Bundy tells of spiritual direction in BLM standoff; STGnews Videocast

Cliven Bundy at the Independent American Party summit, St. George, Utah, Aug. 2, 2014 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News

ST. GEORGE – Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy was a featured speaker at the Independent American Party’s summit Saturday. While he touched on matters of what he saw as government overreach and abuse of power surrounding the standoff between his supporters and federal agents, he also focused on what he called “the spiritual part” of the event.

“There’s a lot of parts to it,” the 67-year-old Bundy said. “There’s a physical part, there’s a spiritual part, there’s a legal part, there’s a political part. And you know, if you don’t understand it, all of these parts, you haven’t received the full story.”

Media and the Internet have expressed some of the “physical part” of the standoff, he said. The spiritual aspect hasn’t been touched on much.

“Most of you know about the standoff. That’s where we the people faced the guns of our United States bureaucracy,” Bundy said.

(report continues below)

Videocast by Samantha Tommer, St. George News

The standoff occurred on April 12 between members of the Bundy family, their supporters and agents of the Bureau of Land Management. That morning, a support rally was being held at the Bundy Ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada, during which Clark County Sheriff Douglas Gillespie arrived to tell Bundy and others that the BLM was ceasing its cattle gather.

Up to that time, the BLM had been overseeing the collection of Bundy’s cattle and any others roaming across the 600,000-acre Gold Butte area that had been closed to grazing. Though the BLM planned to leave, citing safety concerns, it didn’t plan on releasing around 350-400 cattle it had collected and was keeping at a temporary site in a wash running under Interstate 15.

The BLM’s keeping the cattle, which were originally slated to be sold at auction, didn’t sit well with the rancher and his family.

Bundy family, supporters at the overpass demanding the BLM to release the cattle, Clark County, Nev., April 12, 2014 | Photo courtesy of Darin Bushman, Paiute County Commissioner, St. George News
Bundy family, supporters at the overpass demanding the BLM to release the cattle, Clark County, Nev., April 12, 2014 | Photo courtesy of Darin Bushman, Paiute County Commissioner, St. George News

This led to members of Bundy’s family riding on horseback to the wash to demand the release of the cattle while others drove down I-15 to the same location. The Bundys and supporters in the wash ended up having guns pointed at them by federal agents who ordered them to keep their distance.

Though he didn’t go to the wash himself, Bundy said, those who did had no fear because “the Lord was with them.”

Video released by documentary filmmaker Dennis Micheal Lynch, who was in the middle of the standoff, shows members of the Bundy family and others kneeling in prayer and asking for protection before going to the wash.

The standoff ultimately ended without any shots being fired, the cattle eventually being released, and the BLM leaving the area.

Those who went to the standoff had a glow about them when they returned, Bundy said, and those who didn’t go looked gray to him.

“I didn’t have fear for those who stood,” he said. “I had fear for those that didn’t stand.”

While those who went to the wash initially did have weapons pointed at them, some Bundy supporters, among whom were members of out-of-state civilian militia groups, were also armed. However, they evidently positioned themselves away from the group pressing toward the fence that separated them from the cattle.

Before the standoff, while Gillespie was on a platform talking to Bundy at the rally that morning, the rancher uttered the now famous demand for the sheriff to disarm the BLM and other federal agencies. The call expanded to sheriffs across the county during a press conference two days later.

Bundy said God had impressed upon him to demand the disarming of the federal agencies because “if they don’t take away these arms, you – we the people – will have to face these arms in a civil war. (God) said this is your chance to ease this thing up. This is the easy way.”

The Nevada rancher continued, saying he wasn’t a prophet, though he believes strongly that God was with his family and supporters during the standoff and continues to be as they move forward.

“If the standoff with the Bundys was wrong,” he said, “would the Lord have been with us?”

He also believes the Constitution to be authored by the hand of God, and if that be the case, “then isn’t it scripture?” he asked. “Why don’t we live by it? Isn’t our problem only the fact we don’t follow the Constitution?”

As his speech wound down, Bundy posed another question to the audience: “Can we save the country and the Constitution without the Lord?”

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Twitter: @MoriKessler

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2014, all rights reserved.

 

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22 Comments

  • Red Rocker August 3, 2014 at 9:23 pm

    I doubt that any supreme power would care about a group of blowhards in rural USA.

    • citizenactivist August 3, 2014 at 11:45 pm

      You need to find Cliven Bundy’s first video talking to his supporters on
      stage and watch what happens behind him in the clouds. As far as you
      doubting in a supreme power, I know for a fact this power was with them
      I drove over 18 hours in prayer to help make sure it was. Read this chp of
      the scriptures. Ephesians 6:10-18New International Version (NIV)

      The Armor of God
      10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

      18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. SAY IT IN JESUS NAME, like I have daily, every morning since
      1985. Notice what happens how you stand firm against the evil one on that day and how the fiery arrows bounce back to those that send them. 50,000
      volts hit Amon Bundy three time in a row, he did not go down. Anyway….

