Why are idiots like this Jeffs allowed to do what he does?
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=527
More hatred and insanity in the name of God.
But dude, free popcorn!
As for whether this is another Maco in the waking, it sure do look that way. They’ve got guns, god, and insanity (sorry, couldn’t think of another “g” word). All it will take is government to light the fuse and kaboom.
Well, an impressively wacko cult indeed, but how would one go about preventing this group from buying property, and wouldn’t attempts by the authorities to not ‘allow’ Jeffs to do what he does most likely result in the Waco-style bloodbath that you seem to be worried about?
Read the link. Look at the picture of Jeffs on page 2. Then you’ll know why he’s motivated to create an entire “religion” around sex with teenage girls.
Religious freedom is just the damndest thing, isn’t it? Some people will just take that freedom and do things others of us just can’t comprehend.
I come from Pennsylvania, and knew lots of Amish growing up. I couldn’t dream of living like they do, but I wouldn’t ask them to change on account of me either.
However, religious freedom only goes so far. Compulsory education, laws against polygamy, statutory rape laws, laws against welfare fraud, and firearms laws don’t have religious exceptions. Busting the leaders of this group shoiuld be done if they are guilty of any of these things, as seems to be the case.
“Hey, is that the leader of a bizarre cult or the assistant manager at Radio Shack?”
Holy fuck they’re breeding!
Religious freedom is one thing, but when a man can lose his wife(ves), his children, and his property, it’s no longer an issue of religion. Also, when a religious sect moves in and takes over the local government, and bends it to their liking, it’s no longer a religious issue. When the sect leader tells his sheeple to take out loans, planning on going into default(obviously it was a plan to get tithe money because the fucker knew the world wasn’t ending), collapsing local banks, it’s no longer a religious issue.
I support religious freedom. Being Jewish, even moreso than most, however when a long laundry list of crimes against people and crimes against the government and crimes against personal property are presented, I think it’s time to get serious about things.
I’m curious to see how this all ends, and trust me, it will end sooner than later and it won’t be good.
Sam
This is not a religious issue. I agree, it is a criminal issue. The baby graveyard was sickening. The part of the story about Holmes was really something. Take a man’s home and family away and arbitrarily “assign” them to somebody else? Holmes said if he had stayed he “would have killed the bastard”. I can fully understand that, and that would be my instinctual reaction too. I hope the local law finds him and soon. This guy is a monster.
More like another Jonestown.
But Lute, this goes beyond the scope of religion. If it was merely a sect of people enjoying their religion and, no matter how odd, excercising that right, I’d have no problem. Unfortunately we have arranged marriages with minors, polygyny-forbidden by the federal government, corruption in local governments by what appear to be strongarm tactics(overwhelming the local townspeople), reported rape and molestation of minors, and what I consider to be a planned fleecing of the local economy by defaulting on loans people knew they couldn’t or wouldn’t pay back.
Sam
Jeffs didn’t author this particular brand of hate. Joseph Smith did back in the 19th century.
If you guys are interested in this cult, check out Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. It’s fascinating (and a wee bit scary.)
Yes, but religion is the source. Once Jeffs moved beyond the source, he started getting away with it by getting away.
I hope he’s able to get his youngest daughter out of there fast. The fact that one little girl kept running away, only to be returned and beaten and molested is disgusting.
I’d seen at least two TV programs on what’s going on with these groups. I hadn’t realized there was one in Texas, as they only covered the ones in Utah:
http://helpthechildbrides.com/articles/prescottcourier.htm
Not the best link, but good enough.
How much longer is this insanity going to be allowed to continue?
They are, at minimum, also in Canada, Mexico, Central & South America, Arizona, and Oregon.
Unfortunately, this will last until they make some egregious error that the faith of their followers will not be strong enough to hold them back from coming clean.
Sam
You forgot welfare fraud. As I understand it, a huge number of people in this group receive government assistence - after all they’re as so many “unwed” mothers with many many (many) children to feed. It amounts to a mainstay of their economy. Aside from the stunning hypocrisy (a society based on the idea of patriarchy in which fathers routienly abdicate responsibility of their children, that touts the morality of polygamy but happily lists their children as bastards when it suits them, that hates the government but takes is money) this strikes my as an excellent way to deal with them without a blood bath…make the fathers pay child support and their economy collapses.
The trouble with any legal actions against this cult lies in the difficulty of enforcement. Given their circle-the-wagons mentality, their closed, vigilant, and armed community, how does one avoid a bloody showdown?