Posted on 06/21/2008 6:17:09 PM PDT by JRochelle
Six-year-old Samuel Jeffs has only one leg. On April 3 he was taken away from his home and his mother by the Texas Child Protective Services (CPS). His father, Warren Jeffs, is in prison, convicted in Utah of being an accomplice to child rape.
On May 19, Samuel’s mother, Sharon Barlow, is sitting in a San Angelo courtroom with her attorney to hear a review of Samuel’s care. She is wearing an ankle-length turquoise dress, cut roughly in the style of a 19th-century prairie housewife’s. She has reddish hair, a pointed nose, sleepy eyes and poor skin. The hair rises in a high wave from her forehead, a thin strand is plaited into a circle on top of her head, and the rest is bundled into a heavy braid. She looks unwell. It is 100F outside, but the courtroom is over-air-conditioned and freezing. Judge Barbara Walther constantly adjusts a thermostat on the wall behind her, but it seems to have no effect.
Samuel is well represented. He has his own attorney, a CPS worker and a court-appointed special advocate. This is a review hearing to check on his progress. He has the judge on his side too. She asks searching questions about his medical care. She sympathises with his handicap. The judge had polio as a child and wears callipers. Daily she hauls herself onto her dais, from which she presides over this monumental, unprecedented case. For Samuel is not the only child involved. There are another 460-plus children, all taken in one night from the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) ranch by the CPS, sheriff’s deputies and Texas Rangers. The ranch, which belongs to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), is near Eldorado (pronounced locally Eldoraydo), 45 miles south of here. They were being saved
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Leave him with the cultists and he'll have six wives and nine kids within a year.
Not to mention a massive account of "bleeding the beast" IE welfare fraud.
That was like reading a book.
But well worth it.
Thanks for posting the article.
No, the young men get caste off, so the old men can have sex with children.
Mormonism is such a wonderful religion! Reminds me of Islam — great deal if you are on top of the pyramid.
Bingo! Without the taxpayers, these people could not afford to support their "convictions."
What a sad article. We have a historic site in my area, the home of an important Revolutionary War figure and his family - wife and eight children, two children having been grown before the fine, stone house was built. The site has toys and games the children used in the 1770's: dolls, toy swords, balls, ring toss ... the same kinds of toys my children enjoy today. Of course they did chores - so do mine - but they also had toys, as archaeology indicates the majority of children have.
These sermons are what you and I would call mad.
I suspect the author is right. However mad these people are, however outside the mainstream.... Texas needs to find a crime that doesn't appear to be persecuting their religion. Stop the child abuse and stop the legal abuse.
ISLAMIC MORMONISM
An Irreverent Essay
The Coincidental Similarities
Between Islam and Mormonism
By
John R. Llewellyn
Copyright 2003
Excerpt:
The similarities between Islam and Mormonism may be much more than coincidence. There is a strong indication that Joseph may have studied Islam, just as he studied Masonry, Judaism and Catholicism, and incorporated bits and pieces of all four religions into Mormonism. Consider the following quote:
If the people will let us alone, we will preach the gospel in peace. But if they come on us to molest us, we will establish our religion by the sword. We will trample down our enemies and make it one gore of blood from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. I will be to this generation a second Mohammed, whose motto in treating for peace was “the Alcoran [Qar’an] or the Sword.” So shall it eventually be with us — “Joseph Smith or the Sword!”[17]
http://polygamybooks.com/islamic.htm
bookmarking.
Thanks for posting this. It’s always good to see a case from a new perspective.
Religious persecution.
You can try to convince any of them anything you like, but they are in charge of what they are or are not convinced by, and their lives and families are theirs, not yours.
There you have it. Once they have the gubmint, they intend to outlaw beliefs they don't like. Naturally they will start with out-there wackiness. They won't stop until there is one people, one party, one state.
“There is a strong indication that Joseph may have studied Islam, just as he studied Masonry, Judaism and Catholicism, and incorporated bits and pieces of all four religions into Mormonism.”
The author is impeached by his own words - Masonry is not a religion.
It is just a fraternity.
“The author is impeached by his own words - Masonry is not a religion.”
If the author had said ‘groups’ instead of ‘religions’, would it then be true?
