Mormon Prepper Life - Kim (Parrett) and Josh Coffin Pt. 1 | Ep. 1828

When Religious Doctrine Meets Prepper Culture: Understanding the Coffin Family's Mormon Fundamentalist Upbringing

What happens when apocalyptic theology collides with extreme self-sufficiency ideology? The recent Mormon Stories Podcast episode featuring Kim and Josh Coffin offers a sobering case study of how neo-fundamentalist Mormon prepper beliefs shape family dynamics, parenting practices, and psychological development. Their account reveals how doctrinal interpretations, some mainstream to Latter-day Saint theology, others distinctly fringe, become embedded in household structures, creating an environment where end-times anxiety drives practical decisions and where paternal authority receives theological justification that can enable harm.

The Coffin family's story matters because it illustrates how religious belief systems interact with prepper ideology in ways that deserve serious examination. Their experience raises critical questions about how theological interpretations of scripture, combined with apocalyptic expectations, influence parenting choices and family relationships within conservative Mormon communities.

Background: Neo-Fundamentalist Mormonism and the Prepper Movement

To understand the Coffin family's upbringing, one must recognize that their parents operated within a specific subculture: the intersection of neo-fundamentalist Mormon theology and the organized prepper community. Kim's father, a military convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, became involved in what appears to be the "AOW" (Preparing of People) online community, a network whose exact origins remain somewhat unclear but which focuses on end-times preparation and survivalism.

This isn't mainstream LDS practice. Yet as the Mormon Stories Podcast hosts acknowledge, apocalyptic expectation isn't foreign to Mormon doctrine either. The Church has taught since its founding that members live in the "last days" and should maintain food storage. The distinction lies in intensity and literalism. The Coffin household took these concepts to their logical extreme: maintaining food storage even in tiny apartments, constant vigilance about societal collapse, and teaching children that most people, perhaps even congregation members, would not survive the coming judgment.