LDS Church written by Allen and Glen M. Leonard, a Senior Historical Associate in the church's Historical Department, and published in 1976. The book was well received by the general and academic audiences, but some church leaders were uncomfortable. Allen's philosophy was to directly address historical controversies, while casting them against the context of their own time. Some leaders denounced the book as too secular and it was not republished for years, despite its popularity. In 1979, Allen was honorably released as Assistant Church Historian and returned full-time to BYU. Around this time, the department's History Division came under greater suspicion and scrutiny, and its staff and programs were curtailed before being transferred to BYU in 1982 as the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History. At BYU, Allen was coldly received by some religion faculty who were unhappy with his book. Later, some university trustees had reservations about Allen's 1981 appointment as chair of the history department. However, he retained leadership roles at BYU until his 1992 retirement, when he rejoined the staff and programs from the old History Division, at BYU's Joseph Fielding Smith Institute.

Adam–God doctrine

The Adam–God doctrine (or Adam–God theory) was a theological doctrine taught in mid-19th century Mormonism by church presidents Brigham Young, John Taylor, and Wilford Woodruff, and the apostles who served under them in the leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Although rejected today by the LDS Church, the doctrine is still an accepted part of the modern theology of some forms of Mormon fundamentalism. According to Young, he was taught by Joseph Smith that Adam is "our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do". According to the doctrine, Adam was once a mortal man who became resurrected and exalted. From another planet, he then came as Michael to form the earth, Adam brought Eve, one of his wives, with him to the earth, where they became mortal by eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. After bearing mortal children and establishing the human race, Adam and Eve returned to their heavenly thrones where Adam serves as God, and is our Heavenly Father. Later, Adam returned to the earth to the ancient prophets, and to become the literal father of Jesus. During the 19th century and early 20th century, the Adam–God doctrine was taught in LDS Church meetings, sung in church hymns, and featured as part of the church's endowment ceremony. However, the doctrine was startling to Mormons when it was introduced, and it remained controversial. Other Mormons and some breakoff groups, the most notable being apostle Orson Pratt, rejected the doctrine in favor of other theological ideas. Eventually the Adam–God doctrine fell out of favor within the LDS Church and was replaced by a theology more similar to that of Pratt, as codified by turn-of-the century Mormon theologians James E. Talmage, B. H. Roberts, and John A. Widtsoe. In 1976, LDS Church president Spencer W. Kimball stated that the church does not support the doctrine. Presently, most Mormons accept Adam as "the Ancient of Days", "father of all", and "Michael the Archangel" but do not recognize him as being "God the Father". Background: Though Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, never used the term the "Adam–God" in any of his recorded public statements, he provided several teachings from which Adam–God adherents draw support. For example, Smith taught in an 1839 sermon that Adam was actually the archangel Michael who held the First Presidency in the premortal life. In the same sermon, Smith taught that Adam holds "the keys of the universe", so that it is through his authority that all priesthood "keys" (i.e., the abilities to unlock particular priesthood powers) are revealed from heaven. In 1840, Smith taught that Adam is the one "through whom Christ has been revealed from heaven, and will continue to be revealed from henceforth." And finally, Smith taught in his 1844 King Follett discourse that God was once a man "like one of us". Brigham Young and other adherents of the Adam–God doctrine claim that Smith was the originator of the doctrine, and that Smith privately taught them the doctrine before his death in 1844. However, the prevailing academic view is that the Adam–God doctrine taught by Young and others was an elaboration of Smith's vague references to Adam's unique role in Mormon doctrine. Although Young is generally credited with originating the doctrine, the original source could also have been Young's counselor in the First Presidency Heber C. Kimball. Description of the doctrine: The Adam–God doctrine teaches that Adam is the father of both the spirits and physical bodies of all humans born on earth, including Jesus. Under the Adam–God doctrine, Adam had a number of roles. First, he was a creator god who, with his wife Eve had become gods by living a mortal life, becoming resurrected, and earning their exaltation. As a god before the creation of the earth, he was known as Michael, or the "Ancient of Days". Adherents teach that Michael sat on his throne with other wives than Eve, and that he was a polygamist. Michael was not the only creator god, however, as he was a member of a council of earth's creator gods, which also included the gods "Elohim" and "Jehovah". Within this council, Jehovah and Michael were subordinate to Elohim, and created the earth under the direction of Elohim. Michael was selected by the heads of this council of gods to be the Father of this earth. Second, the doctrine teaches that Michael was the father of the spirits in heaven who are associated with this earth. With Eve and possibly his other wives, Michael had fathered the spirits of spirit offspring in the preexistence. These spirits included Jesus, his firstborn, and Lucifer (the fallen angel who Mormons believe is Satan). Michael became the heavenly "Father", and formed a "Godhead" that included Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Third, the doctrine teaches that Michael came to the earth with one of his wives, where they became known as Adam and Eve, and became the progenitor of the human race and the father of mortal bodies of all his spirit offspring, so that they could progress and achieve godhood like themselves. The names "Adam" and "Eve" are titles that reflect their roles as the parents of humanity. The privilege of peopling the earth was part of Adam and Eve's eternal reward as exalted mortals from their prior planet. To bear mortal children, Adam and Eve had to take on mortal bodies. The bodies of Adam and Eve fell to a mortal state when they ate the fruit of tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. Fourth, after Adam's second mortal life, the Adam–God doctrine teaches that Adam returned to his throne and