Erin Prophet | Prophet’s Daughter

Published: May 4, 2009

Remember when the Church Universal and Triumphant (known as CUT) was on the front page of newspapers around the state and nation for its efforts to build a vast underground bomb shelter south of Livingston, as well as attempts by church members to purchase semi-automatic assault rifles?

Erin Prophet, the daughter of church leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet and her one-time heir apparent, offers a clear-eyed, unflinchingly honest look at the church’s controversial past in Prophet’s Daughter, My Life with Elizabeth Clare Prophet Inside the Church Universal and Triumphant. Fascinating reading from cover to cover, the book gives insights into the dynamics of the charismatic Prophet family, the foundation of their spiritual beliefs, and the cult-like control Prophet wielded over her most devout followers.

In the late 1980s, church members, guided by Elizabeth and Erin’s date-specific prophecies of nuclear war, poured life savings and countless hours into the construction of underground shelters, which cost an estimated $20 million. This “Napoleon-invading-Russia sort of blunder” brought the church to its knees and many members to financial ruin.

“Could this upheaval have been prevented?” asks Erin in the introduction. “Could we have continued to enjoy the ecstasy that we experienced during my mother’s religious services without having to also hand over our common sense to her?”

In addition to providing an engrossing story, Prophet’s efforts to make sense of such an unusual past offer a fruitful contemplation on the potency of spiritual authority and the misuse of power.

The author now lives near Boston.

– Kristi Niemeyer