To Whom It May Concern:
Herein is my testimony and memoirs of my relationship with Joseph
Pepe-Remey and Leland Jensen. This memoir is based on personal
recollections, and my review of correspondence with Pepe, Leland and
my journals. My memory is fallible and biased and so this memoir is
to the best of my recollection and objectivity. Some dates may be
incorrect by a year. This is also a much abbreviated account. Many
more details could be stated. God knows, and bears witness to the
truth of these words.
I first met Dr Leland Jensen, may God bless him, in December 1973 at
his home in Missoula, MT. I accepted the Baha'I Faith upon my second
fireside that same month. With Leland's encouragement, I wrote Mason
Remey in either late December 1973, or early January 1974 to inform
him that I accepted his guardianship as a new Baha'i. A copy of this
letter may be in my records. I do not recall receiving an
acknowledgement from him of my letter. Mason Remey passed away
February 4, 1974.
Joseph Pepe-Remey, may God bless him, and I began correspondence when
I wrote him April 3, 1975, and he replied April 9, 1975. We
corresponded through October 1976, then resumed correspondence in
1987. In 1990-1992, we corresponded frequently sometimes several
letters per month. My last communication with him was his letter to
me, dated August 31, 1993. He passed away April 1994.
I have all his original letters he wrote me, except for a portion of
his August 4, 1990 letter that I returned to him without making a
copy. I have most, if not all, copies of letters I wrote him after I
began using a computer for word processing circa Oct 1990. Prior to
then I mostly hand wrote my letters, and did not keep copies of them all.
I first wrote Pepe April 3, 1975 to contribute a small sum to Mason
Remey's tomb, in response to Jean Miller's initiative. Jean Miller of
Colorado was a Baha'I friend of Pepe's, and had notified the American
Baha'is of the news that Mason Remey had passed away. She sent money
to Pepe which Pepe used towards Mason Remey's tombstone, and other
Baha'is learned of this and sent contributions for a tomb.
At the time that Pepe and I began our correspondence, Leland Jensen
was beginning to teach that Pepe was the Guardian. Refer to Leland's
1975 letters to Pepe for further details. Much, but not all, of
Pepe's and Leland Jensen's correspondence can be read at
www.lelandjensen.net. I have copies of Pepe's letters to Leland
Jensen, Neal Chase and others, that Pepe sent me in the early 1990s
that are not posted. I have been scanning these, and many are
available upon request. I am willing to release for publication via
scanning or copying most letters Pepe wrote me, including the copies
of letters he wrote Leland Jensen and Neal Chase, and copied to me.
For the record of history, I bear witness that prior to 1975, it is my
distinct memory, that Leland Jensen taught his followers, including
myself, that Donald Harvey of France was Mason Remey's successor.
Leland himself gave me a copy of Mason's handwritten appointment of
Donald Harvey. It is my distinct memory that Leland Jensen during his
first fireside with me on the Will and Testament circa early 1974
taught me, that the word "branch" meant "male Baha'I", and that "leaf"
meant "female Baha'I". Leland Jensen wrote Donald Harvey, whom Leland
then regarded to be the Guardian, circa late 1974- early 1975, for the
purpose of declaring Leland's station to be Joshua, the High Priest,
etc. Leland did not reveal to me the contents of Donald's letter to
him in reply, but indicated Donald had not recognized Leland's station
as a "promised one". After Leland received this reply from Donald
Harvey, Leland began to teach that Pepe was the Guardian. Leland, at
that time, based his belief upon his recollection of Mason Remey
informing him in the early 1960s about a medallion that would be an
insignia for recognizing the next Guardian.
Donald Harvey and I corresponded in the mid to late 1970s, and then
again from late 1990 until the summer of 1991. Donald Harvey, God
bless his soul, passed on in October 1991. His letters to me are also
being scanned and available upon request.
From December 1973 until May 1976 while I resided in Missoula and
attended the University of Montana, I had a close association with
Leland Jensen, and the Missoula community of believers. From
September 1975 until May 1976 I rented a room in the basement of
Jensen's South Avenue rental house, and worked at printing Baha'I
books with Leland in their print shop located in the same basement.
In May 1976, I moved to Wichita, Kansas to begin a college program. I
maintained an active interest and participation in Jensen's community
of believers for many years. Periodically, Dr Jensen and I
corresponded, telephoned, or visited. I hosted him in Wichita Kansas
when he went on a teaching tour circa 1977 (or 78?) to the South and
Southwest that included his visit with Charles Gaines, Anita (now
Coryell-Bailliff) and Dave Strattman, and Victor and Kay Woods.
