Andrew Stephen, writing from the U.K., pans the FBI’s Most Wanted list and asks why Warren Jeffs and the FLDS are such a cause célèbre when Hugh Hefner & bunnies aren’t. “Visiting British authors” in San Angelo, take note: some of your fellow Brits are a bit more perceptive than you are. Excerpts:
What, then, was 50-year-old Warren Steed Jeffs doing on the [Most Wanted] list two years ago? Like Bin Laden, he was also considered “armed and dangerous” and, we were told, “may travel with a number of loyal and armed bodyguards”. Such dramatic warnings were worthy of Hoover himself, but in the event, the former private schoolteacher and accountant was led away with the minimum of fuss in 2006 after cops stopped his Cadillac Escalade on Interstate 15 . . .
Yet. . . Jeffs was never accused of killing or hurting anyone himself, of stealing, drug-running or arms-running, or of personally committing any violent crime. He became one of America’s top ten most wanted fugitives [because] he sought the freedom to practise his religion the way he wanted, but discovered instead that there was a catastrophic irreconcilability between the traditions of his church and the law. . .
The tragedy of the whole terrible episode is that . . . Jeffs and his philosophies actually mirror the mores of his society far more than all the frothing indignation suggests. In the states of South Carolina, North Carolina and Kansas, for example, it was legal for older males to marry 12-year-old girls as recently as the past decade.
David Henkel, a pro-polygamy campaigner who estimates that there are 100,000 polygamists in the US – Jews, Christians, and many Muslims among them . . . – senses profound hypocrisy: “Someone like a Hugh Hefner will have a television show with three live-in girlfriends and that’s all OK,” he says. “But if that man was to marry them, then suddenly he’s a criminal. That’s insane.”
Full article at New Statesman. ht: Cali
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Black San Angelo you remain fixated on words and not actions. People remain reponsible for their actions and in no way blame should blames others for wht they do. I remined fixated on cross burnings because I believe it is what you do or dont do that matters. Unless bigots take action against you or fail to take action. Irregardless of what Uncle Warren said or did, it does not excuse the terrible way these owomen and children were treated. You cannot say you sympathize with the victims and then fail to condemn those who actually carried out the crimes. You suggested that you had first hand experience with the experience. The isolated manner in which the FLDS have traditonally lived have not brought them into contact with many Black people. Were you one of the storm troopers who raided the XYZ Ranch on April 3rd?
Thomas,
You said People remain reponsible for their actions.
Does that mean that the FLDS are responsible for their actions, and consequently for any offenses that those actions might have committed?
For example, if it is illegal to act by having more than one spouse, are they accountable for that? How about sexual relations with a minor, when the father can be proven by DNA? Are they responsible for their actions then?
Actually, TBM, it means that INDIVIDUAL FLDS members are responsible for THEIR actions…not the religion NOR the leader are responsible for INDIVIDUAL choices.
When CPS and the STATE of TEXAS finally figure out that elemental truth, justice and observation of constitutional rights might actually return…provided Barbie is off the bench.
Just a thought about the FLDS’ race conscious views. Either its true or its false. If its true how is getting mad about it going to help? if it’s false then let me here state. There is’nt one documented case of any FLDS members ever denying civil rights to a black person, or abusing or even yelling harsh words or racial epithets toward blacks. Let’s go back to the Mormons in Missouri. Slavery was still legal, Missouri was a slave state Mormons were not slave holders. This was a factor in the anti Mormon sentiment that drove them from the state, with an extermination order from the guv of that state. If the FLDS are racist it is simply a private religious belief and harms no one, unless you believe them. As far as I’ve seen they treat all people with respect and dignity. “So if their beliefs are false lets take their children away because you all know that we can’t allow parents to teach their children false religious doctrine”. {tounge in cheek}. Some people are actually suggesting we punish thoughts! WOW you people should wake up.
Thomas “Were you one of the storm troopers who raided the XYZ Ranch on April 3rd?”
No. I am a member of the community of San Angelo, which does happen to have black people in it, and the FLDS is still in the community shopping and using services and such. Black folks in San Angelo are more than just CPS workers- they are law enforcement, attorneys, volunteers, doctors, teachers etc.
When the people who whine that the FLDS somehow deserved the abuse they received — which was, lest we forget, in violation of due process, therefore a violation of law — finally decide to argue the law should be applied evenly across the board, then some kind of truth will be served. And some kind of maturity and reponsibility will be shown.
For Black Person from San Angelo to claim, as he or she does, that the FLDS somehow “deserved” the horrible treatment they got from the State of Texas because they have violated laws is utter hypocrisy. Those laws are on the books to protect family relationships. So let’s protect them, not tear them apart.
Where is their concern about Hugh Hefner and his promotion of immorality, infidelity, adultery — and de facto sex slavery? How is there any sense or honesty in moaning about Warren Jeffs *supposedly* having kissed a twelve year old (probably a shopped photo) while the porn industry promotes graphic pedophilia — not just kisses? What kind of of bigotry is revealed in railing against the FLDS about teaching white superiority while failing to object to Rev. Wright teaching black superiority? Why are the FLDS a target, for supposed bias against blacks, while two local chapters of the KKK in San Angelo/El Dorado continue to meet and promote hatred (and violence) against all who are not white and Protestant?