"Singular links this point to the failure of force in the war on terror. Just as in Iraq and at Guantanamo, the law has been abused. Due process works; force doesn’t...""...making them incapable of handling the outside world other than with suspicion, their heads full of nonsensical science, racism and sexism so extreme as to defy belief?"
Is there any kind of twelve step program for liberalism?
Cordially,
The writing is very good. The story is very compelling. The writer has done a good job of maintaining a somewhat unbiased perspective in order to tell the story without choosing sides. But his liberal bias leaks through, anyway (terrorism, that cancer on civilization which festered in places like Iraq — Salman Pak — and spread world-wide, will not be defeated through ‘due process’). But thanks for the ping, it was a good read!
The People ceased to exercise their responsibilities as sovereigns of this nation when they were taken with bread and circuses ... once the bloody epidemic is ended which is to come, perhaps an America can arise from the ashes of the holocaust if Islam has not won the war. Democrat will be a nasty word in that day and the names of people like Harry Reid, Tom Harkin, Ted Kennedy, Granholm, Sebelius, and Barbara Boxer will be cuss words, names to be avoided when naming your children since these ghouls were the defenders and promoters of a holocaust against alive unborn meant to empower the democrat party. The disease necessary to maintain such an evil work has spread to other facets of American society and this metastasizing is killing the patient/nation.
and neither is islam.
People who “hide” behind “so called religion “are the most vile. It is truly sacrileges to use religion and God and Jesus to continue with their child molesting,and abuse.
These people sure didn’t mind “the government and the state” when they were taking welfare money!
Now all of a sudden, they cry “discrimination and persecution by THE STATE”. Anyone can be as “mad “ as they want to be, up until they hurt others. Jeffs and his men committ horrible crimes and use Jesus Christ as their rationale. This group is about as religious as the Manson group was. Only difference is they have the nerve to call themselves Christian!
Well said!
And yet mormon apologists at FR work hard to defend this cult.
The book “Escape” by Carolyn Jessop is very informative about the FLDS and the relationships of the wives, husband and children. It’s so bizarre, brutal and controlled that you need to read it if you can get the book.
It is a fast read. Once you start, it’s hard to stop. My copy of the book is being borrowed by my friends. Once everyone reads it, we plan to discuss it.
thanks.
I don’t agree with the author about going into Iraq as a fundamentalist Christian crusade. I believe that Bush believes that goodness and evil coexist and that he went in for the War on Terror, and that the Islamofascists are evil, like the Nazis ( who also btw claimed to be “Christian “ ). And yes, the writer has some liberal views, but overall has written an articulate description of the FDLS.
He raises the significance of America not persecuting religous groups just because they are not ‘mainstream”, but groups must be dealt with if they are hurtful and illegal.
The Amish are different and so are the Orthodox Jews. This country respects their religions and does not “raid “ their communities, because they are not evil and do not abuse women and children.
You are right. But that may be because they are being “defensive” and insecure. Those who are confident in their religion, whether Christianity, or Buddhism or Judaism are not afraid to condemn those within their religion who committ evil abuses.
the Catholics I know denounce the priests who abused children and are quick to point out this is NOT Catholocism or Christianity.
Why does the boy have one leg? Why, one legged boys are as common as flies out in the normal world where incest is not a common practice. There’s one on every corner among those evil Gentiles!
(I am trying to be an FLDS apologist, apparently that is to be preferred over the idea that the FLDS are run by a bunch of sickos who follow Jeffs and in turn Joseph Smith).
The irony of the case is that polygamy is illegal in Texas. That should be enough for prosecution.
Further irony: the women have custody of their children. In fact, they are now the legal heads of the “households” because the men wouldn’t stand and be held accountable for their actions.
"Imminent danger" indicates the immediate threat of physical harm, as I've read in the Texas statutes. Ongoing mental abuse apparently doesn't present sufficient danger.
IMHO, these children need to be freed from this harmful environment. Can the women be deprogrammed? I shake my head in sadness for the kids' bizarre upbringings.
If the women believed as you do, they'd courageously walk away from the ranch, one after another, with their children in tow. I'd bet they know where they can find help if they want it.
While I suspect many, but not all of them, are bitching among themselves about these "cowardly men", that inculcated fear of eternal damnation will keep them obedient.
No - he identified Masonry as a belief system, with ideas that could be copied.
