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The FLDS [Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints] has been in the news a lot down here in the nation state of Texas. The short and skinny is that these folks bought some land out in west Texas and built themselves a rather large commune. Last I heard they have themselves cattle, crops, a water treatment plant, and a Starbucks.
Now as of late they seem to have gotten themselves in a bit of a pickle. The allegations go that church leaders married individuals off as young as 14. Most, if not all, husbands have several wifes. The way the state sees this is that this is statutory rape and some violation of federal marriage law that you can only marry one person?!
Now my thoughts on a 14 year old getting married are not in line with the FLDS. I tend to agree with my wife that you should be at least 25. Not that I am for a law or anything, lord knows we have to many damn laws. But I think as a rule of thumb, you should listen to family when they say "hey stupid, wait till your older". Now I understand that this is part of their religion and the Constitution of the United States prohibits the state or the federal government from taking action. It is true that the State of Texas is over stepping their constitutional limits.
Further more, the legal consent age in other states ranges from fourteen to eighteen (maybe higher). Which begs the question "With such a large variance in legal consent from state to state...what do we concider a legal age"? In Texas its eighteen years old .... I think.
Second, why is the Federal government in the business of telling us how many wifes we can have? I for one can't imagine any self-respecting male being able to handle one wife let alone SEVERAL! I think several wifes ranks right along with water boarding! If a fella can handle more than one wife.. I say let'em. Its none of my bees wax what they do and frankly we should stay out of their business.
Now there is an allegation of forced intercourse against the will of the girls [wifes] of the compound. To my little knowledge and second-hand information that comes from friends inside the LDS church, there is no biblical law that authorizes spiritual marriages as described by the FLDS nor the ritual of the spiritual consummation of the forced marriage ceremony. I.e. girly raping.
Also, further allegation state that there is boy lovin' too! Again not stated in the FLDS lexicon of spiritual proclamation. It seems that this compound may have been setup solely to meet the sexual desires of those few church leaders, as outlined in the allegations.
I think it is unfortunate that the truth may never come to light. And please don't take this post as the source for news. I am just blogging my thoughts on the FLDS compound in west Texas. Feel free to share your own.
All right, here's the low down on the FLDS. LDSers split from FLDSers over polygamy as a matter of fact. LDSers rarely admit that FLDSers even exist as their doctrines are actually what good ole Joe Smith laid down. When the LDSers way back in the 1800s reached SLC there was a big fight between Joe Smith, his first wife, and their son which impacted the church then and now. Joe Smith was a philanderer and wanted a couple of hot wives around to carry his seed, his first wife wasn't too keen on the idea and told him as such. Well Joe got some leaders on his side and made polygamy part of the original doctrine, his wife and their son segregated and became a reformed LDS that shunned polygamy. In the meantime the cats in D.C. were watching old Joe pull some crazy religious crap and decided to clamp down on the polygamy thing to drive out mormonism all together. Well Joe caught wind of this and his wife pulling a fast one and formed the FLDS to promote polygamy in the church. Joe and his wife then became estranged, she moved back to Ohio and JS stated in UT. Fast Forward to Warren Jeffs and his original cult in northern Arizona, Warren was originally Mormon, and the FLDS was a very very small sect of people in UT. Warren has some marriage issues with his wife/gf including beating the tar out of her and decides to join up with the FLDSers to avoid having to deal with just the one and use the FLDSers as a shield for his activities. He calls in his family and friends and they all join up and pretty soon he's got himself a thriving FLDS cult where "spiritual marriages" ( because they aren't state sanctioned and could be treated under local law as statutory rape ), polygamy for the sake of reproduction, and the repression of women and kids are regular events. So, fleeing persecution, even by his own church members, Jeffs flees to TX to get back to a more "fundamental" FLDS with a couple hundred faithful because he's not even wanted in the city he helped found due to his beliefs on child brides, polygamy, and women being property. Anyway, if you're curious to see the FLDS in action read "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jonathan Krakauer. Jeffs and a good portion of his followers are crazier than a bat in a bellfry in their beliefs and until Jeffs is behind bars his decidedly demented brand of F/LDS will contaminate an already kooky religion.
ReplyDeleteFLDS is a patriarchal domination system, a Satanic cult worshipping sex and violence.
ReplyDeleteThese sadistic brutes and passive Stepford wives are about the meet justice in this life.
Their idoltry and lousy parenting will be dealt with soon. LOL
Hon, you do know these are arranged marriages, right? The women aren't given a choice. Actually, if Jeffs or any other leader asks a man to leave, then that man's wives are reassigned. This is coerced polygamy making it immoral and further confirming what the real purpose of polygamy is: selfish male gratification. That's why polygamy clashes with American society, as compared to other cultures, women actually have rights in this country! Polygamy is degrading to women. If a woman actually sincerely consents to it without being talked into it, fine. I think it's against the nature of a woman to put herself in a polygamist situation, and this is why the FLDS has to indoctrinate these girls and arrange the marriages.
ReplyDeleteThere was a former FLDS woman to basically said if a woman were to ever come to her senses over time to realize where the manipulation has lead, she is already trapped. She knows that leaving or rebelling against the church means the risk of losing her children. That's likely one of the reasons that they marry and impregnate these women at such a young age.
The name of the game is control and I bet Jeffs gets off on that big time. Sitting in his cell knowing that every one of those people still thinks he's God, and that his indoctrination still rules. I bet that's the drug of choice to cope with the well-deserved treatment he's probably getting from other inmates behind bars.