Please stand back and see this horrible injustice for what it is, and move on to trying to heal, not look for mere warts to excuse Texas’ brutality against the FLDS. There are plenty of cancerous growths, not just warts, on some of these other segments of society. The FLDS are (gasp) odd, I’ll grant, but they are harmless. Hooray for oddity. Instead of looking at the mote in their eye, look at the beam in our own. Or in Hefner’s, Jeremiah Wright’s, Muslims who murder their daughters in the name of “honor”, or the KKK’s, or the local First Baptist Church with its ever-ready buses.
BP, I have much first-hand experience with the FLDS too & there are several areas where we have agreed to disagree. Since you would rather whine about the FLDS being bigoted against you (based solely on the BS statements from anti-FLDSers out to make a buck) & use that to justify the storm-trooper treatment they received (much like blacks received before, during & after the Civil Rights movement) leads me to the presumption that you would rather spout off bigoted statements & whine about how they’ve allegedly treated you than to something proactive about it.
I am FLDS and some of the nicest doctors I have met and been under their care have a skin color that is different than mine. I definitely respect their intelligence and I am always very grateful for their experiance, patience and help. I don’t know what kind of experience Blackperson has had or what has caused his/her negative feeling towards the FLDS, and I am truly sorry that an offense was committed.
And for TBM, I am sorry that he doesn’t know about Uncle Roy, our Prophet and a man of peace, who’s mother had Native American ancestors and the same blood that runs through the veins of many of the FLDS today. One of the great men of God who taught us the real value of each individual person on this earth.
I have learned in my short sojurn in life that every person is important…even more important than me. And that every person is different and I couldn’t be happier with that. What a dull world this would be without individuality, eh?
One other thing I have learned is that it is my feelings I have to control. If I (or Blackperson) know that what I am doing is right, good, honest, kind, trustworthy, patient, forgiving, loving, etc. What does it matter what others say or do, right?
Right, until those sayin’s and doin’s turn into negative and harsh actions that cause harm, grief and terror to innocent people. Then I start to be really concerned. And being FLDS, right now I am really concerned about the actions of those in Texas which are hurting the ones I love. Does this mean I condone or support or would hide abuse? Absolutely not.
I’m sure both of you could fire back a whole lot of whatever, but I wanted to say…just like you say the world is full of good people, so I (and others) say the FLDS is made up of many good people. And I hope you realize that each person lives their “personal” interpretation of the teachings we receive. Just as you live and obey laws how “you” interpret them.
First of all, I want to say that anyone that says they don’t break the law is a flat out liar. You literally break the law by singing “Happy Birthday” without paying royalties. There are all kinds of other laws that people break all the time, so it is extremely hypocritical to label other people as “lawbreakers” when literally everyone breaks the law on at least an annual basis, if not daily basis.
Second, why are Blacks in San Angelo complaining about the FLDS while not talking about the KKK located in the city? It seems to me that it is highly likely the poster is neither black, nor from San Angelo.
Chai,
I think you answered your own question:
“Let’s face it – we in the mainstream are not doing such a bang up job at life that we should be forcing it upon anyone. ”
We tend to be much quicker to look for a scapegoat, to point fingers than to reflect on our own behavior and make changes. Change is, after all, uncomfortable and rarely easy.
As Kleiglights, and others, pointed out–how bizarre is it that we are going after this small sect for “sexual issues” while ignoring the graphic–life destroying–pornography that so many around the world casually dip into or heavily traffic in. It’s okay because. . .?? Is there an elephant in the room?
Coco
TxBlues:
Okay, morbid curiosity: “Y’all will get the FLDS to admit blacks into all levels of their priesthood and to marry into their families…”
Did some of them want to join the FLDS? (No disrespect intended–just doesn’t seem like the in group of the hour.)
Coco
Thank you, Coco. I’m glad at least one person read my post.
I wish the government would stop promoting racism. Everytime they do the census they break the data down by races… I prefer the term ethnicities.
Many newer gov’t forms have the ‘race’ broken down into Hispanic and Not Hispanic. Why? What’s up with that?
Why can’t we be people without pointing out skin tones? Why do we based employment on meeting quotas of skin tone colors instead of the color or eyes or hair?
Haven’t we learned anything from the past? Let’s move beyond categorizing and ASSUMING things about people and let’s learn to live ABOVE our differences!
The FLDS people (from what I’ve read) are willing to adjust their marriage practices to comply to the new state laws of Texas. But that doesn’t seem to be enough for people.
This whole thing just makes me sad – so much hate toward a group of people that just want to live in peace and solitude and to protect their children and themselves from the evils they perceive in the world. Sometimes I wish I could join them…don’t we all long for a simpler, more peaceful existence?
Chai,
I’m all for them obeying the law, and I applaud them for it – if they really mean it. They haven’t exactly got a reputation for truthfulness, so I have my doubts.
That agreement to follow the law on underage marriage did not, however, include a commitment to obey the laws on bigamy, which is still a felony offense.
In any event, those that have already committed crimes must answer for them.
TBM: “In any event, those that have already committed crimes must answer for them.”
Like Tawana Brawley did?
Like Crystal Gale Mangum did?
Like Rozita Swinton did in this case?
Exactly. Unequal protection under the law as far as I can see.
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