reigned as the immortal God of this earth. He is thus considered to be the Biblical God of Israel. Finally, the Adam–God doctrine teaches that Michael/Adam was the literal, biological father of the mortal body of Jesus. History of the doctrine- Brigham Young's 1852 announcement: Whether or not Smith had taught the doctrine, the first recorded explanation of the doctrine using the term "Adam–God" was by Young, who first taught the doctrine at the church's spring general conference on April 9, 1852. This sermon was recorded stenographically by George D. Watt, Young's private secretary, who was an expert in Pitman shorthand. Watt published the sermon in 1854 in the British periodical Journal of Discourses; the publication was endorsed by Young and his counselors in the church's First Presidency. In Watt's transcript of the sermon, Young said he intended to discuss "who it was that begat the Son of the Virgin Mary", a subject which he said "has remained a mystery in this kingdom up to this day". The transcript reads: "When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. He is MICHAEL, the Archangel, the ANCIENT OF DAYS! about whom holy men have written and spoken—He is our FATHER and our GOD, and the only God with whom WE have to do. Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it, and will know it sooner or later. The transcript then reads: "When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten him 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". Young explained that Adam "was begotten by his Father in heaven" in the same way that Adam begat his own sons and daughters, and that there were "three distinct characters, namely, Eloheim, Yahovah, and Michael". Then, reiterating, he said that "Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the Garden of Eden, and who is our Father in Heaven." He said, "I could tell you much more about this; but were I to tell you the whole truth, blasphemy would be nothing to it, in the estimation of the superstitious and overrighteous mankind .... Now, let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation." Further development by Young: In a special conference on August 28, 1852, Young explained in greater detail the mechanism by which celestial beings like Adam and Eve could give birth to mortal offspring. According to Young, when a couple first become gods and goddesses, they first begin to create spiritual offspring. Then, they begin creating "mortal tabernacles" in which those spirits can dwell, by going to a newly created world, where they: "eat and drink of the fruits of the corporal world, until this grosser matter is diffused sufficiently through their celestial bodies, to enable them according to the established laws to produce mortal tabernacles for their spiritual children" (Young 1852b, p. 13). This is what Adam and Eve did, Young said, and "Adam is my Father". (Young 1852b, p. 13). On February 19, 1854, Young reiterated the doctrine in a sermon. He also reiterated the doctrine at the October 1854 general conference, in a sermon that was reported to have "held the vast audience as it were spellbound" In the October conference, Young is reported as clarifying that Adam and Eve were "natural father and mother of every spirit that comes to this planet, or that receives tabernacles on this planet, consequently we are brother and sisters, and that Adam was God, our Eternal Father." When Young discussed the doctrine again in early 1857, he emphasized again that "to become acquainted with our Father and our God" was "one of the first principles of the doctrine of salvation", and that "no man can enjoy or be prepared for eternal life without that knowledge". Nevertheless, he said: "Whether Adam is the personage that we should consider Our Heavenly Father, or not, is considerable of a mystery to a good many. I do not care for one moment how that is; it is no matter whether we are to consider Him our God, or whether His Father, or his Grandfather, for in either case we are of one species of one family and Jesus Christ is also of our species.". Initial reactions to the doctrine: The reaction within the Mormon community to Young's Adam–God teachings was mixed. While many accepted the doctrine, others regarded it as misguided, or interpreted it to adhere to their prior understanding. Young's initial 1852 announcement of the doctrine was greeted by some as prophetic. For example, the clerk of the conference, Thomas Bullock, recorded that during Young's sermon, "the Holy Ghost rested upon him with great power". In a session of general conference the next day, Heber C. Kimball stated his agreement that "the God and Father of Jesus Christ was Adam". Another apostle, Franklin D. Richards, accepted the doctrine "that Adam is our Father and our God" as well, stating in a conference held in June 1854 that "the Prophet and Apostle Brigham has declared it, and that it is the word of the Lord". Kimball readily adopted Young's views, and preached on June 29, 1856, that "I have learned by experience that there is but one God that pertains to this people, and He is the God that pertains to this earth—the first man. That first man sent his own Son to redeem the world." A number of hymns acknowledging this doctrine were sung in local congregations of the LDS Church. One published in 1856, entitled "We Believe in Our God", stated: "We believe in our God the great Prince of His race, / The Archangel Michael, the Ancient of Days, / Our own Father Adam, earth's Lord, as is plain". The first line of a poem published in 1861, titled "Sons of Michael", stated: "Sons of Michael, he approaches! / Rise; the Eternal Father greet". The poem is included as a hymn in the current LDS Church hymnal, but the wording has been altered from "Eternal Father" to "ancient father". Acceptance of the doctrine by the LDS Church continued through the 19th century. George Q. Cannon, a member of the First Presidency, when asked by his son about the conception of Jesus by Mary, asked "what was to prevent Father Adam from visiting and overshadowing the mother of Jesus" Resistance to the doctrine: However, some prominent members of the church took issue with the doctrine. Most significantly, apostle and philosopher Orson Pratt disagreed with the doctrine, and expressed that disagreement publicly and in private meetings with other apostles. Pratt also published his disagreement in his publication The Seer. Pratt stated that on the way to exaltation, one would have to "pass by" and "pay tribute to" various apostles and prophets, then Jesus, and "at length … Father Adam." He said many would be surprised and humiliated, after passing by Jesus, to find "Father Adam" standing there; however, he said, "those are ideas which do not concern us at present, although it is written in the Bible—'This is eternal life, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.'" Pratt