Noticed that my last post was missing its final paragraph (and a bit more) somehow and there's no edit option available for some reason (maybe too long?). Anyway, here's (hopefully) the full thing:
I guess one of the things I'm trying to get at with my mini dissertation here, is that while it is indeed is true that most active, mainstream LDS members (and I put myself in this category) are abhorred by many of the things Chad and Lori seem to be teaching and seem to have done, the bright line between what they seem to subscribe to and what the mainstream church teaches is not as easily identifiable as what we LDS members would sometimes like to believe.
For Chad especially (Lori is a little harder to say this about), I think it's easy to see why some (relatively small number of) strongly active/committed LDS members (especially those particularly concerned about the Second Coming and wanting more obviously vibrant forms of spirituality/revelation within their LDS lives) might become interested in his ideas.
If I recall correctly, the podcast that Lori (and perhaps Chad) participated in was named "Warrior Up." This is a phrase that I think virtually all LDS members will recognize as referring to the story of the "2000 Stripling Warriors" in the Book of Mormon. Chad and Lori are by no means the only ones within Mormonism to refer to need for LDS members to become more like these "warriors." The message is regularly given to LDS teenagers. These 2000 stripling warriors were young men, taught the gospel by their parents, who were willing to fight and put their lives on the line to defend their people against an aggressive enemy. Closely connected to this story is the Book of Mormon story of Captain Moroni, who, through the sword, defended faith, family, and land against both external and internal enemies. While Mormons spiritualize these stories these days (the institutional church is not asking for people to be violent in any way), these are still two of the leading stories that Mormons take from the Book of Mormon and try to uphold (in zeal for righteousness) in their own lives. Mainstream Mormonism strongly encourages its members to apply stories from Book of Mormon heroes to members' own lives. We (as members) want to live their lives, in a metaphorical sense, to the appropriate extent possible.
Another leading story exhibiting zeal in righteousness in the Book of Mormon is the story of Nephi. Unfortunately, this, MOO, is even more problematic in regard to what Chad might feel he's doing. Nephi is the first character (and narrator) in the Book of Mormon; almost immediately he tells a story of being told by the spirit to kill an evil person in order to save a sacred record for his own family. His family is told to flee from his home and set up a new righteous society in a promised land. Though Nephi demurs from killing at first, he eventually does, as the Spirit constrains him to, and he leaves an unsolved murder in 600 BC Jerusalem in his trail. Nephi even ends up telling another neighborhood family that the spirit has prompted him/Nephi's father to recruit them for their escape from Jerusalem.
Now most Mormons would, I think, be horrified to think of Chad Daybell's story in relation to Nephi. While we revere Nephi, we don't expect that anyone in our day would be asked to kill in order to follow the promptings of the spirit. We'd be falling over ourselves in an attempt to point out the differences between Nephi and Chad. Nor, I think, would most Mormons be pleased to try to locate Daybell in relation to the Mormon Danites or stories about "lying for the Lord" during the 1800s (in fact, many LDS don't even know these latter two sets of stories, some surely apocryphal, though likely many of the Daybell-interested types do). So my point is that while mainstream Mormonism would absolutely not want to locate Daybell in any sort of sympathetic relationship to these Mormon traditions, these traditions do exist, and Daybell himself and at least some others may be willing to interpret what Daybell's doing through these lenses.