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FLDS women seek Texas governor's help
Deseret News ^ | April 13, 2008 | Nancy Perkins

Posted on 04/13/2008 8:57:18 PM PDT by claudiustg

SAN ANGELO — A Texas judge on Sunday ordered law enforcement officials to immediately confiscate all cell phones in the possession of FLDS women and children now housed in temporary quarters here. "I just called to say, hi. They are about to collect the phones, I think," one soft-spoken FLDS woman said during a telephone call to another member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church who was outside of the shelter. "I don't like what they're doing."

Several of the women inside the shelters spoke by cell phone to the Deseret News on Saturday to describe the living conditions there. Children could be heard crying in the background of each conversation. The News published an article on Sunday, quoting the women who complained there was no privacy and that their children were getting sick.

FLDS faithful outside the shelter are convinced Sunday's court order is a direct result of the women speaking to the newspaper.

"This is nothing more than retaliation of Child Protective Services to punish those who were disclosing what is really happening behind the walls of this concentration camp," said Don, an FLDS member who asked that his last name not be used. "These are my family members."

(Excerpt) Read more at deseretnews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: cult; flds; jeffs; mormon; polygamy
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To: wita; colorcountry; P-Marlowe; Utah Binger
You and I both know that statement is not true. Not even close.
 
This was written in 2000, and you and I both know nothing has improved for women in the mormon church since then.
 
WOMEN MUST BY HEARD
 
Boston Globe, October 7, 2000
By Courtney Black and Maxine Hanks
When recently asked, ''Will there ever be women priests in the Mormon church?'' Gordon B. Hinckley, president of the church, said in The Boston Globe: ''Insofar as I can see, no. The women have their place.... they have a voice in determining policy and doing many things in the church. I haven't found any complaint among our women. I'm sure there are a few, a handful somewhere who may be disaffected for one reason or another, but I've never seen any evidence of it.''
 
With all due respect to our remarkable 90-year-old church leader, we find his words unfathomable in the face of reality. Many Mormon women have voiced deep dissatisfaction for generations, loudly and clearly, in print and in person, alone and in numbers.
 
Thus we want to correct a misconception repeatedly set forth by leaders of the Church of Latter-Day Saints in the media: We are not content; we do have complaints.
 
In fact, so many women have expressed dissatisfaction that every LDS leader is likely aware of these difficulties. For example, in 1988, hundreds of women contacted church headquarters asking why they couldn't participate in the priesthood blessing of their own babies. During the following years, women who tested this or other priesthood issues were censured or disciplined. From 1993 through 1995, some of these women were excommunicated.
 
Mormon women are in a bind. If we disagree, we reap trouble; if we relent, we lose our voice. These are our choices: to conform, to risk church discipline, or to leave. When our leaders say they ''hear no complaint,'' it is because they have intimidated women into compliance. Few women will risk excommunication.
 
Still, if we say nothing, we support the false impression that we are content. And leaving is not a solution. Mormonism is more than a religion; it is a cultural heritage. To leave Mormonism is to leave our culture, our ethnicity, our life, our family, our inheritance. We and our grandmothers have built this church - creating the community, bearing the children, cooking, cleaning, caring for everyone, doing the daily labor necessary to make Mormonism work.
 
We carry the Mormon vision while denied the right to conceive it; we bear great responsibility for the success of our community without power to define our responsibility or ensure its success. This is disheartening at best, exhausting at worse.
 
Meanwhile, Hinckley speaks of a hundred Mormon temples ''looking heavenward.'' Mormons have built temples for 160 years. Like fine china crushed into the stucco of the first Mormon temple to make it sparkle, women have poured their lives and hearts into this church for seven generations. For a hundred years our grandmothers exercised religious voice and authority - giving blessings, creating policy, leading women's programs and publishing women's views.
 
Yet in our church today, all women's programs, leaders, and texts - even the leading women's speeches - are designed or governed by men. All church doctrine, theology, and policy are created by men. While women may be included in ''discussion'' about issues and policy, the ''decisions'' are still made by men.
 
Thus, when women disagree with male leaders, we are often ignored or dismissed, marginalized or ostracized - until our religion feels less like home and more like another brick-and-mortar building. This puts women in a position of having to choose between our conscience and our church, between our fulfillment and our heritage.
 
We live in contradiction and dissonance, our hearts breaking.
 
Personal spirituality is the core of Mormonism. Yet men tread upon our religious freedom, intrude on our voices, and inhibit our relationship with god. Only we ourselves can determine if God is working through us. Men may deny the existence of female theology, but it remains for us to define. We are not content to be denied our voice nor our decision-making power in Mormonism. Our intent is simple: to speak for ourselves and have our rightful place in church governance.
 
Meanwhile, church leaders continue insisting that women are happy in ''their place.''
 
We are joined by 50 Mormon women from around the world. More women are signing on every day, knowing that each will be questioned by church leaders warning her to retreat. Men do not speak for Mormon women. We speak for ourselves.
 
(Courtney Black is a Mormon who lives in Seattle. Maxine Hanks, a writer, was excommunicated for her book ''Women and Authority: Reemerging Mormon Feminism.'')