      I believed in the result so much I didn’t even take a weapon. How many people have you ever heard of that just take a Bible To a Gun Fight?

      • Butt August 6, 2014 at 8:24 am

        someone needs to commit this guy to a psych ward.

  • S. Carter August 3, 2014 at 10:32 pm

    “And the spirit of The Lord did descend upon his humble servant, Cliven. And he stood against the wicked rulers of the promised land. And he spake among the Bundyites, asking, ‘Yea, are ye not able to preserve the promised land and the blessed constitution without The Lord, your God?'”
    “And there was a great murmuring among the Bundyites. And Cliven the great spake and proclaimed ‘Give unto Obama what is Obamas, unless it is the chosen cattle, who shall graze freely, above the laws of man”.
    “And and a great cheer arose from the gathered Bundyites, as they began to shout in unison, towards the heavens, U-S-A! U-S-A!”

    • Bender August 3, 2014 at 11:21 pm

      S. CARTER <- like

    • Blunderful World August 3, 2014 at 11:48 pm

      Wow. That is rich. It should be added to the good book. Is he a prophet yet?

    • justmyopinion August 4, 2014 at 6:48 am

      Lol, good one! Isn’t it amazing how God conveniently sends messages to those “holy” men in Utah who believe they don’t have to follow the laws of the Constitution they proclaim to cherish?

      • Kevlar August 5, 2014 at 3:23 pm

        Bundy is from Nevada. And who is disobeying the constitution any more than the government itself?

  • abbie.a August 3, 2014 at 11:10 pm

    The Nazi’s also were convinced that god was with them and directing them. Cliven Bundy didn’t go the wash, yet he’s trashing those who didn’t go??

  • Voice of reason August 3, 2014 at 11:12 pm

    What, no mention of his asking where the “black folks and brown folks” are?
    Cliven Bundy is turning into a little Warren Jeffs

  • bob August 4, 2014 at 12:40 am

    He sounds like an absolute nutbag. Maybe he’s putting on a show hoping to use mental incompetence at his federal trial…

  • Bailey logue August 4, 2014 at 2:22 am

    This man is full of courage, strength, faith and pride. He is proud of his country and of his forefathers who fought and died for us -we the people- to be free!!
    We aren’t free anymore people WE ARE SLAVES to the government.
    Wake up and realize that without men like this we get walked on day after day.

  • ok August 4, 2014 at 3:19 am

    Will the new dollars. Say in government we trusted now we are busted

  • delong August 4, 2014 at 7:34 am

    Bundy must have gotten his spiritual inspiration before the Ten Commandments were invented and when it was okay to steal.

    It’s amazing what happens when you think you’re above the law.

  • Flush Him August 4, 2014 at 8:00 am

    Bundy needs to be flushed for the … that he really is, if you can find a toilet bowl large enough to contain him and a plunger to help push him on way to his rightful place on this earth, a large cesspool. It’s hard to understand how anyone can believe in this person who has proven himself to be a liar, tax evader, government hater, racist and overall idiot.
    Ed. ellipsis.

  • Independentamerican August 4, 2014 at 1:14 pm

    Does the Mormon Church agree with Bundy on this?

  • Red Rocker August 4, 2014 at 11:56 pm

    It is easy to find various scriptures and quote them…. A mere parlor trick unless it is backed up with good thoughts and deeds.

  • tc rider August 5, 2014 at 8:25 am

    what was this nut job doing in Saint George in the first place?
    Its public knowledge that he breaks and thinks he is above the law.
    He seems like he would be a perfect fit for a place like waco texas,
    probably in a compound with a bus buried below it.

  • tack67 August 6, 2014 at 10:59 pm

    God told me I shouldn’t pay my taxes too but the IRS has more power.

  • Josh Dalton (Incognegro) August 18, 2014 at 7:57 pm

    So Bundy…and his little “Stand Off” Every body was armed. Did the cops go in there and tear gas those folks? It was not a “Peaceful protest” it was a “stand off!” So how is this guy allowed to keep ensuing violence. Get a bunch of unarmed neighbors together in Ferguson,Missouri (black people) and its to much for law enforcement, call in the National Guard! Its 2014 we need to RISE UP TOGETHER AS ONE COLOR!

  • Betty August 28, 2014 at 7:35 am

    Matthew 22:20-21″… “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” That means pay your taxes! Obey the law of the land! God does not condone stealing – even for the “greater good.” Bundy is a fool. And is being fooled by an entity that is pretending to be God… like most of the folk in southern Nevada and Utah.

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