In contrast, discussion of both religion and politics are not allowed, inside a masonic lodge.
But you are allowed to go outside and beat the heck out of each other, ;)
bflr = bump for later reading
Could it be fumarase deficiency which has been found in the flds community?
Fumarase deficiency is characterized by polyhydramnios, enlarged cerebral ventricles in utero, and fetal brain abnormalities. In the newborn period, findings include severe neurologic abnormalities, poor feeding, failure to thrive, and hypotonia. Early-onset infantile encephalopathy, seizures, and severe developmental delay with microcephaly are also common. Other findings include infantile spasms, trunk hypotonia with hypertonic and dystonic posture of the limbs, athetoid movements, and autistic features. EEG abnormalities such as hypsarrhythmia, facial dysmorphism, and craniofacial dysmorphism have been reported. Findings can include neonatal polycythemia, leukopenia and neutropenia, and mild hepatosplenomegaly. Neuroimaging may reveal nonspecific mild hypomyelination, progressive cerebral atrophy, ventricular dilatation, periventricular cysts, Dandy-Walker malformation, agenesis of the corpus callosum, deficient closure of the sylvian opercula, large lateral ventricles, and diffuse, bilateral polymicrogyria. Many children with fumarase deficiency do not survive infancy or die in childhood; those surviving beyond childhood have severe psychomotor retardation.
Masonry teaches a unique and spiritual viewpoint in their funeral service.
It is MOST definitely a religion.
Yeah, and those heathens perform secret rituals in a cave, in the dark, in the middle of the night - and they have the treasure of the Templars hiddin in a cave in NYC - and, oh yeah, the holy grail - they have that, too...
LOL.
Except, according to their doctrines, we are the heathens.
The masons think you are a heathen?
Are you a polythiest?
I think I found the cave, in Yonkers, just north of the Bronx:
I missed the seguey - what does a creepy park have to do with masonry?
Masonry is not remotely a religon. It’s a fraternity, with as wide-ranging a membership from George Washington, Ben Franklin, to John Wayne and Gerald Ford, to the author of the Pledge of Allegence and the founding members of the US Marines, the Boy Scouts, and the Salvation Army.
But, yes, founders of mormonism were masons and boldly ripped off the fraternial handshakes and the like and made it part of their religion.
This is no small part of the reason masons get accused of being a religion, when they are not.
Complete nonsense.
Burl Ives. You forgot Burl Ives, a 33rd degree mason.
The ugly bug ball has its own museum, for heaven’s sake.
You wrote of secret rituals in a cave . . .
I provided a likely location.
Untermeyer Park is where David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) went with his group to worship Satan. Dead dogs, with their ears carefully excised, were found. There is a Hispanic presence in the area today and evidence of Santeria ritual sacrifices are found in woods now.
Just having a little fun . . .
See, last time I was in a cave 500 feet underground, I told the Masons, you know, it is no darn wonder people write those silly books.
What do you reckon they think we are doing down here, I asked?
Unfortunately, I lack your imagination - I never thought of the “son-of-sam” masonry connection.
The cask of Amantillado, now - that definately has to do with masonry.
no kidding...nice leap here from the usual Mormon bashing to lumping Shriners in the soup too.
geez....
Several judges toss out the Texas adventure and yet Mormon bashing here continues unabated.
Most Mormons I’ve met seem fine enough, what is this Ahabian obsession here by some?
Is masonry a religion?
SHRINERS? THOSE HEATHENS???
Never met one, myself. Bunch of goofballs in clown cars. Never underestimate the creepiness factor.
But I hear their children’s burn hospitals are in danger of closing, for lack of funding.
And that is tragic.
That is sad. I know folks who have been saved by the one in Houston.
Childrens Hospital in DC saved my own sorry tail once, back in the 1960’s.
But I don’t think it is a Shriner Hospital.
Mormons are wonderful people. It’s a different religion...so we gotta’ bash ‘em.
I found it ironic that the same time the gov’t is ripping kids away from loving mothers, they’re toasting the marriages of gays/lesbians.
We need less gov’t...AMEN!
The Cask of Amontillado was written by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe lived in the Bronx, just south of Untermeyer Park. I visited Poe Cottage several times when I was a kid. He must have been a very short man, the ceilings were barely six feet high.
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