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CORWIN SPRINGS (AP) — Elizabeth Clare Prophet may be the spiritual leader of Montana’s most publicized religious sect, but don’t call her a celebrity.The 51-year-old mother of four says she shops for groceries in Livingston, flies coach for her speaking tours, and earns a modest $1,700 monthly salary from the Church Universal and Triumphant.“When I go grocery shopping, I just go. When I need to fly somewhere, I just get on a plane in Bozeman and go. I don’t take bodyguards.’’Prophet’s church, with its international headquarters in tiny Corwin Springs has been in the news constantly since its arrive in Montana 10 years ago. It owns nearly 30,000 acres in southern Montana’s Park County and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of its followers live in the area.The New Age church is perhaps best known for its fervent belief in civil defense, and its giant fallout-shelter complex near Yellowstone National Park. It’s also been vilified for allegedly skirting government regulation of its developments, for members’ purchases of high-powered weapons, and, occasionally, for its unique brand of religion.In a rare interview with the local media, Prophet told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle last week that while the church is a constant target for criticism, it’s not going away.“We’re here, we like it here and we intend to stay here, she says. “We’re going to continue to be good neighbors and hope that our neighbors are good to us. We just want to be treated like ordinary people.Prophet also says it’s untrue that she avoids the local media and prefers instead to deal with national outlets that provide her with more exposure. Reporters “take for granted that I won’t be interviewed so they don’t ask.”She did say, however, that she tires of constant questions about the church’s past follies, and thatshe does not read news accounts of the church.The church preaches an unusual blend of Christianity, Eastern mysticism and conservative politics. Church members often wrote letters to local newspaper supportive of the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, and they constantly speak of the danger of the Soviet Union and its nuclear arsenal.But Prophet is no fan of GeorgeBush, either.“George Bush with his new world order is a great deceiver,” she says. “He is deceiving everyone with his new world order, which is nothing more than an agreement with the Soviets to rule the world together.”Closer to home, Prophet says she spends most of her time working or relaxing with her family, if she has time.“I get up between five and six and I give a certain ritual of prayers. I eat some kind of grain cereal for breakfast and some kind of herbal tea. Then I immediately work on my publications — weekly letters, monthly publications, all kinds of writing that I’m involved in.“When I finish my writing cycle, I turn my phone on and deal with departmental matters, whatever anybody needs me for, all kinds of mail. And I try to spend some time with my family, with my son and daughters and my husband and my grandchildren.” She won't discuss her estranged daughter, Moira, who left the church condemning her mother as a demagogue and the church as a dangerous cult.“All I would say is that I love her, I have always loved her and I always will love her. She has to make her peace with her God.” Prophet says she is “very much in love and very happy” with Ed Francis, her fourth husband and the church’s vice president. But she acknowledges being “pretty angry’’ with him when he was arrested in 1989 for conspiring to purchase weapons illegally.Francis and another churchWELIZABETH CLARE PROPHETmember, Vernon Hamilton, served brief federal prison terms. Hamilton was arrested in Spokane, Wash., and federal agents said he had a shopping list for hundreds of high-powered, assault-style weapons.“The illegal weapons purchase was a foolish thing,” she says. “I was pretty angry with him, but I believe we should forgive one another and I forgave him. I told him that even though I was angry with him, I would stand by him.”The rest of her family includes daughter Erin and son Sean, both active in church affairs, and her youngest daughter Tatyana, a journalism major at Northwestern University.She says her family members made their own choice about the church, as does anyone else.“Yes, the church requires intense devotion, but no one forces anyone to join this church,” she says. “There are no armed guards or fences keeping anyone here who wants to leave.”No one forces people to give a required amount of money to the church, she insists.“You can be affiliated with my church and never become a church member. If you become a church member, you tithe just as members of other churches tithe.”Prophet says the money she receives from her television appearances, books and other writings goes to the church: “I don’t get a dime from the book royalties or my lectures or lecture tours.”The church’s income goes “for bills, bills and more bills,” she says. “The farm, the ranch, publishing, the Montessori school, electric bills, insurance bills, legal and accounting bills. It all goes quickly.”She says a major debt will soon be erased, as the church has nearly paid off loans to buy its Glastonbury property. Glastonbury is the church name for two rural housing developments near Emigrant, about 30 miles south of Livingston.The church faces a pair of lawsuits filed by Park County, accusing it of violating subdivision laws in dividing property among church members.Only communicants — those who have been interviewed and accepted by the church — may buy property at Glastonbury. They also agree to tithe 10 percent of their earnings.In talking about the church’s problems, Prophet maintains, as she has for years, that the church has done nothing wrong and that it is the victim of meddling government regulators and religious persecutors.The state sued the church 17 months ago after three underground fuel tanks at the fallout shelter ruptured, spilling about 30,000 gallons of diesel and gasoline. State officials say the church has done a good job cleaning up the spill, but they want to force an expanded environmental review of church developments.The effort remains tied up in state court, with church officials refusing to agree to the review.The Internal Revenue Service also is investigating the church’s tax-exempt status, and has gone to court to obtain documents on possible political activities by the church that might threaten that tax-exempt status.
Newspaper Details
Kalispell Daily Inter Lake
Kalispell, Montana, US
Tue, Sep 17, 1991
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Montana H.
MT, USA 18 Sep 2020
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