Warren Jeffs’ polygamous sect crumbles in the face of a federal lawsuit and a mass exodus....

http://america.aljazeera.com/multimedia/2015/3/fleeing-the-flds-sect.html

Awesome article - thanks for sharing

Interesting that you pulled the article from Al Jazeera, which is a muslim publication. Of course, Islam allows up to 4 wives.

The REAL question is how come it was reported by Al Jazeera and not any American news outlets ?

Al Jazeera America is a U.S. news source.

The story is almost five months old. It was a feature piece and not a news story.

Simply Google FLDS news and you will find all the same information from traditional U.S. news sources along with much more.

I am not at all certain that your REAL question matters very much in the big picture. It is based on several false premises.

The Internet is a bigger problem for the FLDS than it is for the LDS. They can only survive on isolation and ignorance. The FLDS are our own little home-brew North Korea.

Seems like it would only be a matter of time after Jeffs went to the Big House. I figured the whole authority structure would eventually start falling apart.

Jeffs' is a microcosm of how I picture Joseph Smith would've been received had he started his "fundamentalist" church, turning every preconceived Christian protocol upside down on its head, today. Maybe Jeffs pulled it off with more aplomb than Smith might have, under the same circumstances.

Jeffs copycatted what Smith had already done. So in that sense he wasn't "original."

Smith paid the ultimate price, with his assassination and vigilante justice in the frontier west. Jeffs had his due process, and is now serving life, with the possibility of parole.

I find it fascinating he still exercises control over his religious sect from behind bars. Well, if you want to call it that. Because it is crumbling, as it must.

The FLDS have been given a great blessing like many of us have, in the form of the Internet - to be able to access the same information and resources helping them to find their way out of their own living hell - much greater than anything most of us have ever had to endure.

Currently, many of the school age children and their families are being kicked out from the FLDS compounds, with nowhere to go. So in St. George, Utah there is currently a drive to collect clothing for these children for when they start public school (for the first time in their lives,) on August 13th.

My heart goes out to these children, especially. Even if their parents chose that lifestyle, their children certainly did not. Now for the first time, along with their parents, they're being given a chance at a *normal* life.

I hope for their sakes they find that, and much more.

http://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2015/08/02/three-corners-womens-giving-circle/#.VcAYJW5VhBc



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/2015 09:43PM by amyjo.

The TBM bishops storehouse should be feeding and clothing these kids. The mormon church started this mess, and should be the ones working to clean it up. I would consider that a good use of tithing money.

Excellent point.

Most of those people have little or no idea how the "real" world lives. (At least, I wouldn't think so.) Doesn't it seem like they might need social "training wheels" for a while? How to acquire normal social skills, regular clothes, real jobs, etc.?

catnip Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Most of those people have little or no idea how
> the "real" world lives. (At least, I wouldn't
> think so.) Doesn't it seem like they might need
> social "training wheels" for a while? How to
> acquire normal social skills, regular clothes,
> real jobs, etc.?

I would think it will be more difficult for them leaving the FLDS than it would be for the Amish leaving their lives behind.

The parents also need to integrate as you say, not only their children. They are products of polygamous marriages, many have lived off welfare generationally, and have little to no skills off the farm aka compound.

Perhaps integrating into the LDS church would be an easier assimilation for them and their families in the short term, than leaving their faith behind altogether. There are certainly many LDS in the area where they've been displaced.

Quite possibly many of them share common ancestry.

We should acknowledge that these people, like the Amish, have been brainwashed to see the world outside the compounds as wicked. Every person they see, everything they pass by is viewed as a temptation to sin. They are generally terrified of the rest of the world, because they've been taught to be. Even moreso than the basic life skills they will need to survive, they have a great need for psychological support, deprogramming, and an actual education is in order as well. No telling what is really taught in those one-room Jeffs schools. I'd wager that few of the girls learned much past the 6th or 8th grade level.

I hate polygamy and hope this cult crumbles into non-existence.

When people talk about Joseph Smith's legacy, I point to Jeffs and his ilk. Uncomfortable silence follows.

These people look like exmormon apostates. Relaxed and happy and a far cry from the dazed crazy look of typical cultists. Amazing what a bit of distance from a cult can do.