FLDS

Senator proposes crackdown on Warren Jeffs' FLDS and other polygamous communi...

Personally, I became interested in this story back in April when authorities raided the YFZ ranch in Texas. I was struck by the women and how strange they appeared in their pioneer dresses and heavily hairsprayed braids. This piqued my curiosity I did some Web surfing, read a few books like Carolyn Jessop's "Escape" and "When Men Become Gods" by Stephen Singular. What I learned is that these seemingly devout, modest sects are actually pretty scary and dangerous.
Kids are being denied proper education and are routinely put to work in various cult-owned businesses in violation of Child Labor Laws. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of young boys have been excommunicated from the sect, brought to big cities or simply left at the side of a road to fend for themselves while still in their mid 'teens, for minor infractions such as kissing a girl. These boys know nothing about life in the outside world and often end up in big trouble with drugs and prostitution. One of the underlying reasons for this happening is to eliminate some of the males in the community so the elite will have more females to take as plural wives.
Women have very little rights in these communities. Their husbands control every aspect of their lives, as they can only attain paradise through their husbands. They can work, but all their money is to be turned over to their husbands. They can drive, but often the registrations on their cars are expired or invalid so they cannot get far if they try to leave the community. Women seldom have any choice in who they must marry and can even be taken away from one husband and "reassigned" to another on the whim of church elders. The FLDS denies it, but clearly many young girls are forced into marriages at extremely young ages: there are many stories of girls having babies before even age 15.
We must remember that these are not some alienated college kids who have joined some whacked-out cult in the search for enlightenment. These groups have been around for over 150 years, and these folks are born into a generations-old tradition. They have been indoctrinated into this way of life since birth, and told over and over again that the path to salvation is through complete and unquestioning obedience to the sect. They are denied access to the outside world, television and radio are banned as well as all but a few books. When people believe that their spiritual salvation is at stake, they can be convinced to do almost anything.
The FLDS leadership has bred themselves their own little totally compliant army.
Cult doctrine openly despises the US government, yet cloaks itself in the First Ammendment whenever it is threatened. Plural marriages are not legally recognized, so most FLDS mothers are single parents in the eyes of the state, allowing them to collect millions of dollars in welfare benefits every year, which goes into the pockets of church leadership and into building big fancy houses on FLDS land. This policy is called "Bleeding the Beast" by the Church.
You and I are the Beast.
With so much going on in our country, many people really don't consider this situation important or worthy of our concern. But anyone who looks a little further into it will realize that these groups are not just a quirky, benign presence. The similarities between their tactics and those of the Taliban are striking and scary; and it is all happening right here inside the USA.
Finally, it seems, someone is trying to do something serious regarding this situation. Senator Harry Reid, the House Majority Leader, said Thursday that groups such as the FLDS are "a form of organized crime," largely unchecked by law enforcement. He is proposing a federal-state partnership aimed at policing such communities. Interesingly, the Senator's own state is one where the FLDS flourishes.
I urge all Americans to educate themselves on these groups. We must as a country decipher the truth behind the cloak of religion, and decide what is and what isn't right. Personally, I became interested in this story back in April when authorities raided the YFZ ranch in Texas. I was struck by the women ... more

phalley

added this