This week, I have been listening to Julie Rowe’s first two interviews on the Mills Crenshaw radio show, so you don’t have to. You’re welcome.
Julie Rowe, for those of you don’t know her, is a Mormon woman from Tucson who had a near-death experience in 2004. As part of that experience, she says she met a guardian angel, John, who let her read from the Book of Life, leading to a series of visions about the Earth’s past, present, and future. In other words, she claims to have seen the End of Days. It’s going to start soon. Specifically, it’s going to start on September 28. And this prophecy has been a boon for the good folks at Emergency Essentials, let me tell you, who are doing a brisk business of late.
I had never heard of Mills Crenshaw prior to listening to these interviews on Youtube. He’s apparently a Utah conservative radio talk show host of some renown. Listening to his interview with Rowe, the word I would use to describe him is ‘credulous.’ (Also ‘unhurried’; the two interviews each lasted two hours, and there are four more hours worth on Youtube). He accepts her visions uncritically. And why wouldn’t he? Everything she says fits with a certain conservative Mormon world-view.
Rowe has gotten a lot of notoriety because of her Last Days prophecies, but listening to her radio interviews, those prophesies are in fact a very small part of her message. Mostly, she talks about seeing, well, the characters and narratives of the Bible and Book of Mormon. She describes encounters with Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses. She sees the construction of the Ark and the Tower of Babel. While she’s at it, she name-drops Columbus and George Washington. Every one of these personages is described with a kind of fan-girl enthusiasm. Adam is ‘so great.’ It’s like that for everyone; they’re all great men, all powerful leaders. We never hear a physical description of anyone, until she gushes about Jesus’ beautiful blue eyes. A middle-eastern semitic Jew with blue eyes? But she’s insistent on the point, and Mills Crenshaw never once expresses the tiniest skepticism.
Finally, though, we do get to our day, now, and that’s where her message moves from LDS-cultural conservative to full-on wingnut. She insists that the 2008 election was stolen. So was 2012. We have a wicked and designing man, intent on destroying America, in the White House. And it’s likely the next election will bring someone even more evil. And that’s where we’re going to see foreign troops invading America unopposed. And we’ll all have to gather. To Missouri, presumably, though Independence and Jackson County are already pretty heavily populated.
The heavens will let loose and the powers of darkness will rage. There will be natural disasters on a massive scale unlike anything the earth has experienced before.
Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, plagues, droughts, famines, pestilence and all manner of disasters will be upon the earth in such a deep and broadened scale that mankind cannot even imagine what it will be like.The world as we know it will cease to exist.
She describes international catastrophes as well. She has seen a nuclear weapon launched from Syria. And Iran. And the destruction of the Dome of the Rock. No wonder folks are stocking up on water, buying foodstuffs, survival gear, gold, and of course, guns.
Look, my tone’s probably given away my lack of enthusiasm for Julie Rowe and her message. One difficulty is that she doesn’t really talk about any of these catastrophes in any detail. Her narrative is interrupted by this frequent coyness: ‘I’ve seen that, but I’ve been instructed not to tell people much detail.’ I couldn’t help but notice that the details she’s unable to provide tend to coincide with testable facts. To give just one example, she insists that President Obama rigged the election of 2008. Well, all right, how exactly did he rig it? What specifically was done? Her inevitable reply ‘I do know that. I’ve seen it in a vision. But I’ve been forbidden to share it.’
Here’s the thing. If, say, Mills Crenshaw were to say ‘I think Barack Obama stole the election in 2008,’ well fine. We could ask what his evidence is, we could research that evidence, we could fact-check his assertions. But that’s not possible with Julie Rowe, of course, because it’s not her idea, not her opinion, not a conclusion she reasoned her way to; it came to her in a vision. This is important because, the notion that a national election was stolen recently is exactly the kind of opinion that we experienced political science types tend to call ‘wackadoodle.’
There simply aren’t any facts to support that particular conclusion. So, you know, we basically know she’s wrong on that one. As for all the rest of it, we do have one testable hypothesis. She claims that seriously bad things are going to happen in the world beginning September 28. That’s eleven days from now. Of course, it’s always possible that, coincidentally, a tsunami or something might hit in a week and a half. Boy, won’t skeptics like me look stupid then!
But I’ll chance it.
Sadly, there really are only two possible ways of understanding Julie Rowe, both of them unkind and uncharitable. She might be a charlatan, a fraud. Or she might be sincerely deluded. She might just be nuts. On that point, we have no real basis for judgment; we don’t have enough evidence to support either theory.
I suppose it’s also possible that she’s right. If so, we’ll find out soon enough.
I’m not comfortable giving too much credence to end-of-days foretellers like this, but I feel just as uncomfortable dismissing or mocking them. If they’re deluded or evil they’ll be exposed when the day foretold comes and goes peacefully, which seems like pretty just deserts. And in the meantime, it doesn’t hurt to keep an eye out for bad things coming our way.
I know I’m pretty dismissive, inappropriately, perhaps. I just think this is too silly to worry about.
If you go to her site and look at upcoming events, she has engagements scheduled as late as mid-october…Yup.
There is value in calling her out. Her actions aren’t without victims.
If it Gets people to follow all the prophets pleadings that we prepare all needful things who is harmed? For if you prepare and do not need it then you have food. But if you fail to prepare and now because of loss of job or other disaster then who is harmed?
I’ve met and spoken to Julie. She is a sincere and honest person. She did not say it would be the end of the world come September. It begins at that time. And let’s face it if God doesn’t begin the judgment pretty soon He is gonna have to apologize to Soddam and Ghamorrah.