continued to debate the issue in public forums for months, despite being rebuked privately and publicly by Young on more than one occasion (Bergera 1980, pp. 13–16), until 1860, when faced with possible disfellowshipment from the church for teaching false doctrine, Pratt agreed to the language of a public confession affirming the doctrine as negotiated during a series of meeting among the church hierarchy (Bergera 1980). A less open opposition to the doctrine may have been carried out by Mormon editors Samuel W. Richards and Franklin D. Richards who, according to one researcher, interpreted the idea of Adam being "our God" or "our Father" as meaning merely that Adam, as the first mortal man, stands at the head of the human family. For instance, "the Lord made Moses a god to Pharaoh" (Exodus 7:1) and as Paul was "as Christ Jesus" to the Galatians (4:14). In this way, Adam as our great progenitor, will preside over the human family as "father and God." Adam–God in Young's later administration: After the public debates between Young and Pratt subsided in 1860, Young continued to maintain his belief in the doctrine, but may have been disappointed that the people did not give the doctrine universal acceptance. In 1861, he stated: "Some years ago, I advanced a doctrine with regard to Adam being our father and God, that will be a curse to many of the Elders of Israel because of their folly. With regard to it they yet grovel in darkness and will. It is one of the most glorious revealments of the economy of heaven, yet the world hold derision. Had I revealed the doctrine of baptism from [sic] the dead instead Joseph Smith there are men around me who would have ridiculed the idea until dooms day. But they are ignorant and stupid like the dumb ass." Nevertheless, Young and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles continued to discuss the doctrine. In 1873, Young again taught the doctrine publicly, and indicated that when Adam came to the earth, he left behind many wives other than Eve at the place from which Adam came; however, he said he was "not disposed to give any farther knowledge concerning … the great and glorious doctrine that pertains to this". "How much unbelief exists in the minds of the Latter-day Saints in regard to one particular doctrine which is revealed to them, and which God revealed to me—namely that Adam is our father and God .... Our Father Adam is the man who stands at the gate and holds the keys of everlasting life and salvation to all his children who have or ever will come upon the earth". Just before his death, Young took steps to ensure that the Adam–God doctrine was taught in the church's temples as part of the endowment ceremony. In 1877, while he was standardizing the endowment for use in the St. George Temple, Young introduced as part of the endowment the "Lecture at the Veil." The final draft of the lecture is today kept private in the St. George Temple. There are those who believe that Young's personal secretary recorded Young's dictation of the lecture in his personal journal. A portion of that journal entry reads as follows: "Adam was an immortal being when he came. on this earth he had lived on an earth similar to ours … and had begotten all the spirit that was to come to this earth. and Eve our common Mother who is the mother of all living bore those spirits in the celestial world …. Father Adam’s oldest son (Jesus the Saviour) who is the heir of the family is Father Adams first begotten in the spirit World. who according to the flesh is the only begotten as it is written. In his divinity he having gone back into the spirit World. and come in the spirit glory to Mary and she conceived for when Adam and Eve got through with their Work in this earth. they did not lay their bodies down in the dust, but returned to the spirit World from whence they came." After Young's death: There is some controversy as to whether or not Young considered Adam–God to be official church doctrine. At the end of his 1852 sermon, he stated, "Now, let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation." Nevertheless, in 1854, after a great deal of controversy concerning the doctrine, Young minimized the importance of the doctrine, stating that the "subject ... does not immediately concern yours or my welfare .... I do not pretend to say that the items of doctrine and ideas I shall advance are necessary for the people to know". After Young's death, church leaders began to cast the various interpretations of this teaching as mere speculation and denied that any particular interpretation was binding on the church. In 1897, Joseph F. Smith, then an apostle and counselor in the First Presidency, wrote a private letter concerning Young's teachings on Adam, stating: "The doctrine was never submitted to the councils of the Priesthood nor to the church for approval or ratification, and was never formally or otherwise accepted by the church. It is therefore in no sense binding upon the Church. Brigham Young's 'bare mention' was 'without indubitable evidence and authority being given of its truth.' Only the scripture, the 'accepted word of God,' is the Church's standard." Beginning around 1892, church leaders privately decided to no longer publicly teach the doctrine. In a private meeting held on April 4, 1897, church president Wilford Woodruff said. "Adam is our father and God and no use to discuss it with the Josephites Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or any one else." In 1892, the doctrine was publicly opposed in St. George, Utah by Edward Bunker. The First Presidency—Woodruff, George Q. Cannon, and Joseph F. Smith—traveled to St. George to address the issue. Records of the meeting state that Bunker was corrected: "Pres Woodruff and Cannon showed ... that Adam was an immortal being when he came to this earth and was made the same as all other men and Gods are made." "The doctrine preached and contended for by Father Edward Bunker of Bunkerville was investigated, condemned and Father Bunker set right. Presidents Woodruff and Cannon present." After the start of the 20th century, church leaders openly took the position that the doctrine should no longer to be taught publicly. As early as 1902, apostle Charles W. Penrose claimed, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has never formulated or adopted any theory concerning the subject treated upon by President Young as to Adam." Current position of the LDS Church: Eventually, the doctrine was publicly denounced as false by LDS Church leaders. In 1976, church president Spencer W. Kimball stated, "We denounce that theory and hope that everyone will be cautioned against this and other kinds of false doctrine." In 1980, apostle Bruce R. McConkie gave a speech elaborating upon the church's position towards the Adam–God theory: "There are those who believe or say they believe that Adam is our father and our god, that he is the father of our spirits and our bodies, and that he is the one we worship. "The devil keeps this heresy alive as a means of obtaining converts to cultism. It is contrary to the whole plan of salvation set forth in the scriptures, and anyone who has read the Book of Moses, and anyone who has received the temple endowment and who yet believes the Adam–God theory does not deserve to be saved.