Posted on 07/06/2004 7:42:15 AM PDT by jtminton
ELDORADO - First it was going to be a hunting lodge.
Then a retreat.
But as each new dormitory-style building goes up, residents here become a little more apprehensive as a secretive polygamist sect prepares to occupy a ranch four miles outside Eldorado.
Locals say they have good reasons for feeling uneasy about their new neighbors.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, based in Arizona and Utah, is believed to be the largest polygamist group in the country. The 10,000-member church openly promotes plural marriage and has been subject to allegations of forced marriages, abusing the welfare system and wife swapping. If large numbers of the polygamist church's followers do end up in Eldorado, residents fear the group could dominate the town of 1,955 about 45 miles south of San Angelo.
"They could easily come in here, bring in several thousand followers and take over the hospital board and other elected positions if they wanted to," said Randy Matkin, editor of the Eldorado Success and head of the Schleicher County Hospital District board. "That is what concerns us."
Locals note that the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints initially tried to hide its purchase of the 1,691-acre ranch last year. And the scale of the construction there leads many to question whether church elders were truthful when they said the ranch will be used as a retreat for 200 members.
As part of their beliefs, church members interact with the outside world as little as possible. Followers could not be reached for comment for this article, but their lawyer, Rodney Parker, said the allegations are nothing more than religious persecution.
Polygamist towns
The twin cities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, where the church is based, are dominated by the polygamist group.
The church owns the houses and controls the police and the schools, even though most children of its members are home-schooled.
The group believes that the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints strayed from its true beliefs when it renounced plural marriage in 1890. The fundamentalists broke away from the church and have defiantly practiced polygamy ever since.
Eldorado residents became upset in March when they learned that the group had bought the property.
One City Council member even suggested the devil had come to town.
The alarm has largely subsided, replaced by apprehension. Residents still grab copies of the Success as soon as they're placed in the racks and call the sheriff when they see large trucks headed to the church compound.
From County Road 300, a two-lane road that surrounds the ranch, the construction is largely out of view.
The only evidence of the budding community is a no-trespassing sign and guard shack. The top of a cement batch plant tower is the only visible structure.
But it's a different picture from the air.
Five buildings, including three large structures, that appear to be living quarters, have been erected in a matter of months. Workers laid another large foundation in mid-June.
Getting a clear picture of what this activity means is difficult.
Warren Jeffs took over leadership of the church after his father, Rulon Jeffs, died in 2002.
This year Jeffs purged about 20 church elders, including several rivals, leading some observers to think that the move to Texas is a search for greener pastures.
The church already has a community in Bountiful, British Columbia, and there are rumors of another outpost in Mexico.
One author and former member says the group has changed since Warren Jeffs became the leader.
"The biggest thing I've noticed since Warren Jeffs took over is the wife swapping -- taking wives from one man and giving them to another," said Benjamin Bistline, who wrote The Polygamists: A History of Colorado City, Arizona, a nonfiction account of the church's history published by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Agreka Books.
Under Jeffs, the group has changed some of its beliefs, said Bistline, who left the church in 1980.
"I've always defended the polygamists," Bistline said. "They're a very moral people. But now, since he has taken over, there is more corruption, more abuse of women."
Bistline, who lives just outside Colorado City, said he believes that some young women are forced into marriage to keep them in the fold. Moving to Texas may increase the hold on them, he said.
"I think as isolated as it is down there, it will be much harder for the young people to escape," Bistline said.
Religious persecution
Rodney Parker, the church's lawyer, disputes allegations of abuse and forced marriages, saying that detractors take the group's beliefs out of context.
"With regard to the marriage issue, it's very messy, very complicated," Parker said. "There are marriages between the ages of 16 and 18, and occasionally younger, but they're not commonplace. They're being used by critics to imply that's what the church is about and nothing else. It's grossly inaccurate, a deliberate falsehood. None of these girls are being held prisoner."
Parker also argues that attempts to prosecute polygamists will not withstand legal challenges.
"I think polygamy is constitutionally permitted," he said. "All manner of sexual relationships are now being permitted. To somehow single out this one and say it's illegal doesn't make any sense."
Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran, who has visited Colorado City and the Eldorado property, has been trying to learn about the group and calm locals' concerns.
"They have very different beliefs, but they have a nice town up there in Colorado City, and they let me see everything," Doran said. "I talked to women and young children, and everyone was open and polite. I'm trying to do everything in my power to keep a line of communication open to them."
Yet Doran agrees that the group will do whatever Jeffs asks.
"If he gives them an order, whatever it is, I'm sure they'll follow it," Doran said.
Flora Jessup, a Phoenix woman who grew up in the fundamentalist church, has been a vocal critic of the sect. It was she who alerted Eldorado residents that the church had bought the ranch.
"They're very good at putting on a face to the public," said Jessup. "They're told to 'keep sweet.' It is a mask that is portrayed by the community. If you do not portray it right, there is punishment."
She said Eldorado residents shouldn't let their guard down.
"You never get a clear picture of what is going on in these communities," Jessup said. "What you see in public and what is happening in private are two totally different things."
A closed society
In Colorado City, the incorporated town is run as a closed society, said Buster Johnson, a Mohave County, Ariz., supervisor from Lake Havasu City.
"They won't be coming into town and kidnapping children or causing any problems," Johnson said. "But they will try and get every bit of government assistance that they can."
Johnson noted that 66 percent of Hildale residents receive Medicaid. The average in Utah is 6.5 percent, he said.
Some critics have referred to the tactic as "bleeding the beast," a method by which the sect siphons financial resources from nonbelievers.
