Smart kidnapping has religious overtones

Wearing a beige coat, the young woman walked quickly as she braved a phalanx of photographers and TV cameramen that would have flattered a Hollywood star. But this was no red carpet scene.

It was outside the courthouse in Salt Lake City and the woman was Elizabeth Smart, 23, plucked from obscurity and into national fame by one of the most outrageous kidnappings in American criminal history.

The story of that crime, in which a 14-year-old Smart was held captive for nine months and forcibly "married" to a man who considered himself a Mormon prophet, stunned America in 2002.

The bizarre details of the incident have finally emerged. Smart last week gave three days of testimony at the trial of Brian David Mitchell, a former street preacher who crept into her bedroom and took her away into the mountains at knife point.

"There is tremendous interest about this case, said University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell. "It is every parent's worst nightmare - your child abducted in the dead of night. It's the script of a horror movie."

Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, believed God had ordered him to kidnap young girls to be his brides. Smart was raped almost daily as she was transported from Utah to California and back.

At one stage the Mitchells kept her tied to a tree and almost always lived rough in the mountains, setting up makeshift camps in the wilderness.

Eventually Smart was rescued as the trio walked through a suburb in Salt Lake City.

Smart was so traumatised she at first denied her identity.

But to some the Smart kidnapping is more than just a horrible crime.

It appears deeply tied up in the history and culture of the Mormon religion, whose founders came to Utah and Salt Lake City in the 19th century to escape persecution of their new faith.

For many the brave, attractive figure of Smart represents today's Mormonism. Still deeply committed to her faith, she is resilient and was the perfect witness against her former captor. She comes from a family of hardworking Mormons, illustrating the church's reputation for strong families and high moral values.

Smart's face is one the church is proud to show off, and her story of survival and enduring faith has been praised by its leaders in Salt Lake City.

She is the perfect advertisement for one of the world's fastest-growing religions, one that is seeking ever greater political and social influence. It already counts Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid among its adherents and also Mitt Romney, the Republican former presidential candidate and likely favourite 2012 contender.

But Mitchell's story echoes Mormonism's past as a faith with radically different ideas from other offshoots of Christianity. He certainly looked like an Old Testament prophet with a grey-streaked beard and flowing hair.

Each day in court began with him entering singing hymns, then being removed as he refused to stop.

Like many of Mormonism's first leaders, he believed himself to be a prophet. His commitment to polygamy echoed that of Mormonism's founders, and though the church has long banned the practice many breakaway factions still embrace it.

Even if Mitchell is insane, as his lawyers claim, his delusions have a very Mormon feeling with their talk of prophets, angels and taking many young wives, a strand of Mormon thought that church elders have spent more than a century trying to put behind them.

In her testimony last week, Smart told of being shackled at the ankle and tied to a cable hung beneath two trees. She revealed how Mitchell threatened to kill her family if she escaped, something she said kept her captive more than any physical bonds.

She detailed Mitchell's constant abuse, drinking and taking of drugs, all of which he said were sanctioned by divine revelations. She described Barzee playing a supporting role, except when she got jealous of the attention Mitchell showed Smart.

"I thought no matter what happened to me my parents would always love me ... so I decided I would live. I would do whatever he told me to. I would keep my life and my family's life intact and did that to the very end."

Smart has moved on remarkably with her life, doing missionary work in France for the Mormon church, one of 52,000 young missionaries in 180 countries.

As such, she is typical of the Mormon mainstream for whom such a trip is virtually a rite of passage.

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