* Those who are so ensnared reject the living prophet and close their ears to the apostles of their day. 'We will follow those who went before,' they say. And having so determined, they soon are ready to enter polygamous relationships that destroy their souls. "We worship the Father, in the name of the Son, by the power of the Holy Ghost; and Adam is their foremost servant, by whom the peopling of our planet was commenced." Later the same year, apostle Mark E. Petersen stated: "Adam was not our God, nor was he our Savior. But he was the humble servant of both in his status as an angel. ... "God had only one begotten son in the flesh. But Adam had many, including Cain and Abel and Seth. He lived nearly a thousand years. He could have had hundreds of children in that time. "Then how could it be said by anyone that he had 'an only begotten' son? How could all of his other children be accounted for? Were they not all begotten in the flesh? "Were Cain and Abel and Seth and their brothers and sisters all orphans? Was any child ever begotten without a father? Adam was their father, and he had many sons. In no way whatever does he qualify as a father who had only one son in the flesh. "Yet God our Eternal Father had only one son in the flesh, who was Jesus Christ. "Then was Adam our God, or did God become Adam? Ridiculous! "Adam was neither God nor the Only Begotten Son of God. He was a child of God in the spirit as we all are (see Acts 17:29). Jesus was the firstborn in the spirit, and the only one born to God in the flesh. ... "If any of you have been confused by false teachers who come among us, if you have been assailed by advocates of erroneous doctrines, counsel with your priesthood leaders. They will not lead you astray, but will direct you into paths of truth and salvation." Acceptance by Mormon fundamentalists: Adherents of Mormon fundamentalism generally accept the Adam–God doctrine. The LDS Church's disavowal of the doctrine contributes to what fundamentalists perceive to be a general intellectual or spiritual retreat by the church from doctrines felt to be excessively challenging to their preconceptions. Along with the practice of plural marriage, belief in the Adam–God doctrine became a defining aspect of the Mormon fundamentalist movement. Apostolic United Brethren: The Apostolic United Brethren (AUB), a fundamentalist Mormon group, accepts the Adam–God teaching, and their leader Joseph W. Musser wrote a book on it in the 1930s. In the book, Musser contended that the rejection of the doctrine by the LDS Church can be linked to its rejection of plural marriage, which occurred around the same time: "And let us here remind the reader that as long as belief in the Patriarchal order of marriage and other advanced principles of the Gospel was maintained, the minds of the Saints were open and receptive. ... But with the surrender of the glorious principle of Celestial Marriage—a union for time and eternity—came darkness, mental drowsiness, a detour from the Gospel path, until all sorts of speculation pertaining to the plan of Salvation was indulged in." School of the Prophets: The School of the Prophets spoken of in the book Under the Banner of Heaven claims revelation showing that Young was inaccurate in some points of his Adam–God teachings, but otherwise he was correct. The understanding from these revelations is that Jesus was the Only Begotten Son in the flesh of the Savior of the previous earth where the father of all Spirits, Michael/Adam, had his mortal probation. The lineage of Michael/Adam, which includes all but Jesus on this earth, will never become saviors of worlds. Thus the Adam–God doctrine of Young is simply a fuller understanding of the New Testament doctrine of joint-heirs with Christ.

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold

Eric David Harris and Dylan Bennet Klebold were the two American high school seniors who committed the Columbine High School massacre. The pair killed 13 people and injured 24 others, three of whom were injured as they escaped the attack. The two then committed suicide in the library, where they had killed 10 of their victims. Background- Eric Harris: Eric David Harris was born in Wichita, Kansas. The Harris family relocated often, as Eric's father, Wayne Harris, was a U.S. Air Force transport pilot. His mother, Katherine Ann Poole, was a homemaker. The family moved from Plattsburgh, New York, to Littleton, Colorado, in July 1993, when Wayne Harris retired from military service. The Harris family lived in rented accommodations for the first three years that they lived in the Littleton area. During this time, Eric met Dylan Klebold. In 1996, the Harris family purchased a house south of Columbine High School. Eric's older brother, Kevin, attended college at the University of Colorado Boulder. Dylan Klebold: Dylan Bennet Klebold was born in Lakewood, Colorado, to Thomas (born 1947) and Susan Klebold (née Yassenoff, born 1948). His parents were pacifists and attended a Lutheran church with their children, and Dylan and his older brother, Byron, attended confirmation classes in accordance with Lutheran tradition. At home, the family also observed some rituals in keeping with Klebold's maternal grandfather's Jewish heritage. Klebold attended Normandy Elementary in Littleton, Colorado for the first two grades before transferring to Governor's Ranch Elementary and became part of the CHIPS ("Challenging High Intellectual Potential Students") program. He found the transition to Ken Caryl Middle School difficult. Klebold struggled with and questioned his sexuality, at times self-identifying as bisexual on online profiles. Columbine High School: At Columbine High, Harris and Klebold were active in school play productions, operated video productions and became computer assistants maintaining the school's computer server. According to early accounts of the shooting, Harris and Klebold were very unpopular students and targets of bullying. While sources do support accounts of bullying directed toward the pair, accounts of them being outcasts have been reported to be false. Harris and Klebold were initially reported to be members of a group that called themselves the "Trenchcoat Mafia", although in truth they had no particular connection with the group, and did not appear in a group photo of the Trenchcoat Mafia in the 1998 Columbine yearbook. Harris's father stated