Former White Separatist Kyle Chapman Leaves The Movement, Rediscovers His Mormon Roots, And Marries An LDS Woman In New Zealand

The love of a good woman who is faithful to Gospel principles can cause a man to exit a turbulent lifestyle and bring him back to full Church fellowship and activity. An example of this has just played out in New Zealand.

According to Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand resident Kyle Chapman (pictured above left with his new bride) has left the White separatist movement thanks to such a woman, Claire Clifford. The two just got married at an LDS chapel on Tuhikaramea Road. While it wasn't a full-blown temple marriage, which is contracted for both time and eternity, it is a good start. A non-embeddable news video from TVNZ is also available HERE. The couple will live on Claire's lifestyle block on the outskirts of Hamilton.

The pair first met in Christchurch nearly four years ago when Ms Clifford was serving an LDS mission. They lost contact over the past three years and met again on the social networking website Facebook a month ago. They spent 80 hours on the phone in two weeks, decided to marry and Mr Chapman flew into the city yesterday morning.

Kyle Chapman was raised a Mormon, but drifted away as a young adult and became involved with White separatism as a result in part of pro-minority affirmative action policies which struck him as being unfair. He became involved in a multitude of activities and organizations, including the National Front, the Nationalist Alliance, and The Survive Club. He even ran unsuccessfully for elective office. Read the Wikipedia account of his life HERE.

However, he paid a personal price. The 38-year-old father of five by four different women, including one ex-wife, became addicted to alcohol and drugs. In his younger days in Invercargill he admitted to a series of arsons between 1987 and 1992, including fire-bombing a marae. His time in the National Front gained him plenty of media coverage and notoriety, the most memorable incident a clash on the streets of Wellington where 50 of his supporters, many skinheads, got into a bloody battle with 800 marchers from the Multicultural Aotearoa rally. Even as recently as January 2009, Chapman revealed plans for a commune-style mini-state in North Canterbury for "like-minded Europeans", referred to in the Stormfront White nationalist community as a "PLE" (Pioneer Little Europe), to have training areas for sport fighting, a protected community and gatherings for active nationalists.

But Chapman's ties to and affinity for the White separatist movement were steadily eroding, thanks to the continuing correspondence with his future wife. He resigned from the National Front in 2005 because his kids were getting harassed in school. Finally, he decided this spring that the Gospel and a stable family were more important, and he agreed to return to full activity in exchange for Claire giving him her hand in marriage.

Now, Mr Chapman wants to focus on his marriage more than anything else. "I intend to live a calm lifestyle; I can't do that as the leader of anything. I'm about to move my whole life here. I'm about to walk away from a two-year contract in the middle of a recession. This is all based on faith.", said Chapman. Kyle and Claire plan to start a family and look forward to eventually serving a couples mission.

He had quit his job as a storeman at an electrical company in Christchurch and would look for work in Hamilton. "I've found that the lifestyle many people live in the extreme right-wing movement is not what I want to live." Mr Chapman, who has not drunk alcohol since he was 21, hoped his former supporters would understand. "I'm the example of the Mormon who believes in the church but has been swayed away and has made mistakes." But he's concerned that some might see him as a sellout. "Most of them will be happy for me though they'll be bummed out I'm not with them. I love those guys, they are my brothers. This is no easy thing".

A review of discussion on Stormfront Downunder indicates that he shouldn't have any problem with his ex-mates. Every person posting on the thread, without exception, respects his decision and wishes him well.

But while Mr. Chapman has moderated his views, he hasn't completely abandoned them. Although he's renounced ideas such as the repatriation of Asians and Polynesians, he intends to speak out against anti-White discrimination when it occurs. "I still have concerns that all white people don't have the same rights as some other people. But that's irrelevant if we're not finding a way of getting back to God", said Chapman.

And that's not unreasonable. Who is better positioned than those of us who have been privileged to receive the fulness of the Gospel to take the lead in speaking out against any racial abuse, regardless of who it comes from or to whom it is directed? Any talk of "making up for past discrimination" can only perpetuate racial acrimony. This is why the Church leadership has wisely decided not to re-open old wounds by issuing a formal apology for having denied the Priesthood to blacks until 1978. Those Latter-day Saints who demand the Church make such an apology have a deficient understanding of what the late Spencer W. Kimball referred to as "The Miracle of Forgiveness". Likewise, Kyle Chapman owes no apology for his previous actions. The fact that he has repented of them and renounced them is sufficient.