Dr Lonnie D. Kliever (1932–2004) was chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the Southern Methodist University (SMU). Early life Kliever was born in Corn, Oklahoma, a small town in the southwestern part of the state; but spent most of his boyhood in Fort Worth. He suffered a severe childhood case of rickets brought on by a calcium deficiency. This stunted his growth, he stood well under 5 feet tall. Education Kliever was educated at Hardin–Simmons University, Union Theological Seminary in New York, and Duke University, where he received a Ph.D. in Religion and Philosophy in 1963. Career After spending a total of thirteen years teaching at three different institutions (University of Texas at El Paso, Trinity University in San Antonio, and the University of Windsor), he joined SMU's Department of Religious Studies in 1975 as professor and chair. He served two terms as chair, the first from 1975 through 1986 and the second from 1993 to 1999. During his twenty-nine-year career at SMU, he published four books on various theological and ethical topics, and wrote numerous articles and op-ed pieces. He received three of SMU's highest honors: the M Award, the Rotunda Teacher of the Year Award, and the Godbey Lecture Series Author's Award. He was accomplished in traditional areas such as theology, ethics and philosophy of religion. One of the two of his most widely known books published in 1981, The Shattered Spectrum: A Survey of Contemporary Theology is an analysis of the proliferation of new theologies in the 1960s and 70s. His expertise was on the rise of new religious movements, cults and sects exploring the dynamics of that Unification Church community and its underpinnings. He closely followed the siege of the Branch Davidian church near Waco in 1993 and was critical of the intervention by the federal government in the standoff. He was often sought for consultation by police and governmental agencies as they confronted issues related to new and little known religious communities. In 1997, Dr. Kliever was consulted about the Chen Tao ("True Way") religious movement in Garland, Texas. His consultation was kept quiet by mutual agreement with the Garland Police Department until after the successful conclusion of the apocalyptic prediction whereby God was supposed to come and pick them up in a "flying saucer". It was in large part due to Dr. Kliever's advice that there was no over-escalation or over-reaction on