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Neal Chase (b. January 30, 1966) is the current disputed leader of a Bahá'í division known as the Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant (BUPC). Chase claims to be the current Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, seated on the Throne of David. The claims and beliefs of Chase and the BUPC are not accepted by members of the Bahá'í Faith, and the followers of both groups have mutually excommunicated each other.
Background
Neal Chase was born a Jew in Bridgeport, Connecticut. After becoming a born-again Christian in his teens, Chase became a Bahá'í at the age of 19 while attending Michigan State University. After several years, he moved to Deer Lodge, Montana to investigate the prophecies of the Morrisites, a Christian group awaiting the return of Jesus. His research there was compiled into his book Ezekiel's Temple in Montana (1990).
He hosted a weekly call-in talk show on Missoula Cable Access Television every Friday night from 1992-2001 called Bahá'í Phone-in Live! . The format allowed callers to discuss issues ranging from religion, world events, politics, and special interests. He received attention for a number of predictions he was making about attacks on New York and nuclear holocaust, and was invited to be a guest on the Art Bell radio show Coast to Coast AM on March 25, 1993, soon after the first World Trade Center Bombing. Chase was also satirized on Michael Moore’s TV Nation. His prediction of an attack on February 26, 1993 was discussed in Expecting Armageddon, and mentioned in the February 1995 issue of Harper's Magazine. In an editorial in The Missoulian, editor Mark Matthews in his "A Time to Weep", written only days after the 9/11 attacks wrote:
- "How could this have happened ? Some will say it's the beginning of the biblical End Times. For a number of years, members of… Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant have predicted that the World Trade Center Towers would be bombed by terrorists." .
A year after the 9/11 attacks The Missoulian newspaper published a statement from Victor Woods, a BUPC member, that Chase had accurately predicted the date of the attacks.
Guardianship claim
In 1960 Mason Remey claimed that he was the next Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, resulting in his expulsion from the Bahá'í community. Among those that followed Remey was Leland Jensen, who founded the BUPC after the former's death. Jensen announced that he held a station higher than that of the Guardian, and taught that Remey's adopted son Joseph Pepe was the next Guardian after Remey, a point that Pepe publicly denied. The Second International Bahá'í Council (sIBC) that Jensen set up in 1991, with Chase as a member, functioned without the involvement of Pepe, who died in 1994.
After Jensen's own death in 1996, the council remained the head of the BUPC, but without a clear candidate for Guardian, and without Jensen, no new members could be appointed to the council.
In 2001, seven years after Pepe's death, Chase announced that he had been adopted by Pepe and appointed to the position of Guardian, quoting letters that he had received while Pepe was still alive. Chase claims a relationship developed over the course of many years through written correspondence with Pepe Remey, which eventually led Pepe Remey to adopt and appoint Chase as his successor. Chase points to what he calls "written 'Aghsan' statements" as evidence that Pepe adopted him in the same manner that he believes `Abdu'l-Bahá adopted Mason Remey, although these adoptions are not accepted by any of the other Bahá'í divisions. In one such letter Chase claims that Pepe asked: "shall I adopt you?"
Chase's announcement to be the Guardian caused a division among the council members, with the majority (3 vs. 2) opposing Chase. His exercising the removal of funds and material of the council resulted in an unresolved court case in 2002. Chase declared the other dissenting council members to be Covenant-breakers, including his ex-wife, Dawn Mullally.
World civil war
Chase has written many press releases over the years. The assassination of Saddam Hussein by the U.S. was the focus of several throughout the 1990's during which Iraq was under U.N. sanctions. His 1995 press release Mabus Must Die drew a distinct parallel between the Nostradamus anti-Christ named "Mabus" and Saddam Hussein. This Mabus character, according to Nostradamus, is effectively killed triggering "horrible destruction, THEN on a sudden THE VENGEANCE shall be seen!".
