The violence is terrible and disturbing...but why would anyone who has left the FLDS church choose to move to Short Creek? It seems like Jessop wants to kick the hornets nest.
But he had left the religion and the town years before...and moved back with his family who had never been members. Is his love for a religion and family who shun him greater than his desire to love and protect his own wife and kids? That's messed up. You can also love your parents, siblings, etc. without living in the same town, state, or even country. So love itself does not explain his actions.
Some people feel a connection to the place where they grew up, or where they lived for some time. Often this a connection to the landscape, and that connection is not destroyed by bad neighbors, etc.
Maybe they don't feel that connection anywhere else? Maybe they are even more willing to fight injustice in such a place?
Maybe they have relatives and friends they are helping? They are needed?
As for Jessop having been gone 6 years, sometimes people need a break before they can reenter the fray.
Anyway, that's not the point is it? Injustice is being perpetrated, indeed, promoted every day in Short Creek. We should all be interested in putting a stop to it.
Not only did Christopher Jessop openly leave the FLDS church and then move his family of outsiders into a home formerly belonging to an active FLDS member, but the Jessop family became further perceived as antagonists when, shortly after moving to Short Creek, they started a nonprofit program to help local residents – the majority of them FLDS members who were in need of food, clothing and other help – essentially giving them another source of aid outside the FLDS church.
“The church was not happy with that,” Christopher Jessop said.
Jesseca Jessop is additionally involved in Safety Net, an outreach program that connects polygamous families with outside help and services, including helping domestic violence victims within the FLDS community and helping those wishing to leave polygamy make the transition to life in the outside world. The Jessops have also been instrumental in helping young men and women leave the FLDS church.
So why stay in a place where such persecution is being leveled at them? Why don’t the Jessops leave Short Creek?
“I love it here,” Christopher Jessop said. “This place isn’t a bad place; it’s the ‘good guys’ (who are bad).”
“I think of Short Creek as being a million-dollar home that’s infested with termites,” Jesseca Jessop said.
The family is here to stay, she said, and persecution isn’t going to drive them out.
Somebody has got to stand up to them and show the rest of the people not to be afraid
“Somebody has got to stand up to them and show the rest of the people not to be afraid, to stand up to these guys,” Jesseca Jessop said.
“You know what we’re going to do?” Christopher Jessop asked. “We’re going to get up tomorrow when the sun comes up – I’ll actually get up before the sun comes up – I’m going to go to work, and when I’m done I’m going to come back home, and if we feel like listening to our music loud we’re going to listen to it loud, and we’re going to be glad we had another day. They ain’t gonna run us off.”
________
Clearly, this family wants their family's legacy to that as agents of change and meaningful reform. Will it be worth the cost? Only they, and time, can tell.
Many stay because they have homes there and they have extended family there. In the past they were kicked out of their homes, but now the homes are in the hands of the state, essentially, because the state took over the trust that owns the property. Often they built their homes with their own hands. Sometimes the homes are large because the families are large. Getting something comparable elsewhere isn't an option, and good luck if they would like to sell their house there, cash out the equity and move elsewhere. The trust owns their land, so that isn't an option. Other times they want to stay because it is the only place they can afford to live, even if it's in a single-wide.
In addition, Short Creek is changing, because of the trust and because now "apostates" don't have to leave. Hildale just opened a public school with 160 kids in it. That would have been unheard of even just a few years ago. There are new businesses and I just saw an article saying that last year for the first time a national chain moved in--it's Subway.
It is easy to glibly say well why don't they just get out. The reality is that leaving might not be an option.
I actually think this development is the very best thing that could have happened to the community. Now everyone who is stuck inside knows that there are "apostates" in the community who would help them and give them the shirt off their back if they wanted to leave. There are community services that can offer help for people who want out, and they are providing food for those who aren't getting enough to eat from the church.
The commitment of those who are staying in the community to be there and make change happen is the best thing that could possibly happen there. Now if they can just get real police in Hildale in place of the FLDS cops who are loyal to Warren Jeffs. The Attorney General of Arizona used its budget to put deputy sheriffs on the Arizona side (Colorado City), but Hildale is still stuck with the FLDS cops.
Utah and Arizona and mainstream Mormons are partially to blame for allowing this to happen under their watch. Time for the feds to step in and get to the bottom of it.
Absolutely. Polygamy has flourished under the watchful and permissive eyes of the Mormon bureaucrats in Utah law enforcement.
I had an interaction with a self-important Bluffdale cop, likely former Mormon. Would never address what role he played in the largo and open polygamist community there. Just proud he was a cop. Being a good one seemed unimportant to him.
If you are an officer of the law and you turn away from polygamy or obey your leaders and ignore polygamy, you are enabling polygamy.
Only the external forces of this society, such as the FBI, or honest local cops and AGs, will stop Mormon polygamy.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/2014 03:32PM by gentlestrength.
As sad as this is it only brings more bad light to the Mormons. Outside of the LDS valley everyone only sees them as Mormons. FLDS, LDS means nothing to the rest of the world. The word "Mormons" to everyone else is all the same.
It should be. Mormons are the same. Some are more comfortable being a facade. They all love and affirm Joseph Smith as. Prophet of God and restorer of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The rest of the stuff is just in house fighting over who gets to be Mormon prophet today. They believe they same things, just infighting. All nutty, all dirty.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/2014 03:51PM by gentlestrength.
ID even know if Utah can take away their authority to arrest, etc.
here in WA... the county sheriff (which county there?), the county sheriff has legal authority to dis-enfranchise city police if the police aren't doing their job as measured by objective metrics...