Not to be contentious, but your comment on Sodom and Gomorrah, however misspelled, causes me to ask this: in what possible sense is the world so very wicked? There are surely wars, horrible ones, but fewer and less destructive than ever before in history. Women have rights never previously contemplated, and race-hatred is surely greatly diminished. Violent crimes occur, but with much less frequency than ever in history, and we see, to our astonishment, unimaginable advances in transportation, communication, medicine, agriculture. Fewer children starve, fewer suffer from abuse, fewer are forced into labor, than ever before. Of course, we have a long way to go before we can say we have eradicated poverty, despair, disease and violence, but can’t you see how unimaginably far we’ve come?
Well, look at the reasons for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy;
50 and they were haughty and committed abomination before Me. Therefore I took them away as I saw good.
Are you a proud American? Shame on you if you’re not. More than a quarter of our food supply goes to waste and rot, while millions of our own people starve. There are laws, in fact, that make it illegal not only to beg, but even to give of your own earnings to those that beg. This nation *IS* due its comeuppance, it’s just that the reasons all of the people on the religious right think it is for are never mentioned as sins of Sodom.
With all the news reports about the “Mormon Apocalypse” floating around the internet now, how many more people are going to just assume we are weird and not even consider talking to the missionaries? How many inactive members are going to have a new wedge driven between them and the gospel by the media or their friends because of this? How many people who need serious spiritual nourishment when attending church on the Sabbath are going to be treated to a potentially contentious and certainly irrelevant and lengthy discussion of this topic instead?
I think there are plenty of people who might be harmed by this. Indeed I know some of them.
“If it Gets people to follow all the prophets pleadings that we prepare all needful things who is harmed? For if you prepare and do not need it then you have food. But if you fail to prepare and now because of loss of job or other disaster then who is harmed?”
People who are spending money they don’t have on huge supplies of food (instead of steadily building a supply as we are counseled to do), selling houses, cashing out retirement funds, and so on. There is a real risk with this kind of fear-mongering.
I have an OB appointment on the 28th. I’d hate to miss it.
What makes Rowe’s “prophecies” sound really inconsistent is that she has a lot to say about the US and nearly zilch about other countries. Last time I checked, Jesus Christ is theredeemer of the entire world and the Gospel transcends the boundaries artificially set by men.
Given a world population of ~7B and an average global life expectancy of 70 years, it is true that for ~ 275,000 people September 28 will be their last on earth…
I had never heard of Julie Rowe until about a month ago when my friend visited me from Colorado. He was so enthusiastic about her and encouraged me to read her books and prepare my family for the end of the world. I asked my friend what the leaders of the Mormon Church thought about her revealing a lot more detailed information than any prophet since Joseph Smith – I mean, isn’t that their job? He responded with something like ‘well, she’s doing what she’s supposed to be doing.’ Not sure what that meant but I’m happy to let people believe what they want. As for me and my house, we’ll continue to do the best we can and if the world comes to an end so be it. One last note – according to my friend Julie said that we’ll not have the opportunity to meet people from other dispensations when we get to heaven – something about them being in a different sphere. If that’s the case, how did Julie run into Adam and Noah? Just a thought.
@ B ……. “how did Julie run into Adam and Noah?”
Run into them? Like walking down the street and meeting them when they went around a corner?
It was in her vision of the Library.
“I was also shown more about the lives of other well-known historical figures throughout time. I viewed details about the lives and missions of Adam, Noah, Moses, Elijah, Joseph of Egypt, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and countless other leaders of Christ’s church here upon the earth. I was shown details from the lives of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other religious historical figures.
More was explained to me about some of the great women who have lived as well. I learned about Mother Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah, Deborah, Mary, the mother of Jesus; Emma Smith, Eliza R. Snow, and others from the scriptures and from modern days.
One of the pages I turned to was about Joan of Arc. Images and scenes from her life flooded into my mind and it was as if I were watching live video of the events of her day, the great work she set out to accomplish, and those things which led to her demise. I witnessed her death, as well as the lives and deaths of many other martyrs who had suffered and died for their testimonies of Christ. I then saw a great panorama of historic events. I clearly remember these because I was shown these scenes in the library, as well as later on my journey— through the “Window of Heaven.”
Rowe, Julie (2014-05-14). A Greater Tomorrow: My Journey Beyond the Veil (Kindle Locations 528-537). Springcreek Books. Kindle Edition.
Why should we take any of the musings mentioned in fast and testimony meeting as being real? The “things” that happen to other people? Can’t explain them.. but they keep talking about them happening.
Then there are those “other” people besides Julie.. who have had some of the same visions. Opppsss. Got to dismiss them as well. And then all those people with all their own NDE experiences. What do we do with their testimonies? Dismiss them as well.
How do we determine the Book of Mormon is truthful? Or the Book of Abraham? Or the Doctrine and Covenants? All this came about because of some kid who said he had visions.. How are we to know?
Joseph Smith said.. well.. at least someone said he said… “Would to God I could tell you who I was… Would to God I could tell you what I know… You would call it blasphemy and seek to take my life.” Guess not even he told people about everything he saw.
Yea.. I guess I have read way too many experiences of people who have had NDE’s.. and even some people who have had these latter day visions.. and visions of the latter days.. and the funny thing is… the Spirit testifies to me. Something about the Spirit when it testifies. Personally.. I don’t care if it is true or not… unless it is true. Then I care.
And this I will say. I care!
In this case, she made specific assertions regarding events in the past that proved factually wrong, and specific predictions for the future that did not come true. So count me skeptical.
Care to be more specific?
Oh… I did find it a bit interesting that Julie had this to say:
“It’s my understanding
that there are some online forums
where people are trying to stir the pot
and do whatever they can to dissent
or take away from the message
that the Lord would have us to know,
and to those I say
“Stop it.”
You do not know what you are messing with
and I am not talking about me.
I’m talking about the ultimate higher power.”