Mormons Explain Ruby Franke's Journal

Something wicked this way comes.... from the Mormon community.  As if the Ruby Franke/Jodi Hildebrandt situation weren't depressing enough, John Dehlin's "Mormon Stories" podcast explains it in the context of modern Mormon trends.

After learning about Jodi's visions and Ruby's delusions, I thought these women were just crazy people who found a religious context for their symptomology. But no... they are the symptomology and a toxic thread within Mormonism is the disease. John Dehlin and his guests explain that visions, possession obsession, and end-times theology are promoted in a book that's popular with Mormons: Visions of Glory: One Man's Astonishing Account of the Last Days by John Pontius. The author has written Mormon fiction, so how should we take the back cover description? In this true account of near-death experiences, we learn about the miracles of the millennium, the return of the Ten Tribes, the building of the New Jerusalem and temple, and many other astonishing events long prophesied in scripture but never before described in such vivid detail. Visions of Glory is a mesmerizing and fascinating read that you will not be able to put down. The book came out in 2012, so this is a recent development, but as Dehlin explains, end-times theology is an essential element of Mormon belief.  That's the "Latter Day" idea. One of the unique features of Mormon theology is the belief in prophets as a continuous stream of pope-like figures who lead the church from one generation to the next.  Unlike the papacy, though, anyone can imagine themselves to be a prophet Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell, who were convicted of murder, were also influenced by the book.  Vallow killed her own children, a fate that Ruby Franke's two youngest narrowly escaped.  Vallow was reading it at the time of her arrest!  The Daily Beast covered this movement, discussing these murderers and also disgraced phony child-rescuer, Tim Ballard.

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This is not the polygamist faction. It's similar to the fundamentalist wing of other Abrahamic religions but without that element (so far).  And like other religions the argument that "those are just the extremists - that's not the real version of my religion" just doesn't hold water.  If your holy book has language that can be used to hurt other people, then your religion is toxic.