LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio executed a religious cult leader Tuesday for murdering a family of five followers who were taken one at a time to a barn, bound and shot to death. The youngest was a girl just 7 years old.
Jeffrey Lundgren, 56, died by injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.
"I profess my love for God, my family, for my children, for Kathy (his wife). I am because you are," Lundgren said in his final statement.
The evidence against him in the deaths of the Avery family -- Dennis, 49, Cheryl, 46, Trina, 15, Rebecca, 13, and 7-year-old Karen -- was compelling.
Upset by what he saw as a lack of faith, Lundgren arranged a dinner hosted by cult members. Afterward, he and his followers led the family members one by one -- the father first, young Karen last -- to their deaths while the others unknowingly cleaned up after dinner.
Lundgren shot each victim two or three times while a running chain saw muffled the sound of the gunfire.
Lundgren argued at his trial in 1990 that he was prophet of God and therefore not deserving of the death penalty.
"It's not a figment of my imagination that I can in fact talk to God, that I can hear his voice," he had told the jurors. "I am a prophet of God. I am even more than a prophet."
Lundgren formed the cult with about 20 members in the northeast Ohio town of Kirtland after he was dismissed in 1987 as a lay minister of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of the Mormon church.
He said God commanded him, through interpretation of Scriptures, to kill the Avery family, who had moved from Missouri in 1987 to follow his teachings.
Lundgren's attorneys had tried to put off the execution, arguing that he should be allowed to join a lawsuit challenging Ohio's use of lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment. They said his execution had more of a chance of being painful because he was diabetic and overweight at 275 pounds.
Late Monday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati issued an order allowing the execution to go forward. The U.S. Supreme Court refused a last-minute request to stop his execution Tuesday, and Gov. Bob Taft denied clemency.
Thirteen cult members were charged in the case, including Lundgren's wife, Alice, now 55, and their son, Damon, now 35, both serving life prison terms.
Oct 4, 2006
An Editorial about Churchs and Politics
Avoiding church-state conflict
By the Helena IR - 10/04/06
Last week’s federal court ruling against a lawsuit filed by a Helena-area Baptist Church is a reminder that issues of church and state aren’t likely to go away any time soon.
The Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church was accused by the state commissioner of political practices of violating campaign laws by failing to report its activities on behalf of a successful 2004 constitutional ban on gay marriage. The church sued, alleging the laws violated its freedom of speech and religion.
Federal District Judge Donald Molloy ruled against the church. Molloy noted that the First Amendment prevents the state from establishing a religion or preventing people from practicing the religion of their choice, but said in this case the church became an “incidental campaign committee” by holding meetings, distributing petitions, and other overt political activities.
“Nothing in the First Amendment keeps the state from exercising its regulatory authority over the political process,” he said, “even when the politicking takes place in the sanctuary.”
This sort of conflict is not a matter of liberal or conservative politics — the Internal Revenue Service is increasingly being asked to investigate whether churches are violating their tax-exempt status with their political activities. The complaints usually are made by conservatives about liberal political activities or the other way around.
This problem is hardly surprising. Whenever church goers believe their religious teachings compel them to take political action, the possibility of church-state conflict is never far away.
This conflict, however, is the last thing churches need, or should want. Church members who want to enter the political arena should create separate political committees to do so.
Molloy’s ruling was sound, but hardly new. The message goes back 2,000 years: Give onto Caesar what is Caesar’s.
By the Helena IR - 10/04/06
Last week’s federal court ruling against a lawsuit filed by a Helena-area Baptist Church is a reminder that issues of church and state aren’t likely to go away any time soon.
The Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church was accused by the state commissioner of political practices of violating campaign laws by failing to report its activities on behalf of a successful 2004 constitutional ban on gay marriage. The church sued, alleging the laws violated its freedom of speech and religion.
Federal District Judge Donald Molloy ruled against the church. Molloy noted that the First Amendment prevents the state from establishing a religion or preventing people from practicing the religion of their choice, but said in this case the church became an “incidental campaign committee” by holding meetings, distributing petitions, and other overt political activities.
“Nothing in the First Amendment keeps the state from exercising its regulatory authority over the political process,” he said, “even when the politicking takes place in the sanctuary.”
This sort of conflict is not a matter of liberal or conservative politics — the Internal Revenue Service is increasingly being asked to investigate whether churches are violating their tax-exempt status with their political activities. The complaints usually are made by conservatives about liberal political activities or the other way around.
This problem is hardly surprising. Whenever church goers believe their religious teachings compel them to take political action, the possibility of church-state conflict is never far away.
This conflict, however, is the last thing churches need, or should want. Church members who want to enter the political arena should create separate political committees to do so.
Molloy’s ruling was sound, but hardly new. The message goes back 2,000 years: Give onto Caesar what is Caesar’s.
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