Of Visions and a Murmuring God

[mnaz]

I've witnessed our current President mangle his public service job for quite some time now, rob our money, start an endless, useless, godawful war, torture and lock up U.S. citizens when he feels like it, dismantle the Constitution he swore an oath to defend, and generally befriend all manner of good old-fashioned greed and corruption in the name of his cause.... basically settle comfortably into his own universe that bears little resemblance to this one. But here I am on my soapbox again, and that's only one observer's opinion. Forget all of that. The bigger question is.... from where or what does George W. Bush receive his dogged, war-drenched world view? Is he haunted by visions? Does God murmur in his ear?

When I traveled through Utah, I picked up on some Mormon history and tradition. I found the usual top-heavy hierarchical, patriarchal baggage I'd expect in any large subsidiary of The Church, but I was struck by the tradition of direct "revelation" (from God) that pervades LDS history, complete with strange beams of light entering rooms of the chosen with new marching orders, not unlike a gentle murmur that informed Elijah in the desert, only more flashy.

There's a mountainside above Salem, Utah where the faithful once tunneled several miles into nondescript Wasatch granite due to one man's vision. That man, John Hyrum Koyle, a modest, soft-spoken farmer with many wives, was led one August night in 1894 in a vivid dream by the Angel Moroni to see a spectacular cache of gold-- lost treasure of the Nephites. They found limitless tons of gold, but riches eventually made the Nephites boastful and greedy, so God seized the bounty and sealed it inside the mountains some 2,000 years back, where enormous golden columns are said to support colossal golden vaults deep inside unknown rock... that is, until Koyle's vision.

He told the faithful exactly where to dig according to his vision. The day would arrive soon when the Nephite's treasure would be revealed to all, to save the world from poverty and chaos for those who believe. The Dream Mine is real. Its remains cling to steep, battered rock. Koyle died in 1949, unfulfilled yet convinced. No mining has occurred in that mountain for fifty years now, but the huge claim hangs on. Tenant farmers work a hundred acres in the foothills and a gravel pit helps pay the taxes. But these are inconsequential details in the workings of of end times prophecy.

A reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune interviewed one of Koyle's last living acquaintances seven years ago, who said that he'd seen more signposts in the last six months than he'd noticed in 50 years... "Look at the signs-- Y2K, a war in the Balkans, a wicked President and an unstable economy that could fall apart at any moment." The riches must be close now.... "It will take only one day to reach them when the time is right, but until that time, ten years of digging won't be enough"

Koyle and his followers dug into that granite for a great long while and came up empty. Others followed later, with the same result. But mining is a tough business. Who's to say they weren't close? It's hard to dismiss a reluctant visionary such as Koyle. He predicted the 1929 stock market crash and FDR's four subsequent election wins, as well as the exact duration of World War II. And who can ignore a vivid dream, or a gentle murmur, or God's marching orders in general?

note: some "grammar" edits

[Zlatko Waterman]

Gnomic, sly and beautifully crafted.

I love the name "Koyle," It sounds straight out of Thomas Pynchon.


--Z

[mnaz]

thanks Z..

was ruminating on our disconnected "war president", and this old mormon story came to mind.... first read about it in jon krakauer's book, "under the banner of heaven", which is an account of the lafferty brother's cold-blooded beating murder of their sister-in-law, brenda, in american fork, utah in 1984 based on a "revelation" that one of them received from god. several years later, in prison, the second one of the two brothers received another revelation from god to kill (by strangulation) the first one that received the first revelation to start with. i tell you, that is one tough book to get through. it is also a (non-propagandized) overview and history of mormonism in general. fantastic, chilling stuff...

the "murmuring" business comes from first kings in the o.t.... apparently elijah often hid out in the desert to evade Israel's wicked kings, where ravens would bring him food until god came to him in a murmur with new instructions, and elijah would then go to see wicked king(s) of the hour and trade insults back and forth and defeat idolaters at will, particularly jezebel and her heartthrob baal, without breaking a sweat, and generally proclaim loudly the lord's coming wrath upon the willfully willful.... poetic stuff indeed.... (check out slate.com's "blogging the bible", by david plotz)... thanks for reading, Z...