Posted on 09/04/2006 11:21:06 AM PDT by Libloather
Edited on 09/07/2006 8:42:13 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Arrest exposes sect's slave-like polygamy trade
[snip - Getty image]
Normally a person’s religious beliefs are no one else’s business.
Unless, of course, it leads to the terrorist act that kills thousands of people in the collapse of two skyscrapers, or in the killing of dozens of others in subway bombings, hotel bombings, railroad bombings and international wars.
Or it involves organized child abuse and welfare fraud.
Then it’s everybody else’s business - or should be.
The religious beliefs of Warren Jeffs became big news last week when he was arrested on charges of rape and interstate flight, following a long nationwide search for the man whose mug was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List.
His followers "pretty much have to renounce their entire heritage to go against the prophet," the Arizona attorney general said last week. "That has got to be hard to do."
It might be easier now that their prophet - who teaches his clan that he is above the law of man and is, in effect, a god - has been exposed.
Now that he is escorted in handcuffs and wears a jailer’s blue jump suit, he even looks less like a prophet than when he wore his traditional dark suit and tie.
He also might have some explaining to do, if he ever has the chance, about his traveling attire. He was wearing a pair of shorts and a T-shirt when he was arrested on a highway outside Las Vegas - a violation of the dress code he imposes on his flock.
And what about all those women’s wigs in his luggage?
For the moment, though, Jeffs has more problems than straightening out his Scripture with his congregation in the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints - a weird sect not to be confused with the mainline Mormon Church.
He is facing long prison terms in three states for his polygamist behavior: marrying underage girls and arranging for adolescent females, some as young as 13, to marry middle-aged men. He’s also under investigation for massive welfare fraud, managing a network of "married" mothers to collect single-parent state payments.
When he was arrested by an alert highway trooper, Jeffs was in a new Cadillac SUV, carrying more than $50,000 in cash, a box full of cell phones, a dozen pair of sunglasses, the pile of wigs and an assortment of other personal accessories.
Although he was arrested in Nevada, he will face his first criminal charges in Utah, where the most serious allegations are filed - allegations that could result in life in prison. He also is charged with crimes in Arizona.
But what is most disturbing about the Jeffs case, and others like it, is the apparent acquiescence of law enforcement over the years. Jeffs’ cult, which pre-dates his prophecy by about a century, has operated with seeming immunity over several generations.
In recent years the situation has gained more attention, and a new attorney general in Utah has been more aggressive. An investigative TV reporter in Phoenix has devoted most of his work in the past couple of years to revealing practices of the cult.
Strange as the sect appears to outsiders, it has thrived in a veil of secrecy and under the strict rule of Jeffs, who inherited his power from his father who died in 2002. It is estimated that Jeffs has 10,000 followers across the nation, but most of them are concentrated in the towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.
Members live in a slave-like environment, with children forced to do manual labor and women not allowed to travel unaccompanied. Their strict dress code demands that only their head and hands be exposed - a far different standard than Jeffs adopted for his personal life.
Jeffs’ arrest should embolden law-enforcement officials in the southwest to further crack the iron-fist hold that Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints leaders have on their communities.
Religious beliefs are one thing, but the abuse of children and women is far different. Wacky secular doctrine is tolerable as long as it doesn’t impose indentured servitude on others - and young children are not capable of consenting to such cruelties.
With Jeffs removed from his position of power, and his behavior shown to be hypocritical, now is the time for authorities to begin a multi-state campaign to open the stockades of Hildale and Colorado City.
Chuck Green, veteran Colorado journalist and former editor-in-chief of The Denver Post, syndicates a statewide column and is at chuckgreencolo@msn.com.
Since July, our News 3 Investigators have been reporting on how millions of your local tax dollars are being given to FLDS construction companies here in the valley through government contracts. But as Darcy Spears tell us, that's not the only way you're paying for the polygamist way of life.
Food stamps and welfare are government programs that are supposed to be reserved for the poor. Yet these programs are almost exclusively supporting the FLDS families in Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona. But as we uncovered through inside sources, it's not because they don't make their own money, it's because they're not allowed to keep it.
Poverty is evident in the multitude of unfinished homes in the FLDS communities of Colorado City and Hildale. Former FLDS member Isaac Wyler says people can't afford to finish their houses, let alone eat. "Probably 90 percent of this town relies on the government in one form or another."
Members of the extremist sect rely on our tax dollars to fund a lifestyle of polygamy, underage marriage and untold numbers of illegitimate children. But according to government investigators and ex-communicated FLDS member Isaac Wyler, there are millions of dollars pouring into the FLDS church from members who work in Las Vegas and elsewhere.
"He's got a million dollars a month or more coming in from just the individuals. The construction- those people are tapped for even more than that. I mean, they're tapped for huge amounts of money every month. I call it extortion - if they don't pay up, Warren can pull their workers out from under them just like that and they'll be sitting high and dry."
Until his arrest, Warren Jeffs was reportedly using the money he collected to stay on the run and expand his empire. "That money does not come here. Warren takes that money and spreads it around to his different compounds that he's building around the United States." Now he'll likely use it to pay his legal fees.
"They think they're saving the prophet by turning in all this money." But where does that put the town residents? Probably on food stamps, says Isaac. Leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for legions of followers to support an accused criminal.
Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints are notoriously anti-government, yet they have no problem taking hand-outs. They claim it's God working through the government to provide financial support.
Warren Jeffs is thought to be worth about $100 million dollars, most of which was put into a church trust, which has been frozen by the government since his arrest.
http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=5352368&nav=15MUCBSd
There...fixed it.
I hope they throw this pervert and bully in the clinker for a long, long time.
I hope that most Mormons realize that this guy is giving their faith a bad name.
It would be funny to watch this coverage on a local new broadcast JUST BEFORE A COMMERCIAL BREAK.
Then, the first commerical after the story is one of those "warm and fuzzy" LDS commericals.
OOPS!
Warren Jeffs is thought to be worth about $100 million dollars, most of which was put into a church trust, which has been frozen by the government since his arrest.
Good, these people are in line for a major life-style changes. Some more of their leaders need to be arrested because they are just as guilty.
will they seize the huge Texas compound?
We can realize it all day, but the fact is, he is not a member of our church, so what do you want us to do? They are in no way affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
When he was arrested by an alert highway trooper, Jeffs was in a new Cadillac SUV, carrying more than $50,000 in cash, a box full of cell phones, a dozen pair of sunglasses, the pile of wigs and an assortment of other personal accessories.
Sounds like a pimp...
"I hope that most Mormons realize that this guy is giving their faith a bad name."
I hope you realize this guy is not a Mormon.
Hmmm... would somebody show me all the isolated compounds occupied by fanatical Catholic or Protestant cultists?
How was this guy able to get away with it for so long?
Now we know where all those phones the muzzies have been buying lately were going. Maybe he could rename himself muhhammid something and get by banking on multiculturalism.
Should be interesting.
http://trulineint.com/forum.asp?file=264
take a look
When the Mormons marry under age girls it's called "disgusting."
When Muslims marry under age girls to call it anything other than good is "disgusting"....
They call it, "bleeding the beast."
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