Holy Idiot

Two women claim they were bilked out of their life savings by an apocalyptic religious group that promised them land and a face-to-face meeting with Jesus Christ.
Kaziah Hancock and Cindy Stewart earlier won their lawsuit against Jim Harmston and The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of The Last Days in a district court, but it was thrown out by a judge.
They appealed to the Utah Court of Appeals on Tuesday.
In the appeal, the women's attorney, Don Redd, argued Harmston and the church should not be allowed to create a "religious cocoon" to protect themselves.
Harmston's attorney, Kevin Bond, said the promises were not to be fulfilled by Harmston, but by God, and that a ruling in the women's' favor would set a precedent for excommunicated church members of any faith to seek repayment of tithing.
The women first sued in 2002, when a jury awarded them $300,000. However, a judge ruled that the damages were unfair, and Redd refiled the lawsuit. A judge then dismissed three of five claims, prompting the appeal and a separate district court lawsuit.
The church — founded in 1994 by Harmston after his excommunication from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — preaches the practice of polygamy as one of its tenets. It made news in 2002 after posting a Web site declaration that the end of the world was at hand and only church members would survive.