During the winter holiday of 1976-1977, I had the pleasure of visiting
Mary Magdalene Wilkins at her gracious home in Ohio, accompanied by my
wife, Diana, and Baha'I friend, Paul Wheeler. M.M. Wilkins and
Charles Gaines were two of the Baha'is from under Mason Remey's
guardianship that Leland Jensen then believed to be the first of the
"24 Elders" from Revelations that would recognize him, Leland, as
Joshua, the Seventh Angel, and Lamb of Revelations. Both subsequently
refuted Leland's claims. I have copies of M.M. Wilkins correspondence
with Leland circa 1977, including her 7-7-77 letter in which she
rebuked him.
In the summer of 1978, I visited Leland Jensen, and the Missoula
community while moving to Portland Oregon. A scandal had erupted with
allegations that Leland was sexually exploiting women among his
followers. The scandal fractionated the community, and many of
Leland's followers disassociated.
From 1978 to April 1980, I resided in Wilsonville and Portland, Oregon
while attending the naturopathic college in Portland. I received
occasional communications from the Jensen community, including copies
of letters and documents written by Leland. Mostly, I was inactive in
the Jensen community. In April 1980, I stayed with Baha'I friends in
Stevensville, Mt in preparation for Leland's prediction of nuclear war
set for April 29, 1980. In the summer of 1980, I moved temporarily to
Missoula for a few weeks, staying with Leland and Opal while I painted
their Colonial Lane home. Then I moved to Billings Montana, and
resided there and in Laurel, Montana until my move to Boise in
September 1991. I continued to maintain contact and regard myself as
one of Leland's believers until the summer/fall of 1990.
In late 1989, my wife, Diana, had written Leland to express her
questions and concerns about his changing teachings about the
relationship of the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice,
and Leland's assertion that he, not Mason Remey, was the
"Distinguished Personage" described in a Tablet of `Abdu'l Baha.
Refer to Leland's Feb 7 1990 letter to Diana Mathieu at
www.lelandjensen.net.
In response to Leland's letter to my wife, I wrote Leland one or more
letters in the spring of 1990 regarding the "Distinguished Personage"
Tablet in an effort to spare Leland embarrassment over his mistaken
application of that spiritual title to himself.
One night circa 1989 - early 1990, while visiting Carlotta Geesen in
Bozeman, I experienced what I describe as a mystic vision, a
premonition or fore-knowing. I would need to check my journal to
ascertain the date. It was a knowingness of my future life service,
a sense of destiny. I woke in the middle of the night, alone, and in
communion with Spirit. It was a moment of ecstatic peace and certainty
that has faded from my consciousness with the passing of time. At the
time, because of my Baha'i perspective and my involvement with Leland,
I had the impression that the premonition meant that I would be one of
the guardians of the Baha'i faith.
I remember confiding this experience to Carlotta indirectly. I told
her something of the experience, without directly stating that I
believed it to mean I would be the Guardian, and she perceived that I
was alluding to being a future Guardian. She shared this perception
with Leland quite soon thereafter. I assume this information led to
Leland writing his letter to Pepe about certain "dreamers" imagining
themselves to become the Guardian. Pepe's acknowledgement of this was:
13 May, 1990
Page 2....Ltr to L. Jensen
"In reading over what you wrote on Page 20 of your letter referring to
certain dreamers desiring to become Guardian of the Faith…."
Pepe and I corresponded about my experience, and Carlotta's informing
Leland of it as a basis for Leland's statements. I'd have to review
our letters of that time period for certainty. Pepe assured me then,
as he did before and after that anyone can function as a "guardian" of
the Baha'I Faith.
In late May, 1990, I attended a gathering and conference of Leland's
supporters in Missoula. I then still regarded myself as a believer in
Leland Jensen claim to be the "Promised One" and his various spiritual
titles. I was convinced, and remain so today, that Leland was
mistaken in asserting that he was `Abdu'l Baha's "Distinguished
Personage". Leland confronted me at the May gathering about this
difference of belief, and applied the intense force of his personality
and will in an effort to intimidate me into submission. He asked me
in words to the effect, "Who are you to dare to question a Promised
One of God"? His efforts were not without effect, and I was shaken
and silenced.
Yet, as Leland himself was fond of repeating, "a man convinced against
his will, is of the same opinion still". So I did not retract my
belief that Leland was in error concerning the appellation of the
"Distinguished Personage", whom I believe to refer to Baha'u'llah, as
the Chosen One, the Manifestation of God in this Cycle, and the
Guardians, including Mason Remey in a lesser sense. For more details,
refer to my Nov 1990-1991 letters to Leland, and my 1991 essay, "The
Enigma", which are available electronically upon request. My preMay
1990 letters to Leland regarding the Distinguished Personage, may be
in my records as photocopies.