that his son was "a member of what they call the Trenchcoat Mafia" in a 911 call he made on April 20, 1999. Klebold attended the high school prom three days before the shootings with a classmate named Robyn Anderson. Harris and Klebold linked their personal computers on a network and both played many games over the Internet. Harris created a set of levels for the game Doom, which later became known as the 'Harris levels'. Harris had a web presence under the handle "REB" (short for Rebel, a nod to the nickname of Columbine's sports teams) and other cyber aliases, including "Rebldomakr", "Rebdoomer", and "Rebdomine", while Klebold went by the names "VoDKa" and "VoDkA". Harris had various websites that hosted Doom and Quake files, as well as team information for those he gamed with online. The sites openly espoused hatred for the people of their neighborhood and the world in general. When the pair began experimenting with pipe bombs, they posted results of the explosions on the websites. The website was shut down by America Online after the shootings and was preserved for the FBI. Initial legal encounters: In March 1998, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office investigator Michael Guerra looked at Harris's website after the parents of Brooks Brown, a fellow student of Harris and Klebold, discovered Harris was making threats aimed at their son after a falling out between them. Guerra wrote a draft affidavit for a search warrant, but the affidavit was never filed. This information was not revealed to the public until September 2001 by 60 Minutes, though it was known by the police the entire time. The two boys got into trouble with the law for breaking into a locked van and stealing computers. In January 1998, they were charged with mischief, breaking and entering, trespassing, and theft. They both left good impressions on the juvenile officers, who offered to expunge their criminal records if they agreed to attend a diversionary program to include community service, received psychiatric treatment, and obeyed the law. Harris was required to attend anger management classes where, again, he made a favorable impression. They were so well-behaved that their probation officer discharged them from the program a few months earlier than the due date. Of Harris, it was remarked that he was "a very bright individual who is likely to succeed in life", while Klebold was said to be intelligent, but "needs to understand that hard work is part of fulfilling a dream." On April 30, Harris handed over the first version of a letter of apology he wrote to the owner of the van, which he completed the next month. In the letter, Harris expressed regret about his actions; however, in one of his journal entries dated April 12, he wrote: "Isnt america supposed to be the land of the free? how come, If im free, I cant deprive some fucking dumbshit from his possessions If he leaves then sitting in the front seat of his fucking van in plain sight in the middle of fucking nowhere on a fri-fucking-day night? Natural selection. Fucker should be shot". Hitmen for Hire: In December 1998, Harris and Klebold made Hitmen For Hire, a video for a school project in which they swore, yelled at the camera, made violent statements, and acted out shooting and killing students in the hallway of their school as Hitmen for Hire. They both displayed themes of violence in their creative writing projects for school; of a Doom-based story written by Harris on January 17, 1999, Harris's teacher said: "Yours is a unique approach and your writing works in a gruesome way—good details and mood setting." Massacre- Day of the massacre: On April 20, 1999, while smoking a cigarette at the start of lunch break, Brooks Brown saw Harris arrive at school. Brown had severed his friendship with Harris a year earlier because Harris had thrown a chunk of ice at his car windshield; Brown patched things up with Harris just prior to the shooting. Brown scolded Harris for skipping the morning class, because Harris was always serious about schoolwork and being on time. Harris reportedly said, "It doesn't matter anymore" and also said, "Brooks, I like you now. Get out of here. Go home." Brown quickly left the school grounds. At 11:19 a.m., he heard the first gunshots after he had walked some distance away from the school, and he informed the police via a neighbor's cell phone. By that time, Dylan Klebold had already arrived at the school in a separate car, and the two boys left two gym bags, each containing a 20-pound propane bomb, inside the school cafeteria. When these devices failed to detonate, Harris and Klebold launched a shooting attack against their classmates. It remains the deadliest attack ever perpetrated at an American high school. Harris was responsible for seven of the 13 confirmed deaths (Rachel Scott, a teacher identified as Dave Sanders, Steve Curnow, Cassie Bernall, Isaiah Shoels, Kelly Fleming, and Daniel Mauser), while Klebold was responsible for the remaining six (Dan Rohrbough,Kyle Velasquez, Matthew Kechter, Lauren Townsend, John Tomlin and Corey DePooter). There were 24 wounded, most in critical condition. Suicide: At 12:02 p.m., Harris and Klebold returned to the library. This was 20 minutes after their lethal shooting spree had ended, leaving 12 students dead, one teacher dying, and another 24 students injured. Ten of their victims had been killed in the library, with their bodies strewn about the floor. Harris and Klebold went to the west windows and opened fire on the police outside. Six minutes later, they walked to the bookshelves near a table where Patrick Ireland lay badly-wounded and unconscious. Student Lisa Kreutz, injured in the earlier library attack, was also in the room, unable to move. At 12:08 p.m., art teacher Patti Nielson, who had locked herself inside a break room with student Brian Anderson and library staff, overheard Harris and Klebold shout out in unison: "One! Two! Three!" followed immediately by the sound of gunfire. Harris had fired his shotgun through the roof of his mouth, and Klebold had shot himself in the left temple with his TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun. Acquiring arms: Because Harris and Klebold were both underage at the time, Robyn Anderson (with whom Klebold attended the prom three days before the shooting), an 18-year-old Columbine student and old friend of Klebold's, made a straw purchase of two shotguns and Hi-Point carbine for the pair. In exchange for her cooperation with the investigation that followed the shootings, no charges were filed against Anderson. After illegally acquiring the weapons, Klebold sawed off his Savage 311-D 12-gauge double-barrel shotgun, shortening the overall length to approximately 23 inches (0.58 m), a felony under the National Firearms Act, while Harris's Savage-Springfield 12-gauge pump shotgun was