End-Times LDS Mom Kidnaps Kids to Croatia

Mom, who was into "End-Times," kidnaps her kids from their dad and takes them to Croatia.

Hyper-focusing on one doctrine devalues the entire gospel. OCD can grab onto what we deem most important.

Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt addresses the Utah State Congress on the dangers of AI for kids.

 Raw Transcript:

So, how far do you go with prepping? How
far do you go with a focus on the second
coming of Jesus Christ and us living in
the last days? Some people completely
obsess over this. It becomes everything
for them. And all of the gospel, faith,
repentance,
baptism,
the progression, uh, going through the
plan of salvation, everything is
filtered through this one single lens.
this obsession almost a an OCD
focus on the last days. Another
Latter-day Saint mother kidnapped her
kids and took them to Croatia. A big
part of this apparently is because of
her beliefs in the last days. Taking one
single belief that could be a positive
thing and putting it above everything
else in the gospel, it creates a new
idol. It destroys the proper values
hierarchy that helps you be a faithful
person and someone who's on track to try
and follow the covenant path. And what
about AI? We're going to touch on this
as well. There was a famous actor went
to Utah broadcast a testimony on the
dangers of AI. I'm going to touch on an
AI conference that I was at a couple
months ago that included Elder Gong and
his words on AI. First, this episode is
brought to you by Go and Do Travel and
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All right. Another Latterday Saint
mother has kidnapped her kids and taken
them to Croatia where they were
eventually found. Uh the ex-husband in
this case and this family had some form
of custody with the children, but the
mother took them apparently in part
because she was obsessed with the last
days and what she thought was currently
unfolding. Now look, it's true that we
live in the last days. It's true that we
should be prepared for things,
especially temporally. Well, especially
spiritually, but also temporally. And
and so prepping is not a bad thing, but
we can come become obsessed with these
things. And we've seen these stories
over and over again. I mean, geez, look
at the day bells. you know, they're
they're part of a this obsessiveness
where we take one single part of the
gospel, obsess over it, and start to
interpret it in ways that are not taught
by the brethren. They're not taught by
the prophet of the Lord. And so, you
have a a new idol that you create and
that you hone in on. and and everything
uh in your life, every part of the
gospel, everything that you the
decisions that you make in your life,
your frame of mental uh your your your
world view is built around this one
little part of the gospel where you're
looking toward the second coming of
Jesus Christ, Armageddon, and and the
last days. And it becomes an idol for
you. You worship it because you turn
your whole life over to it. and other
parts of the gospel. The basics of the
gospel, faith and repentance, the
covenant path, all of these things
become secondary to this one part of the
gospel. We see other movements where
this focus happens as well where where
again I mean I'll put up videos on
several different topics and those
people that are obsessed with one
certain topic over and over again even
though it has nothing to do with the
content will comment over and over again
about that one single topic. This is a
form of idol worship. I want to go to a
news clip here that outlines this for
us. Police searching for four children
from West Jordan after it was believed
their mom took them overseas in
violation of a custody agreement. The
father of three of the kids now tells
News specialist Andrew Adams he's found
them in a place that's hard to believe.
Andrew,
he says he found them in an orphanage in
Croatia.
Okay. An orphanage in Croatia. So, we're
going to find out a little bit more
about this. They're going to they're
going to talk about what led possibly to
her kidnapping the kids and moving them.
But just stop and think for a moment
about what this is, what what leads
somebody to do these types of things.
He learned his ex had hopped a plane to
Amsterdam with the three kids, plus a
fourth child from a different father.
And we spent, you know, seven, eight
weeks looking for her and the kids.
By mid December, prosecutors charged the
ex with felony custodial interference.
Court documents said she'd talked about
leaving the country over apparent
concerns about biblical events and the
end of times. I didn't really know
anything about her um end of times
beliefs um until after this all
happened. It didn't come up in our
marriage, didn't come up during our
divorce, after divorce, anything.
