Bigfoot And Cain

Occasionally, the bizarre disciplines of fundamentalist scripture interpretation and cryptozoology interface in fascinating ways. Given that the first reading from Genesis in today's lectionary recounts the story of the murder of Abel by Cain, I think it affords the opportunity to talk about one of my favorite of such intersections: the belief of some Mormons that Bigfoot is actually Cain.

That's right, Cain. Not a descendant of Cain, but Cain himself. The scriptural allusion to some sort of "deformation" or "de-evolution" of Cain is traced back to Genesis 4:15, where the Lord puts a "mark" on Cain, so that no one who found him would kill him. In certain Mormon circles, this is taken to mean that Cain is immortal.

Add to this bizarre reading of the scriptural narrative the 1835 account of David Patten, one of LDS founder Joseph Smith's original "Quorum of the Twelve Apostles," who claimed that he had an encounter during which he was accompanied on the road by whom(what?) he believed to be Cain:

"He walked along beside me for about two miles. His head was about even with my shoulders as I sat in my saddle. He wore no clothing, but was covered with hair. His skin was very dark."

It became further apparent to Patten during this encounter in Tennessee that Bigfoot/Cain had been condemned to an immortal life, roaming the earth with the mission of destroying the souls of men.

The story of Patten's encounter with Bigfoot/Cain is recounted further in the Mormon spiritual classic, "The Miracle of Forgiveness" by Spencer W. Kimball.

A good Mormon death means you get a planet of your own in the end. However, as demonstrated by the case of Cain, a bad Mormon death means you get stuck with this one.