Reports: Montana Church Stashed Arms Feds Say Armored Personnel Carrier Part Of New Age Sect’s Arsenal

The Church Universal and Triumphant secreted “large quantities” of weapons, including an armored personnel carrier, at its headquarters near here and around the country for two decades, U.S. Justice Department lawyers maintain.

The New Age sect moved the arsenal and the vehicle from a bomb shelter in the spring of 1993 after the Branch Davidian tragedy in Waco, Texas, the department says in court documents released Wednesday.

The papers, released Wednesday in response to a 1993 Freedom of Information Act request from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and the Livingston Enterprise, do not say where the weapons are now.

The church used an elaborate money-laundering scheme to buy the weapons, and spiritual leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet was aware of the weapons program, the documents say.

“As early as 1973 Mrs. Prophet was clearly aware of efforts which the (church) and its high-ranking staff members had made to acquire weapons and ammunition to defend CUT’s staff and property,” Justice Department attorney Stuart Gibson wrote in a 1993 court document.

Gibson also cited Prophet’s testimony and said she was “reassured” when told church employees were obtaining an armored personnel carrier so the church “could fulfill its transportation needs in the event of civil unrest or war.”

Church spokesman Murray Steinman said Gibson’s conclusions were wrong.

“The testimony doesn’t say what he said it said,” Steinman said Thursday.

“The Department of Justice has mischaracterized the depositions in the testimony that was taken in the tax case in order to make its case look as good as possible. Then they settled, which gave us back our tax exemption, which I think speaks louder than anything else,” he said.