sawed off to around 26 inches (0.66 m). The shooters also possessed a TEC-DC9 semi-automatic handgun, which had a long history. The manufacturer of the TEC-DC9 first sold it to Miami-based Navegar Incorporated. It was then sold to Zander's Sporting Goods in Baldwin, Illinois in 1994. The gun was later sold to Thornton, Colorado, firearms dealer Larry Russell. In violation of federal law, Russell failed to keep records of the sale, yet he determined that the purchaser of the gun was twenty-one years of age or older. He was unable to identify the pictures of Klebold, Anderson, or Harris shown to him by police after the shooting. Two men, Mark Manes and Philip Duran, were convicted of supplying weapons to the two. The bombs used by the pair varied and were crudely made from carbon dioxide canisters, galvanized pipe, and metal propane bottles. The bombs were primed with matches placed at one end. Both had striker tips on their sleeves. When they rubbed against the bomb, the match head would light the fuse. The weekend before the shootings, Harris and Klebold had purchased propane tanks and other supplies from a hardware store for a few hundred dollars. Several residents of the area claimed to have heard glass breaking and buzzing sounds from the Harris family's garage, which later was concluded to indicate they were constructing pipe bombs. Harris purchased more propane tanks on the morning of the attack. More complex bombs, such as the one that detonated on the corner of South Wadsworth Boulevard and Ken Caryl Avenue, had timers. The two largest bombs built were found in the school cafeteria and were made from small propane tanks. Only one of these bombs went off, only partially detonating. It was estimated that if any of the bombs placed in the cafeteria had detonated properly, the blast could have caused extensive structural damage to the school and would have resulted in hundreds of casualties. Aftermath: There was controversy over whether the perpetrators should be memorialized. Some were opposed, saying that it glorified murderers, while others argued that the perpetrators were also victims. Atop a hill near Columbine High School, crosses were erected for Harris and Klebold along with those for the people they killed, but the father of Daniel Rohrbough (the second student to be killed) cut them down, saying that murderers should not be memorialized in the same place as victims. Motivations: Harris and Klebold wrote much about how they would carry out the massacre, but less about why. A journal found in Harris's bedroom contained almost every detail that the boys planned to follow after 5:00 a.m. on April 20, 1999. In journal entries, the pair often wrote about events such as the Oklahoma City bombing, the Waco Siege, the Vietnam War, and other similar events, including blurbs and notes on how they wished to "outdo" these events, focusing especially on what Timothy McVeigh did in Oklahoma City. They mentioned how they would like to leave a lasting impression on the world with this kind of violence. That the shooters initially planned and failed to blow up the high school, and not just shoot students, is an indication of how they had wished to overshadow the events that had occurred, respectively, four and six years earlier. Much speculation occurred over the date chosen for their attack. The original intended date of the attack may have been April 19; Harris required more ammunition from Mark Manes, who did not deliver it until the evening of April 19. Harris and Klebold were both avid fans of KMFDM, an industrial band led by German multi-instrumentalist Sascha Konietzko. It was revealed that lyrics to KMFDM songs ("Son of a Gun", "Stray Bullet", "Waste") were posted on Harris' website, and that the date of the massacre, April 20, coincided with both the release date of the album Adios and the birthday of Adolf Hitler. Harris noted the coincidence of the album's title and release date in his journal. The media was quick to jump on the apparent connection of the massacre to violent entertainment and Nazism. In response, Konietzko issued a statement: "First and foremost, KMFDM would like to express their deep and heartfelt sympathy for the parents, families and friends of the murdered and injured children in Littleton. We are sick and appalled, as is the rest of the nation, by what took place in Colorado yesterday. "KMFDM are an art form—not a political party. From the beginning, our music has been a statement against war, oppression, fascism and violence against others. While some of the former band members are German as reported in the media, none of us condone any Nazi beliefs whatsoever." The attack occurred on Hitler's birthday, which led to speculation in the media. Some people, such as Robyn Anderson, who knew the perpetrators, stated that the pair were not obsessed with Nazism nor did they worship or admire Hitler in any way. Anderson stated, in retrospect, that there were many things the pair did not tell friends. Dave Cullen, author of the 2010 book Columbine, cites evidence that Harris did revere the Nazis. He praised them often in his journal, and some of his friends grew irritated at his frequent Nazi salutes and quotations in the months leading up to the shooting. At a certain point, Harris realized he needed to reduce this behavior, for fear of revealing his plans. He commented in his journal about how hard it was to wait until April to express all his hatred for the human race. In his journal, Harris mentioned his admiration of what he imagined to be natural selection, and wrote that he would like to put everyone in a super Doom game and see to it that the weak die and the strong live. On the day of the massacre, Harris wore a white T-shirt with the words "Natural selection" printed in black. Bullying: One of Harris' last journal entries read: "I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things. And no don't … say, 'Well that's your fault,' because it isn't, you people had my phone number, and I asked and all, but no. No no no don't let the weird-looking Eric KID come along." Dylan Klebold said on the Basement Tapes, "You've been giving us shit for years. You're fucking gonna pay for all the shit! We don't give a shit. Because we're gonna die doing it." Accounts from various parents and school staffers describe the bullying that has been described as "rampant" at the school. Nathan Vanderau, a friend of Klebold, and Alisa Owen, Harris's eighth-grade science partner, reported that Harris and Klebold were constantly picked on. Vanderau noted that a "cup of fecal matter" was thrown at them. "People surrounded them in the commons and squirted ketchup packets all over them, laughing at them, calling them faggots," Brooks Brown says. "That happened while teachers watched. They couldn't fight back. They wore the ketchup all day and went home