Reporting from Parowan, Utah -- Our trip to the Parowan Prophet began with a letter to the St. George Spectrum. This particular letter to the editor in the St. George, Utah, newspaper carried the headline " 'Prophet' shares grim forecast," and it was signed by one Leland Freeborn of Parowan, who wrote that he was known to many as the Parowan Prophet. After establishing his bona fides as an international talk radio guest and proprietor of a survivalist website that has "passed more than 100,000 hits," Freeborn wrote:
None of which mean anything about being a 'Prophet'. I doubt Elija was on the radio or had a website.
"I think that you should hear what my opinion about the Obama election is: that he will not be the next president. I said on my home page in August that if he lost to expect to see the 'riots' that 2 Peter 2:13 tells us about. He didn't lose. But the story is not finished yet. I still think they may begin the riots before Christmas 2008, as I said."
These riots, according to his prophecy, will encourage the "old, hard-line Soviet guard" to seize the moment and rain down nukes on the United States, killing at least 100 million of us.
"Prepare now," Freeborn's letter concluded. "We are downwind from Las Vegas. I hope you can survive."
It was enough time to sketch out his history -- a Mormon of substance, a father of 12, he had crashed his airplane in 1975 and fallen into a three-week coma, during which he went through "to the other side" and emerged a prophet.
Did his name used to be 'John Smith' too? Because I read this plot about 20 year ago in a Stephen King novel. I think they also made a movie and TV series about it. The main character's name was John Smith.
Freeborn, now 66, took "a plural wife," as he put it, and parted ways with the church. He forfeited his wealth, spreading word of his prophecies. He appears to live now mainly on sales of newsletters and survival information packets advertised on his website.
Asked for examples of successful prophecies, he offered O.J. Simpson's murder acquittal and Al Gore's winning of the popular vote in 2000. But his core insight has been a repeated dream of seeing nuclear flashes to the west while shopping at a Wal-Mart during Christmas season.
You know that happens to me every time I visit Wall-Mart. I used to think it was the lighting and noise but now I'm not quite sure...
And then there's that time I predicted a coin toss would come up heads three times in a row! Why I must be a Prophet too! Does that mean I can kill, rape and plunder like Mo did? (Personally I'd rather pass on the killing, raping and pedophilia parts. Plundering might be fun for a few years then it'll get boring. Maybe I'm not Prophet material after all since I am perfectly happy with one wife. *sigh* Another career path down the tube...)
And this, he warned, appears to be the year.
As Freeborn rose to leave, he said he would be hosting a weekly religious meeting that night. He urged us to come. "If you can write a story," Freeborn said, "you can save a lot of lives in L.A."
As the night wound down, Freeborn returned to his core prophecy. "I really believe we are out of time," he said. "I really do."
Freeborn conceded that he'd issued similar warnings many times before, and still the world kept spinning. Prophecy, he said, is not an exact science.
| So we've been told ... |
Because, you know, on the 15'th toss the coin might just come up on its edge....
He seemed weary, referring to himself as a "gimpy old crippled guy from Parowan." He described going on radio and, mocked by the host, receiving not a single request from the audience for survival information. He said he has been shunned in town, his property vandalized. He recited from memory a scriptural passage about "scoffers."
Someone once told me that back in 'biblical' times Prophets had to be 100% accurate or they would be stoned. And all this guy has to worry about is a few 'scoffers'.