 

581 posted on 04/16/2008 11:46:48 AM PDT by greyfoxx39 (Are there any WOMEN FReepers who agree that the 1st. Amendment OKs sexual slavery?)
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To: wita

“You and I both know that statement is not true. Not even close. Thanks for your castigation of the LDS Church. LDS men and worse than that LDS women. Your stance is duly noted”


We are not talking about the LDS
Or the RLDS
Or the Mormons
Or the FLDS.

Just a fiercely loyal inner circle of Warren JEFFS FLDS who live in this compound.

They have created a CULT within their faith, that allows them to practice the PERVERSIONS of Warren Jeffs FATHER.


582 posted on 04/16/2008 11:49:35 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Just saying what 'they' won't.)
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To: metmom

“You know, the more I read and make the connection of gender to screen name, the more I see the divide amongst the sexes in response to this whole thing.”

Hello, I’m Brad Pitt.


583 posted on 04/16/2008 11:51:46 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Just saying what 'they' won't.)
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To: wita

“Especially interesting in the contest in which it was written”

So.... who won?


584 posted on 04/16/2008 11:56:09 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Just saying what 'they' won't.)
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To: wita

“I only know that he was a rabid Romney supporter,”

You got rabies, and you’re a Mormon?

Wow, dude.

Anything we can do?

(just kidding.)


585 posted on 04/16/2008 11:59:24 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Just saying what 'they' won't.)
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To: claudiustg

I supose if those with cell phones are under house arrest this is legal, but if not, why the stopping of free speech? If the “men” are giving orders and witness tampering then arrest them and send them to the pokey where they can’t do any more damage.


586 posted on 04/16/2008 12:00:19 PM PDT by CodeToad
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To: greyfoxx39

Anyone know what BY HEARD means?


587 posted on 04/16/2008 12:01:00 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Just saying what 'they' won't.)
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To: UCANSEE2
I thought rabid was part of being a Romney Supporter. Am I wrong?

rabid (răb'ĭd)

Raging; uncontrollable: rabid thirst.
Extremely zealous or enthusiastic; fanatical: a rabid football fan.

588 posted on 04/16/2008 12:02:55 PM PDT by colorcountry (To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: UCANSEE2

If you were a Mormon, you’d know.


589 posted on 04/16/2008 12:03:50 PM PDT by colorcountry (To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: colorcountry

Do you know?


590 posted on 04/16/2008 12:06:43 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Just saying what 'they' won't.)
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To: colorcountry

It was a joke. Trying to keep the tone lighthearted.

It keeps getting real dark on this thread.


591 posted on 04/16/2008 12:08:14 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Just saying what 'they' won't.)
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To: UCANSEE2

I was one of those women. I know.

But if I told YOU, I would have to suffer my life to be taken, my bowels to be spilled. It’s ....shhhh ..... sacred, not secret.


592 posted on 04/16/2008 12:08:42 PM PDT by colorcountry (To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: UCANSEE2

I know. I was joking too.

I guess my “humor” is too ‘dark’ for ya. ;-)


593 posted on 04/16/2008 12:10:00 PM PDT by colorcountry (To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: colorcountry

OK. I get it now.

You were joking too.

So, was it supposed to be BE HEARD, or BY HERD ?


594 posted on 04/16/2008 12:10:16 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Just saying what 'they' won't.)
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To: colorcountry

“I guess my “humor” is too ‘dark’ for ya. ;-)”

So, if you are ‘black’ and you say that, can you get prosecuted for making a racist remark about yourself?

Are there ‘black’ Mormons?

Are ‘blacks’ typically republican, and ‘Blacks’ typically democrats?

(If you were black, you would know)


595 posted on 04/16/2008 12:16:21 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Just saying what 'they' won't.)
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To: colorcountry

....and.... are typical whiteys Republican or Democrat?


596 posted on 04/16/2008 12:18:21 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Just saying what 'they' won't.)
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To: UCANSEE2

I’m not black, I am dark......sheesh.

Today, I have also been called indifferent, careless, selfish, and sinful, one who is less active, offended, a critic, and a transgressor.

Hooray! I can be all things to all people~


597 posted on 04/16/2008 12:19:23 PM PDT by colorcountry (To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: UCANSEE2

OKAY, now that we’ve successfully hijacked the thread, I’ll tell you, I’m not a typical whitey. I am a spic through marriage.


598 posted on 04/16/2008 12:21:11 PM PDT by colorcountry (To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: colorcountry

“Today, I have also been called indifferent, careless, selfish, and sinful, one who is less active, offended, a critic, and a transgressor.”

Heck, that’s nothing.

I’ve been called a child molester and advocate of pedophilia.

And I have been the biggest supporter of getting the facts in this case and putting a stop to the cult that has festered behind the walls, in this particular perversion of religion that Warren Jeffs and his inner circle are trying to protect.

They are not Mormons, LDS,RLDS, or even FLDS. This small, closeknit group of men know what they are doing, and it’s not following GOD.


599 posted on 04/16/2008 12:25:10 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Just saying what 'they' won't.)
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To: GovernmentShrinker

I see a little bit of what ever showing.


600 posted on 04/16/2008 12:25:34 PM PDT by BlueMoose
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