In 1997, drawing on an ABC Special Report by Peter Jennings titled “UNFINISHED BUSINESS: THE CIA AND SADDAM HUSSEIN” Chase issued another press release titled World Civil War!. The ABC special report was about a secret operation the CIA codenamed "The Jackhammer" which proposed that the United States will kill Saddam Hussein using an underground burrowing nuclear weapon carried by the B-2 stealth bomber. The Spotlight mentioned this operation stating, "the top priority hugely expensive covert project involving the assassination of Saddam and the forcible ouster of his regime is code named “Operation Jackhammer.” . Chase goes on to say that the assassination of Saddam Hussein by a tactical nuclear strike would be the "thermonuclear trigger" that would align East against West. That such an event would cause Russia to retaliate in Iraq's defense, and unleash the apocalypse prophesied in the Bible through which one third of mankind is to be dead in ONE hour, and according to Chase would likely cause every US city with over 100,000 people to be destroyed by Russian missiles. No specific date for this scenario was given in the press release.
Saddam Hussein was executed on December 30, 2006, by the Iraqi government after being convicted of crimes against humanity.
Domain name dispute over UHJ.net
On February 24, 2005 the National Spiritual Assembly (NSA) of the Bahá'ís of the United States filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center against Neal Chase for his use of the domain name UHJ.net, which claims to be "The Official website of the Universal House of Justice" - a name for which the NSA has a United States federal trademark registration, issued in 1965.
The case resulted in Chase keeping the domain name on the basis that “uhj” as an acronym is not commonly used in the Bahá'í Faith to refer to the Universal House of Justice. The panel also concluded that the NSA was not attempting a reverse domain name hijacking. All other issues were deemed not necessary to address. (see WIPO document)
Works
Published:
- Chase, Neal (1987). Lazarus the Sick World. Self-published.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - Chase, Neal (1990). Ezekiel's Temple in Montana. Self-published.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - Chase, Neal (2003). King of Terror. Self-published.
Contributed to:
- "Harper's Magazine". February, 1995.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - Lapham, Lewis H. (1997). The Anthology, The End of the World.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - Chase, Neal (1992). "Killing People to Get Elected". Phoenix Liberator.
Referenced in:
- Robbins, Tom (1997). Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem: Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - Stone, Jon R. (ed) (2000). Expecting Armageddon: Essential Readings in Failed Prophecy. London & New York: Routledge.
{{cite book}}:|first=has generic name (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - "Baha'i Faith Center". Harvard University, Committee on the Study of Religion. Retrieved 2006-12-11.
See also
Notes
- "Bahá'í Phone-in Live!" The Missoulian November 24, 2001
- Stone, Jon R. (ed) (2000). Expecting Armageddon.
- The Missoulian, Editorial, September 20, 2001
- Missoulian article September 16, 2002
- ^ From BUPC.org's Test of God
- Respondent brief (p.12)
- Appellant brief (p. 8)
- The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus translated by Henry C. Roberts
- The Spotlight September 4, 1995
References
- "Bahá'í: Deer Lodge Sanctuary" (January 29, 1991). The Missoulian. Front page.
- Bradlee, Eva (November 24, 2001). "A Bahá'í perspective on spiritual destiny". The Missoulian
- Chase, Neal (1990). Ezekiel's Temple in Montana. Bahá'í Publishers Under the Covenant. Missoula, Montana 59802.
- Effendi Shoghi, (1974). The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois 60091
- “Ezekiel’s Temple in Montana!” (February 9, 1991). The Montana Standard. Front page.
- Home page. Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant. Retrieved February 6, 2006
- Jensen, Leland, (1996). The Most Mighty Document. Retrieved February 4, 2006
- Lamb, J.T., (2004). Over The Wall. Retrieved on February 4, 2006
- "Millennial Fever" (July 17, 1997). Missoula Independent. Front page.
- Remey, Charles Mason (1960). Proclamation of Guardianship. Retrieved February 5, 2006.
- UN WIPO Decision - Ruling in domain name dispute
- Woods, Victor (September 16, 2002). "Vengeance upon America predicted". The Missoulian.
- Woods, Victor (November 23, 2002). "Local Bahá'ís share covenant celebration". The Missoulian