Here is an ABC News article that came
out just a couple of days ago. It says a
Utah woman who said the end times were
near and who was accused of taking her
four young children overseas in
violation of a custody order has been
arrested in Croatia, authorities said on
Tuesday. Further, it says Alicia
Seymour, the mother, posted videos of
herself on TikTok last year describing
apocalyptic dreams and urging people to
prepare. In one video, she said she
dreamed about an electromagnetic pulse
attack that caused aircraft to crash,
computers to stop working, and people to
lose access to food, water, and heating.
She said the Lord, quote, "The Lord is
trying to tell people that it's going to
be a cold winter." Okay. So, it looks
like it is immediate, right? She did
this in December last month, uh, when
she took the kids. And so,
again, I I I it's hard to imagine that
she's not I would want to know what her
sources are. What is bringing this on
because it's it's that's inevitably what
we find out. They're following certain
sources that are pushing this idea. the
hyper focus on the last days at the end
of times. And that's what brings some
people that that have a tendency to go
with, you know, have that OCD mindset
where they're just hyperfocused on one
thing can adopt this type of thing and
and do some very stupid things. We
aren't in a position in the last days
here to try and go beyond preparing for
the worst. We don't go out and kidnap
kids. We don't uh um
do even worse things with kids and and
start taking on our own personal
uh revelation as if it supersedes
everything else. It doesn't.
And I want to make a note on this and I
want to say something about this. There
are people that have personal
revelations.
Okay? They are personal. They're
personal revelations. And when these
things are made public and brought out
to everybody else, we start looking at
them like scripture. Now, if the prophet
were to do this, okay, that's very
different. We have the dream of Joseph
F. Smith. What we have now is section
138. Got it? Okay. That is a a vision
that's given to a prophet of the Lord
for the church.
the the the the other these if you
someone if you start reading about
someone who has a personal revelation
great that's personal to them there are
reasons perhaps that that person has
that type of a dream or a vision or
whatever it is but unless you're Nephi
or Joseph F Smith or Don H Oaks now or
whoever's in charge of the entire
population of the church then then you
need to really be very careful that is a
revelation directly for them I'm not
discounting
discounting the fact that people get
personal revelation. They do and it's
important and it's a big part of the
gospel and and we should take that as as
a responsibility for us to accept
personal revelation. But it is personal
and bad things happen when personal
revelation goes out to the masses and
people grab on to it as if it's
scripture.
And unfortunately, I don't think we're
seeing the end of this type of behavior.
We can look at personal revelation here.
This is an article coming from LDS
living and and you can see the support
for this, right? It's it's important to
understand that personal revelation does
happen. This here is to Sydney Rigdon,
right? The Savior declared to Sydney
Rigdon in section 35 of the Doctrine of
Covenants that the poor and the meek
shall have the gospel preached unto
them.
And they shall be looking forth forth
for the time of my coming for it is nigh
at hand. And they shall learn the
parable of the fig tree, which is
looking at the tea leaves, basically the
fig leaves, and understanding where
we're at. It's we can see that we're in
the last days. There's no question. For
even now already summer is nigh. Now if
I obsess over that and I start believing
it is tomorrow. You don't know when it
is. That's an important part. You don't
know. I don't know. God knows. The
prophet doesn't know. I don't believe he
knows. So So why
why why obsess over something happening
that is not happening right? You you
can't get to the point where oh this
could be next week. This could be the
next week. I'm going to take on the most
drastic approach to this and make the
most drastic decisions and actions
because it is imminent and it is now and
it is next week, it is the following
week, it is Tuesday, whatever it is.
Now, this article is by Robert Millet,
the LDS scholar, and he states this, and
I completely agree with this. One of the
challenges we face is to anticipate that
day being the second coming without
obsessing over it. We should study and
reflect deeply on the holy word
concerning what lies ahead. Not so that
we can chronicle and correlate and
prepare formulas and distribute lists
and set forth specific schedules, but
rather so that we can prepare our souls
properly for that sublime occasion. I
think that the words that we get in the
scriptures such as imminent and nigh,
right? It's coming soon. Well, this is
something that's given to those in the
1800s and it still hasn't happened. But
the attitude in understanding this is
one that says, okay, it's not about the
events necessarily in the 18 early 1800s
that matter so much. I mean, we're
already here at 2026. How much do those
matter so much? We could be looking at
10 years, 20 years, 100 years, two or
300 years. We don't know. Things need to
get really, really, really, really bad.
