Posted on 07/24/2011 4:39:55 PM PDT by TheDingoAteMyBaby
Flora Jessop never believed that Warren Steed Jeffs, the man she was taught to revere as son and heir of the "prophet, seer and revelator of God," would ever face justice -- let alone Texas justice.
She didn't believe it when she was 13 and sexually assaulted beneath a smiling photograph of Jeffs inside the Hildale, Utah compound run by the breakaway Mormon sect where she was born to a polygamist family.
And she didn't believe it three years later, when she was forced by leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) to marry her older cousin.
But Jeffs, 55, will stand trial in Texas starting Monday on charges of child sexual assault.
"What Warren Jeffs' trial symbolizes to those of us from the FLDS is that this trial is going to be justice for hundreds of girls who have been in the same position," Jessop told Reuters.
Jeffs' breakaway brand of Mormonism, which has been condemned and outlawed by the mainstream Mormon Church, promotes marriages between older men and young girls. It also teaches that for a man to be among the select in heaven, he must have at least three wives.
The trial stems from his "ecclesiastical" or "spiritual" marriage to two girls, aged 12 and 14, at the Yearning for Zion Ranch (YFZ) in West Texas that Jeffs set up in 2002 when he took control of the sect after his father, longtime FLDS "Prophet" and insurance salesman Rulon Jeffs, died.
It was not a legal civil marriage with a license, due to the girls' ages and the fact that at the time Jeffs was 'married' to several other women.
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
Who are we to impose our moral values on another culture?
BREAKAWAY?
It's the LDS religious organization based in SLC that's the 'breakaway'!
IT is the outfit that does NOT follow GOD's word found in Doctrines & Covenants 132!
The FLDS folks are the ones who DO!
Mark to read later...
THIS topic should bring Saundra Duffy out of hiding...
Yeah: TWICE!
The ones in power.
Now there’s a blast from the past. I haven’t seen her around for awhile.
What “other” culture? Aren’t we all Americans, and shouldn’t we all abide by the same laws? Otherwise, it’s pure anarchy.
fLDS ping...
Are we a multicultural society or aren’t we?
If we are, why should the right to be different be limited to ethnic groups? Why not belief groups?
To be honest, I’m being sarcastic. But this is exactly what liberals believe, or claim they believe. If it’s okay for Muslims to marry multiple 12 year old girls, why not fundamentalist Mormons?
If you accept the IF, there is no logical reason. Personally I don’t accept it, for either group. If they want to live in this country, they can obey the same laws as everybody else. Or leave. Or go to jail.
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