Despite Leland's treatment of me, I still believed him to be a
"Promised One", and in zealous enthusiasm inspired from the overall
impression of the Missoula gathering I wrote Pepe in an effort to
share my inspiration and encourage him to accept Leland's station and
guidance. Pepe replied June 13, 1990 with a 1 page rebuke for my
attempt to persuade him of Leland's authority. I replied with a
conciliatory letter, and an expression of my growing doubts of
Leland's claims. This was followed by a frequent exchange of
letters, often several per month in the period of July 1990 through
the summer of 1992.
In August 1990, Pepe wrote me a letter in which he adopted and
appointed me as his Aghsan successor, contingent on my belief in him
as an Aghsan. He even sent me a "token", as Pepe's called it, of my
inheritance in the form of a letter written to Mason Remey in the
early 1900s by a Baha'I on exquisite Baha'I stationary. I recall some
statement by Pepe explaining he made this appointment and adoption,
for one reason, because of my visionary experience and the conviction
it gave me about being a future guardian. Upon reading his August 4
1990 letter, I came to realize that I did not believe Pepe to be the
Guardian, so I declined the appointment and returned his statement to him.
He had other reasons for making that appointment as well that are
indicated by later letters. One being his desire to pass to me the
task of preserving the Guardianship and rehabilitating Mason Remey
with the mainstream Baha'is.
In a March, 1991 letter, that I received on Naw Ruz, Pepe sent me a
letter with a copy of a letter he had mailed to Donald Harvey, wherein
he proposed that Donald appoint me as his successor, instead of
Jacques Soghomonian. That letter is available to be scanned and
released. Donald and I were in correspondence then also. Donald
chose not to change his appointment of Jacques Soghomonian, and I
accepted this with relief.
My last meeting with Leland was at his home, in October 1990. At that
meeting, he handed me an incomplete letter because his computer had
lost the final portion. I replied to his October 1990 letter with my
letters written in November 1990 and February 1991 accompanied by
research compilations and essays based on Baha'I and Biblical
scripture to examine the verity of Leland's teachings and claims.
Some of these compilations were the "Baha'I Commentary on
Revelations", "The Seventh Angel", "Knights", "The Establisher", and
"The Divine Physician". Some of these I later compiled into "Titles".
In response to my November 1990 letter, and especially to my
commentary on Revelations, Leland Jensen wrote his May 1991, "Epistle
to Knight Courageous". I replied to his letter with my letter of May
1991, with the enclosure of my essay exploring the symbol of the
"Stone" in the Bible, and Baha'I writings. About that time, I also
compiled the first version of "The Branch", and shared that with
Leland. These letters to Leland Jensen, and my compilations and
essays are available upon request in electronic form. Pepe received
copies of all these letters and writings from myself, and was pleased.
Leland wrote after his May 1991 epistle to "Knight Courageous":
Dr. Jensen: "If you have read my Epistle to Brent you will find
that I had slain him on the battle field destroying
his weapons which were his five points. Did he make
brownie points with Pepe by attacking my claim.
Absolutely not! Carlotta tells me that Brent told her
that Pepe wrote him just recently, telling him that he
is not to be the next guardian, so his attack upon me
not only didn't achieve its end, but became the cause
of Brent being disqualified. Pepe wrote me recently
concerning this on May the 30th:
Pepe: 'The truth is, Leland, you cannot show me anywhere in
my correspondence that I have opposed you personally
or took objection to your spiritual claims…'
Dr. Jensen: "Here Pepe explains that he never "opposed [me]
personally or took objection to [my] spiritual
claims." So it shows that Brent by attacking me
personally and going against my claims was the wrong
thing for him to do, and because of it he cannot
succeed Pepe in the Guardianship."
(Dr. Leland Jensen, to Chases Gaines, p. 46, 47
June-July 30, 1991)
In July 1990, and afterwards, Pepe did oppose and object to Leland
Jensen's claims as many of his letters to individuals and general
statements reveal. Refer to Pepe's July 19, 1990 statement on
www.lelandjensen.net, or Pepe's Oct 22, 1990 statements sent to
myself. Many other letters by Pepe to me reveal Pepe's disregard for
Leland's claims to be a promised one. Pepe's October 1991 letter to
Neal Chase demonstrates Pepe regarded both Neal and Leland as
"Disciples of the Devil".
My last correspondence to Leland Jensen was circa the summer of 1992.
I do not believe him to be a fulfillment of the visions of the third
chapter of Zechariah, or of Revelations as he claimed. I recognize
him as a brilliant though deluded ego, who has played his part in the
spiritual drama of the post Shoghi Effendi controversy regarding the
Guardianship. May God bless his soul.