And most of us don't really have that
affecting us. But the attitude that that
creates is I am preparing myself for the
second coming primarily spiritually.
Look at the last three parables that
Jesus gives in the last week of his
life, the last Tuesday of his life. He
talks about the 10 versions. Those that
will prepare themselves. Well, what is
the light in the candle? The what is the
oil that is needed? I believe that's
faith. But regardless, it's not it's not
kidnapping your kids and moving to
Croatia. The second parable of talents
is increasing your spiritual gifts and
your capacity. What are the talents
meaning pieces of money, pieces of
silver, right, that that God has given
you? What spiritual capital has he given
you? And how are you magnifying that?
And the third is the sheep and the
goats. Are you helping others that are
in need of help? It's not even focused
on helping yourself.
And these three parables are all about
the second coming. That's that's the
context about when the Lord is going to
return.
It's about how are we preparing
ourselves spiritually. Now again, that
doesn't mean that prepping is a bad
thing. I think it's a good thing. My
wife and I have talked several times,
what will we do in the case of this?
What if there is no electricity? What if
there is no water? What do we do? Well,
we've prepared with water storage. We
have food storage. We have other plans
possibly that that may unfurl that would
prepare us for a a very bad scenario.
That's a smart thing to do. But the
primary goal here and attitude that that
the Lord is driving home to us here is
how are you preparing yourself
spiritually? We are all going to have a
second coming of Jesus when we die. We
are all going to meet him at the bar of
justice.
It is nigh.
Are you prepared for that? In the
October 2023 uh conference, President
Nelson had his talk called Think
Celestial. Here's a paragraph from that.
He says, "As you think celestial, you
will find yourself avoiding anything
that robs you of your agency." Think
about what that means because really
your moral agency is to try and follow
the truth. Any addiction, and this is
going to be an obsession about a
doctrine, be it gaming, gambling, debt,
drugs, alcohol, anger, pornography, sex,
or even food.
I I think that's important that he put
that in there. That is probably the
biggest addiction for Latter-day Saints.
It all offends God. Why? Because your
obsession becomes your God.
Your obsession is your idol. You look at
it rather than to him for soloulless. If
you struggle with an addiction or an
obsessive compulsive behavior around a
doctrine or or your idea of what the way
things are supposed to be, then seek the
spiritual and professional help you
need. Please do not let an obsession rob
you of your freedom to follow God's
fabulous plan.
Great words. In an article found on
treatmy OCD.com
uh called nooccd,
it says the following.
Obsessivecompulsive disorder can make it
hard to distinguish between a true
threat and an exaggerated one. The
anxiety and unrelenting doubt of OCD can
make everything feel threatening. Even
if you understand on some level that a
fear you're having might be irrational
or imagined, these nagging feelings of
what if it really is dangerous can seem
so powerful that you feel like you have
to do something just in case. That is a
very tough way to live. I mean, I can't
imagine the anxiety of always looking at
what if the worst thing happens in every
case. Certainly, again, prepare for the
worst, but to live your life going down
that spiral every time is a pretty tough
way to live. And then I think it's
important, as it follows up with a
couple more paragraphs at the end of
this article and what it says here, it's
fair to say that everyone has their own
set of personal values, the things that
we consider important and that matter to
our well-being and happiness. Personal
values help guide us to make the
decisions we make and create meaning
from our experiences.
This is what I'm talking about the
values hierarchy. They can provide a
roadmap for our lives and can give us a
sense of purpose. I believe it is
crucial for us to create a values
hierarchy that I think that in many ways
that becomes living or creating or
becoming like God. It's putting on
Christ. It's it's taking on the
character of God as much as we can. And
that has to do with our agency. And that
means where do you value things? Making
decisions based on your values.
It it finishes with this.
Often seen as a disorder of doubt. See,
it's it's about doubt. It makes sense
that OCD would make your you question
your personal values.
OCD typically latches on to the things
that are most important to you. Right?