Parker, the group's attorney, said that's false.
"That doesn't mean, however, that they don't take advantage of what they're legally entitled to," he said.
Parker said the ranch will be "a new place to get away from the pressures here in Utah. In that sense, it's a place of refuge, but I think that's about as specific as I can get."
The group is already at odds with the state of Texas over environmental permits.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issued cease and desist orders to the group in May for failure to obtain permits for a rock crusher, concrete plant and sewage treatment facilities, and for lacking a storm water runoff plan.
When a Star-Telegram reporter and photographer flew over the compound in June, the concrete plant appeared to be in operation.
"I think we'll be out there within a week," John Steib, the commission's deputy director of the office of compliance and enforcement, said Thursday.
If there are violations, the agency could impose fines of $10,000 a day.
As for local residents, many say they will tolerate the church as long as no one is harmed.
"The only time we're ever going to know is if someone comes in and swears up a complaint," said Justice of the Peace Jimmy Doyle. "If they keep it locked up, I don't know if anyone can get out of an 8-foot, deerproof fence."
Fundamentalist timeline
Source: The Polygamists: a History of Colorado City, Arizona by Benjamin Bistline and Polygamy Under Attack: From Tom Green to Brian David Mitchell by John R. Llewellyn.
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints:
There are believed to be about 10,000 members in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the largest of several groups that practice polygamy, in which men take more than one wife. Here are some key dates in the church's history:
1890 -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with the federal government threatening to seize church property, rejects polygamy. Some followers reject the church's edict and continue to practice plural marriage.
1914 -- Settlement begins in Short Creek, an Arizona town that becomes a home to polygamists.
1953 -- Arizona officials raid Short Creek in an attempt to prosecute polygamy but the move draws criticism. Afterward, Arizona and Utah officials largely adopt a hands-off attitude toward polygamists.
1961 -- Short Creek is renamed Colorado City and grows across the border to include what is now Hildale, Utah.
1986 -- Rulon Jeffs becomes the prophet of the fundamentalist sect.
2000 -- Jeffs' son, Warren Jeffs, orders members to separate themselves from nonbelievers. The order compels children to stop attending public school.
2002 -- Warren Jeffs succeeds his father as church leader.
2003 -- David Allred, a member of the sect, purchases 1,691 acres of land in Schleicher County near Eldorado.
2004 -- In January, Warren Jeffs excommunicates about 20 members of the sect, ordering them to leave their wives and children behind. In March, Eldorado residents learn the Schleicher County parcel is actually owned by the fundamentalist group, which plans to use it as a retreat for 200 of its most loyal followers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Hanna, (817) 390-7698 billhanna@star-telegram.com
But maybe it's just me.
Church leaders have said 200 members will live in the ranch compound, but Justice of the Peace Jimmy Doyle and others worry that far more are coming.
ya thier religion is a bit weird, but they are pretty nice people. Plus i like those old commericals from the church of jesus christ and later day saints, when they sang about breaking windows.
hey at least they aint jehovah witnesses.
...for class reading.
"Mr. Robinson, Mr. Robinson (what a horrible mess!),
I broke your window with my ball,
and I've come to confess. . ."
I can't remember where I left my keys half the time, but I can still recite a decade old commercial on cue.
A 16 year old girl pressured to marry an old man while living in an isolated community is a prisoner.
Found by Joseph Smith and sworn to by every memeber of his family-The single biggest religious fraud perpetrated on people.
They are doing this in the wrong place. They should do this in Massachusetts.
i liked the jingle about lying:
If you tell one lie, it leads to another; and you tell two lies to conquer each other; then you tell three lies...oh brother... you're in trouble up to your ears. You tell four lies so folks will respect you; you tell five lies so folks won't neglect you; you tell six lies, and then you collect you - a life full of worries and fears. So you lie and lie, and then keep on tryin'; every lie you tell will be falsifyin'; and you'll be neglected, rejected, disliked, and you should; 'cause when you lie - you're closing the door on everything good.
-now that will be stuck in your head for the next 20 years
JW's are a real pain. The Mormon missionaries are polite and will bolt if you don't want them around. JW's can't hear the word "No".
AMEN
You sir, need to read the rules of posting. We don't attack each other here in FR regardless of race, religion, or sex. In the property rights issues I have worked with many LDS and they were fine, upstanding citizens. Your logic of "I went out with one in high school" has about as much in logic as some of the things that could be said about Texas because I'm from Alaska argument. Baseless noise doesn't need to show up on the pages of FR.
Furthermore - these are fundamentalists in this article, not LDS.
I spent some time in Salt Lake City and my sister lived there for nearly 10 years. We are not Mormons. I am not convinced from my dealings with them that they are as moral and honest as some say. The dealings, after being asked if I was LDS and saying no, vary often turned out bad. I have not had that problem with other religious or ethnic groups or in other places. I am convinced that Mormons have no problem lying, cheating, or stealing from people outside of their own church. To my way of thinking, that is not moral or honest.
I didn't attack anyone. My opinion of Mormons is based on experience I've had with Mormon's. I didn't direct any attack at any one person (except for my ex-girlfriend and her kooky Mormon family). I guess I shouldn't post anything about Muslims or Democrats while I'm at it.
Every time I drive through Colorado City, the tune from Deliverance, Dueling Banjos, rings through my ears. They need some new outside wifestock; there is a wierd look in their eyes.
This story is about a weird bunch of welfare cheats on a sick power trip. But regarding the real Mormons and these people, there's no connection whatsoever.
As for your post, I'd say you should write Science Fiction, but it's pretty clear that you cannot write coherently.
Scourge
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