Sometime after my release of February 26, 2004 email, with the scanned
image of Pepe's August 4, 1990 letter to me that refers to Pepe's
appointment of myself as his successor, Neal Chase wrote several
letters in which he quoted Leland's June 1991 statement about Carlotta
Geesen's report that I had told her that Pepe had written me that I
would not be the Guardian.
This is all hearsay, speculation and rumor. I don't recall what was
said between Carlotta and me. My journals may have entries. I recall
Carlotta and John Geesen last visited me at my home outside Laurel MT
sometime around 1991. I showed them a number of Pepe's letters, but
they did not receive copies. I recall that I did not show them any of
Pepe's letters that referred to his appointment of me. I may have
said some words to the effect that since I did not recognize Pepe as
the successor of Mason Remey, and had accepted Donald Harvey as the
Guardian, that Pepe could not appoint me, or any one, to succeed him.
That was my belief then, and now. Because of my renouncing my belief
in Leland Jensen as a Promised One, and my attempt to prove to them
that his claims were false, my friendship with the Geesens ended at
that time. The Jensen community shunned me about that time.
As for Leland Jensen and Neal Chase's belief that Pepe abandoned me as
his choice because of my challenging and opposing Leland, that is
utter nonsense and a complete 180 degrees from the truth as I
experienced. Pepe in late 1990, after his appointment of me insisted
that I assure him that I no longer believed in Leland as a Promised
One. In the letters I've shared, such as his Oct 22 1990 statements,
Pepe regarded Leland as a liar and a fraud, not as a Promised One.
Pepe's letters to me in 1990-1992 expressed his approval for my
challenging and exposing Leland's erroneous claims. That is why he
referred to me as a "Knight Courageous", when he referred to Leland as
a "Devil", and Neal Chase as a "Devil's Disciple".
In the spring and summer of 1992, Pepe and I did have a disagreement
that led to the end of our correspondence until our final congenial
exchange in the summer of 1993. The disagreement was over my
criticism of Pepe's proposal to transfer the infallibility of the
Guardianship to the sans Guardian UHJ in exchange for their
rehabilitating Mason Remey's name among the Baha'is, and my challenges
to Pepe personally over what I considered his unfair treatment of
individuals including myself. Pepe had expressed his hope that I
could carry on his efforts to rehabilitate Mason Remey's memory with
the sansGuardian Baha'is. When he became disappointed with me, we did
cease correspondence. It is this situation, as well as Pepe's
disappointment with other correspondents such as Daniel Scherr that
likely resulted in Pepe's March 1993 letter:
"At one time in the past – several years ago – when I was carrying
on an active correspondence with Daniel Scherr, yourself [name
omitted for privacy] and Brent Mathieu I thought seriously that
should the time come when the mainstream Baha'is might want to
correct their errors regarding Mason's claims to the guardianship
and ask me to succeed, I would have had the three of you as sub-
guardians – one to dedicate himself only to the WORD – one to the
Administrative Order of Abdu'l-Baha and one to the Teaching
Efforts…. I was enthralled with the three of you and should have
been proud to have you as my "sons." A pity it all fell apart."
(Pepe, 29, March, 1993)
The falling apart between Pepe and me was in the spring and summer of
1992, not 1991 as Neal Chase alleges. It was not because I was
unloyal to Leland, but because I asserted my values and convictions
independent of those of Pepe. We disagreed.
To my knowledge, I have never received from Pepe, or any one else any
statement that could be construed that Pepe cut me off from the Aghsan
lineage. Rather we agreed to part ways.
More can be told of this story.
Neal Chase in his recent letters and emails has compared myself, Brent
Mathieu, to Mirza Muhammed Ali, as "hatam", dead wood.
Baha'I historians record, that upon Baha'u'llah's death Mirza Muhammed
Ali removed the writing case that contained Baha'u'llah's signet rings
from the Baha'u'llah's room, while `Abdu'l Baha was in mourning, and
making preparations for His Father's funeral.
I invite any interested parties to investigate and compare the manner
in which Neal Chase shortly after Pepe's death in April 1994 acquired
Pepe's files that included a Baha'I signet ring from Pepe's sister
while she was in mourning. I invite Neal Chase to document that it
was Pepe's will that he receive the possession of Pepe's records, and
signet ring.
A word of caution to anyone reading this, remember these are my
recollections and perspective, written without editing and careful
research to assure accuracy of all statements. It is certainly
biased. Take the above with a grain of salt. This was what Pepe often
advised me in his letters. Investigate and know of your own knowledge.
I affirm the validity of succession from Mason Remey to Donald Harvey
to Jacques Soghomonian.
This statement may be circulated as desired.
Blessings,
Brent Mathieu
March 17, 2004
Boise, Idaho
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartoftheBahaiFaith/message/2327