Profile of David Mould

David Mould was born in Jamaica in 1950 and came to the United States in 1968. He earned a degree in sociology, graduating cum laude. He did graduate work at the Columbia University School of Sociology.

In 1972 Mould was baptized into Seventh-day Adventism. Initially Ellen White's prophetic gift was an obstacle to him, but after two years of intense Bible study, he read and was convinced by Rene Noorbergen's book Prophet of Destiny.

Returning to Jamaica, Mould worked as a prison parole officer, using the opportunity to open up nearly all of Jamaica's prisons to Adventist outreach. "I simply used my official capacity to meet my larger call," he says.

As he describes it, his success was also his downfall. Tensions with the conference developed when he arranged for an Adventist-conducted prison baptism to be broadcast on radio Jamaica-wide. He says the church's leaders were displeased because they did not have enough control over his activities.

Mould was forbidden to recruit in Adventist churches for volunteers. And he feels the conference instigated his loss of employment with the prison system. As a result of this experience, he made two resolutions: "I decided that I would serve the church, but would never be employed by the church; and I determined never again to work for man, where any man could fire me."

"I wanted to serve and I wanted to preach," Mould says. Thus, with his sociological expertise and his prison-ministry background, he started Jesus Behind Bars (JBB) in 1979. The work of JBB was received well by the Adventist public, and it experienced a major boost when General Conference president Neal C. Wilson publicly endorsed it.

However, Mould's attention was increasingly turning toward what he calls the"criminal silence" on the part of the church concerning world events that he saw as a definite fulfillment of prophecy. "How in the name of God can we remain so quiet in the light of these fulfilling prophecies?" became his battle cry.

Mould was disturbed by an article in the Adventist Review (September 17, 1981) stating that the church would be among the top 50 Fortune 500 companies if churches were included. Mould hadn't before realized just how much money the church handled and how much was kept in reserve.

Coupling what he saw as the availability of funding and the urgent need to warn the world of what was happening, he took up a new theme: "Why don't we take some of our vast holdings, buy prime time and let some of our brighter lights address the nation?"

He shared his vision during a meeting in California with Charles Bradford, then president of the North American Division, and the presidents of the regional conferences. They assured him that his ideas were being passed on to a committee "which is the quickest way to do nothing in the Adventist Church", Mould says.

"In effect they said to me, 'Continue with your silly dream as much as you want, but we'll have nothing to do with it," Mould says. "All this talk about being prepared for Jesus' soon coming was really a lot of baloney. They didn't actually believe it."

"I'm not going to wait for the church leaders to make inroads into the public mind," Mould says,"so I founded Laymen for Religious Liberty in 1989. Others may go down without firing a shot, but I will not be quiet."

To Mould, the church's lack of response to the events transpiring around us is reminiscent of Britain's refusal to listen to Winston Churchill's warnings about what was happening in Germany in the 1930s. Frustrated by what he saw as a total lack of interest in warning the world and the church, Mould became more and more outspoken in his denunciations of Adventist leaders.

"We were really supportive of his prison ministry," says one donor."But his letters have begun to be so hateful toward the church administration that we don't feel comfortable supporting his programs anymore." Not all donors share that view. In fact, Mould says he can cite hundreds of letters from supporters expressing appreciation for the position he has taken,"those who understand that not all exposure is necessarily motivated by hate."

Michael Delaney, an Adventist layman who worked as a telemarketer and singing evangelist for Mould for about three years, says that Mould's organization "is basically an information center rather than a gospel ministry. I believe that Christ and Him crucified should always be brought into the picture, and everything else should stream from that. And it just doesn't happen in his ministry. I told him that what he was doing was just creating a lot of hostility and driving people from the truth rather than drawing them to it."

In a sermon Mould delivered in Jamaica two or three years ago, he said: "If I was in Jamaica, I would put a layman in every conference as president. It is time the Seventh-day Adventist laymen get up and take control of this church. You're paying your tithe to devils!"

When questioned about such strident comments, Mould quickly called it "ill-advised." "That is an extreme statement that I regret. The church is not all devils, there are good and faithful people in positions of leadership." Mould views himself as highly committed to the Seventh-day Adventist Church and its teachings.

At present Mould says he has some 7,000 donors on his list, and the funds are on the increase. So barring something unforeseen, Adventists throughout North America haven't seen or heard the last of David Mould and Laymen for Religious Liberty.