So if you have a testimony and you
believe in the second coming of Christ,
you believe that we should be preparing
for this. This is where it attaches to
and that you feel strongest about
filling your mind with intense doubt. It
is as if you are at war and OCD has been
given a detailed map of your battle plan
ahead of time so that it can sneak in
and attack the very things that you try
the hardest to protect.
So in in in many ways and you know I
feel empathy to some degree for these
individuals where this OCD just seems to
latch on to them and and unfortunately
this is one of the places that it
happens with Latter-day Saints and
others. But with Latter- Day Saints, you
see these stories
and and we should be aware ourselves of
are we ever allowing an obsession to
overtake us and and and start creating
it as a God above the gospel, above the
covenant path
and and honestly above the leadership of
the church
because that begins to break us apart
and away from that structure of
priesthood.
values hierarchy is a key thing to be
aware of and to self-reflect on. All
right, I want to just touch on AI a
little bit. I've got another video
coming out shortly, another episode on
AI and Elder Gong and what he had to say
uh about AI. Find it very interesting
his approach and the other speakers
approach at this conference that took
place at the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints at the at the at the
church building.
of the church offices.
Recently, an actor Joseph Gordon Levit
urged the Utah lawmakers at uh in in in
a hearing to be concerned about AI and
where it's going and especially to be
concerned about the kids.
As I mentioned, I went to this AI
conference. I I thought there was so
much good information that was delivered
from these speakers. However, it was
interesting because there was very very
little concern that was placed on this
for a for a family religion and gospel
to not be putting these things in place.
One that believes in, you know, agency
between good and evil, to not actually
address the evil possibilities here, I
think was a big mistake. That doesn't
mean you need to be a doomsdayer about
AI, right? I use AI every day.
But but aside from some some what being
mentioned by Elder Gong and by one other
speaker,
it seemed to be more of a kind of a
party of like this is awesome. This is
incredible. Look at these things and and
there is that element. But sometimes you
get into kind of these these academic
conferences and and it's kind of more it
you know you don't want to poo poo on
these things, right? Nobody wants to be
the conservative type of approach on
this. And again, we need to be able to
parse these things out. AI can be very
good and very positive. The church does
use AI, and they should, but there are
warnings. There are things that you need
to be careful of. It has to It's the
same thing with the internet. The
brethren had to battle over the internet
early on. Are we going to use this? Are
we not going to use this? Because it was
a big unknown
coming in as soon as the internet came
on online. you know, are we going to put
a web page up for the church? Kind of
questions like that. And so, we need to
learn from history and say, okay, where
can we take advantage of new technology
and what do we need to be aware of? What
do we need to be concerned about?
This is what the actor said.
I'm a dad. It's why I'm here today. I
have two boys and a girl, and I am
worried for them. He says artificial
intelligence has great potential, but
that AI companies put children at risk.
I'm worried about them growing up in a
future that's dominated by these amoral
AI businesses that have proven time and
time again that they are incapable of
prioritizing the well-being of kids.
Look, we can already look at what you
see with social media, the the the
anxiety and depression and problems,
especially with young women, uh, in in
getting onto social media, the the bad
effects of this. We're starting to take
measures now to finally counteract this
after a couple of decades almost of
going through these problems.
So again, can we learn from our history?
because companies, AI companies are not
going to be responsible for your kids.
They're not going to try and do the
moral thing.
So very glad that that someone of
popularity of a high-profile is saying
this. The actor supports a bill from
Representative Doug Fia requiring AI
companies to make and publicize safety
plans and report any incidents when they
happen. It also prohibits companies from
lying about the risks of AI or
retaliating against their employees who
come forward with concerns.
Okay, so this is a this is uh this is
important, right? This is putting the
parents and the children first and and
this is learning from the past and it's
saying, "Hey, we want to take care of
things, especially with the children to
begin with. How are we going to do that?
How are we going to guarantee this? How
can we actually have law help and
support parents and kids? And that's the
approach that we need to take. AI can be
a very good thing. But being aware of
the pitfalls that come in the future by
looking to the past at at similar
problems and issues that have come with
new technology makes us all better for
it. I'll report on that AI conference
with El Gong soon. Thanks for listening.