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Show in my father's house/ 330 marriage, I would arise from my bed where I read book after book - especially on the nights he stayed with us, keeping to myself - and I would close my bedroom door. He no longer spoke to me at all, although he sometimes came to me and kissed my forehead or pecked my cheek. He didn't hug me tightly as I saw him do with others, my brothers and sisters and the people of the group. It was almost as though he wanted to keep me distant, as though he wanted me to be remote. For this reason, I was surprised when he came in one evening and spoke to me as I sat on the livingroom sofa doing my homework. "Brother Butchreit has left us," he stated. I glanced up, startled.. There was no one else in the room. He was talking to me. "Brother Butchreit?" "Yes. He has gone to Mexico to join The Church of the Lamb of God. It's one of the LeBarons' crackpot schemes to lead people astray. They claim to have the Keys of the Priesthood through their lineage to Benjamin Johnson. But of course, the Priesthood isn't a birthright. It is bestowed by the Lord Himself and no one else. I received my Priesthood £g»om i&M-iod^ a patriarch ordained by the Church Presidency, Joseph White Musser." My forehead furrowed. Why was he telling me all this? I had heard it all before. Was he trying to prove something to me? "Brother Butchreit is being led into hell. No good will come of his leaving," he said. Then he left the room and went to the kitchen were he sat and began playing solitaire. He left me thinking about the LeBarons I had met as a child..- crazy Ben and his follower, Ervil -- and wondering |