covered with it." In his book, No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death at Columbine, Brown wrote that Harris was born with mild chest indent. This made him reluctant to take his shirt off in gym class, and other students would laugh at him. "A lot of the tension in the school came from the class above us," Chad Laughlin states. "There were people fearful of walking by a table where you knew you didn't belong, stuff like that. Certain groups certainly got preferential treatment across the board. I caught the tail end of one really horrible incident, and I know Dylan told his mother that it was the worst day of his life." That incident, according to Laughlin, involved seniors pelting Klebold with "ketchup-covered tampons" in the commons. Harris and Klebold as modern revolutionaries: Nick Turse suggested that the murderers were acting as revolutionaries. He wrote, "Who would not concede that terrorizing the American machine, at the very site where it exerts its most powerful influence (high school), is a truly revolutionary task? To be inarticulate about your goals, even to not understand them, does not negate their existence. Approve or disapprove of their methods, vilify them as miscreants, but don’t dare disregard these modern radicals as anything less than the latest incarnation of disaffected insurgents waging the ongoing American revolution."[45] Historian David Farber of Temple University wrote that Turse's assertion "only makes sense in an academic culture in which transgression is by definition political and in which any rage against society can be considered radical." Journals and investigation: Harris began keeping a journal in April 1998, a short time after the pair was convicted of breaking into a van, for which each received ten months of juvenile intervention counseling and community service in January 1998. They began to formulate plans then, as reflected in their journals. Harris wanted to join the United States Marine Corps, but his application was rejected shortly before the shootings because he was taking the drug fluvoxamine, an SSRI antidepressant, which he was required to take as part of court-ordered anger management therapy. According to the recruiting officer, Harris did not know about this rejection. Though some friends of Harris suggested that he had stopped taking the drug beforehand, the autopsy reports showed low therapeutic or normal (not toxic or lethal) blood-levels of Luvox (fluvoxamine) in his system, which would be around 0.0031-0.0087 mg%, at the time of death. After the shootings, opponents of contemporary psychiatry like Peter Breggin claimed that the psychiatric medications prescribed to Harris after his conviction (ostensibly for obsessive-compulsive disorder) may have exacerbated his aggressiveness. In April 2009, Professor Aubrey Immelman, Ph.D of the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, published a book, Columbine: A True Crime Story; A Victim, the Killers and the Nation’s Search for Answers, which includes a personality profile of Eric Harris, based on journal entries and personal communication. Immelman's profile believes the materials suggested behavior patterns consistent with a "malignant narcissism ... pathological narcissistic personality disorder with borderline and antisocial features, along with some paranoid traits, and unconstrained aggression". The report notes that such a profile should not be construed as a direct psychiatric diagnosis, which is based on face-to-face interviews, formal psychological testing, and collection of collateral information. In his journal, Klebold wrote about his view that he and Harris were "god-like" and more highly evolved than every other human being, but his secret journal records self-loathing and suicidal intentions. Page after page was covered in hearts, as he was secretly in love with a Columbine student. Although both had difficulty controlling their anger, Klebold's anger had led to his being more prone to serious trouble than Harris. Klebold was known to swear at teachers and fight with his boss at Blackjack Pizza. After their arrest, which both recorded as the most traumatic thing they had ever experienced, Klebold wrote a letter to Harris, saying how they would have so much fun getting revenge and killing cops, and how his wrath from the January arrest would be "god-like". On the day of the massacre, Klebold wore a black T-shirt which had the word "WRATH" printed in red. It was speculated that revenge for the arrest was a possible motive for the attack, and that the pair planned on having a massive gun battle with police during the shooting. Klebold wrote that life was no fun without a little death, and that he would like to spend the last moments of his life in nerve-wracking twists of murder and bloodshed. He concluded by saying that he would kill himself afterward in order to leave the world that he hated and go to a better place. Klebold was described as "hotheaded, but depressive and suicidal."Some of the home recorded videos, called "The Basement Tapes", have been withheld from the public by the police. Harris and Klebold reportedly discussed their motives for the attacks in these videos and gave instructions in bomb making. Police cite the reason for withholding these tapes as an effort to prevent them from becoming "call-to-arms" and "how-to" videos that could inspire copycat killers. Media accounts: Initially, the shooters were believed to be members of a clique that called themselves the "Trench Coat Mafia", a small group of Columbine's self-styled outcasts who wore heavy black trench coats. Early reports described the members as also wearing German slogans and swastikas on their clothes. Additional media reports described the Trench Coat Mafia as a cult with ties to the Neo-Nazi movement which fueled a media stigma and bias against the Trench Coat Mafia. The Trench Coat Mafia was a group of friends who hung out together, wore black trench coats, and prided themselves on being different from the 'jocks' who had been bullying the members and who also coined the name Trench Coat Mafia. The trench coat inadvertently became the members' uniform after a mother of one of the members bought it as an inexpensive present. Investigation revealed that Harris and Klebold were only friends with one member of the group, Kristin Thiebault, and that most of the primary members of the Trench Coat Mafia had left the school by the time that Harris and Klebold committed the massacre. Most did not know the shooters, apart from their association with Thiebault, and none were considered suspects in the shootings or were charged with any involvement in the incident.Marilyn Manson and Eminem were blamed by the media in the wake of the Columbine shooting, and Manson responded to criticism in an interview with Michael Moore, in which he was asked, "If you were to talk directly to the kids at Columbine and the people in the community, what would you say to them if they were here right now?", to which he replied, "I wouldn't say a single word to them—I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no one did." Psychological analysis: One official report suggested that Harris was a psychopath and Klebold was a depressive, and consequently that Harris was influenced by sadism, whereas Klebold was influenced by revenge. This report suggested that all of the reasons the boys gave for the shooting were justifications in order to present themselves as killers with a cause. Although early media reports attributed the shootings to a desire for revenge on the part of Harris and Klebold for bullying that they received, subsequent psychological analysis indicated Harris and Klebold harbored serious psychological problems. According to Dave Cullen, Harris, who conceived the attacks, was a "cold-blooded, predatory psychopath" and an intelligent, charming liar with "a preposterously grand superiority complex, a revulsion for authority and an excruciating need for control". In Cullen's assessment, Harris lacked remorse or empathy for others, and sought to punish them for their perceived inferiority. According to Principal Frank DeAngelis, Harris was "the type of kid who, when he was in front of adults, he'd tell you what you wanted to hear." According to Robert Hare, one of the psychologists consulted by the FBI about Harris and Klebold, the media focused on the hatred exhibited by Harris' journal and web site, and interpreted this as an indication that the killings were motivated by revenge. Hare says, "Unlike psychotic individuals, psychopaths are rational and aware of what they are doing and why. Their behavior is the result of choice, freely exercised." In analyzing the pages of enraged writings in Harris' journals, Hare concludes the writings are not an expression of anger stemming from being ostracized or bullied, but are indicative of a deep superiority complex that seeks to punish the entire human race for its inferiority. Says Hare, "It's more about demeaning other people." According to Supervisory Special Agent Dwayne Fuselier, the FBI's lead Columbine investigator and a clinical psychologist, Harris exhibited a pattern of grandiosity, contempt, and lack of empathy or remorse, distinctive traits of psychopaths that Harris concealed through deception. Fuselier adds that Harris engaged in mendacity not merely to protect himself, as Harris rationalized in his journal, but also for pleasure, as seen when Harris expressed his thoughts in his journal regarding how he and Klebold avoided prosecution for breaking into a van. Other leading psychiatrists concur that Harris was a psychopath. Reaction of Susan Klebold: Susan Klebold, mother of Dylan Klebold, spoke about the Columbine High School massacre publicly for the first time in an essay that appeared in the October 2009 issue of O: The Oprah Magazine. In the piece, Klebold wrote: "For the rest of my life, I will be haunted by the horror and anguish Dylan caused," and, "Dylan changed everything I believed about myself, about God, about family, and about love." Stating that she had no clue of her son's intentions, she said, "Once I saw his journals, it was clear to me that Dylan entered the school with the intention of dying there." In Andrew Solomon's 2012 book, Far From the Tree, she acknowledged that on the day of the massacre, when she discovered that Dylan was one of the shooters, she prayed he would kill himself. "I had a sudden vision of what he might be doing. And so while every other mother in Littleton was praying that her child was safe, I had to pray that mine would die before he hurt anyone else." Lawsuits against their families: In April 2001, the families of more than 30 victims were given shares in a $2,538,000 settlement by the families of the perpetrators, Mark Manes, and Phillip Duran. The Harrises and the Klebolds contributed $1,568,000 to the settlement from their own homeowners' policies, the Manes contributed $720,000, and the Durans contributed $250,000. The Harrises and the Klebolds were ordered to guarantee an additional $32,000 be available against any future claims. The Manes were ordered to hold $80,000 against future claims, and the Durans were ordered to hold $50,000. One family had filed a $250-million lawsuit against the Harrises and Klebolds in 1999 and did not accept the 2001 settlement terms. A judge ordered the family to accept a $366,000 settlement in June 2003. In August 2003, the families of five other victims received undisclosed settlements from the Harrises and Klebolds. In popular culture: In the 1999 black comedy, Duck! The Carbine High Massacre, which is inspired by the Columbine shooting, the two shooters are played by William Hellfire and Joey Smack, who also co-wrote, directed and produced the film. The shooters are named "Derrick and Derwin", a play on Harris' and Klebold's first names. The 2002 Michael Moore documentary film Bowling for Columbine focuses heavily on a perceived American obsession with handguns, its grip on Jefferson County, Colorado, and its role in the shooting. The 2003 Gus Van Sant film Elephant depicts a fictional school shooting, though some of its details were based on the Columbine massacre, such as one scene, in which one of the young killers walks into the evacuated school cafeteria and pauses to sip from someone's glass, as Harris himself did during the shooting. In the film, the killers are called "Alex and Eric". In the 2003 Ben Coccio film Zero Day, which was inspired by the Columbine shooting, the two shooters are played by Cal Gabriel and Andre Kriegman. Also in 2003, the Uwe Boll film Heart of America: Home Room was released. The film's main plot focuses on two bullied students, Daniel Lynn and Barry Shultz, who plan to carry out a school shooting on the last day of school after being tortured by the school jocks. Barry, the main character, has second thoughts and quits at the last minute, while Daniel carries out the plan with a female accomplice, Dara McDermott. Barry is played by Michael Belyea, Daniel is played by Kett Turton, and Dara is played by Elisabeth Rosen. The film is also believed to have been inspired by several shootings that are listed before the credits, Columbine being among them. Also in 2004, the shooting was dramatized in the documentary Zero Hour, in which Harris and Klebold were played by Ben Johnson and Josh Young, respectively. In 2007, the massacre was documented in an episode of the National Geographic Channel documentary series, The Final Report. In the 2009 film April Showers, which was written and directed by Andrew Robinson, who was a senior at Columbine High School during the shooting, the single shooter, Ben Harris, is played by Benjamin Chrystak.