Posted on 04/14/2008 8:57:15 AM PDT by ansel12
ELDORADO, Texas - The secretive and insular community established near this West Texas town by a radical offshoot of the Mormon Church is considered by the sect's members to be a holy shrine populated by its most fervent adherents and is propped up financially by members of the group living in other states, according to law enforcement officials and former members.
Interviews with law enforcement authorities and former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints depict the Yearning for Zion Ranch, which was raided last week by Texas authorities, as an outpost whose adult residents were considered the sect's elite. They were handpicked by the church's leader, Warren Jeffs, who was convicted last year in Utah of being an accomplice to rape for arranging the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her cousin.
Jeffs dubbed those chosen for the ranch as the "elect" or "heart's core," selected to live in the "holy land," as he called the compound. The adults were his most loyal followers and the young children were the least "contaminated" by the outside world, former church members say. According to court documents, adherents living at the ranch practiced the most extreme tenets of FLDS doctrine, including forcing girls as young as 13 to "spiritually marry" older men for the purpose of bearing their children. (excerpt)
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Ping
What is that place built out of?
It looks like a castle.
I guess you could say this is the thoughts of two main stream Mormon enablers.
They don't need their confidence, they need to hunt them down like the vermin they are.
I think it is a paper-mache composite, made out of taxpayers welfare dollars.
lol
it’s a montrosity, imo.
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My concern is that it might be a fishing expedition. If the 16 year old abuse claim was fake and there is no one complaining it seems like an awful invasion of privacy to invade the place and take children away from their parents.
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My concern is that it might be a fishing expedition. If the 16 year old abuse claim was fake and there is no one complaining it seems like an awful invasion of privacy to invade the place and take children away from their parents.
Yup.
And the cults aren't that far removed one from another.
Hand-picked
For those who think that Eldorado is "extreme," I would ask:
How is this all that much different from the adults that the mainstream Mormons' general authorities who "hand approved" polygamous families to go live in places iike Juarez, Mexico or Canada late in the 19th century on into the 20th century?
In both cases, polygamy was the main focus. In some cases, the add-on wife was/is underage. In both cases, the Mormons thought that isolation from Gentile observation would be their "salvation" for time. In both cases, the plural marriages were against Mexican, U.S., and Canadian laws. In both cases, deception was involved. In both cases, plural marriage "for eternity" was billed to young girls as a tremendous spiritual benefit, both for "eternity" and for "time."
If the Texas social department drags out this entire procedure...then these horny old guys within the sect will be forced to quickly recruit replacement members with teenage virgin daughters. Whole thing starts to remind me of these Muslim guys with the 72 virgin deal.
“My concern is that it might be a fishing expedition. If the 16 year old abuse claim was fake and there is no one complaining it seems like an awful invasion of privacy to invade the place and take children away from their parents.”
My feelings exactly.
I’m surprised they lasted this long. This cult will probably survive but it won’t be in Eldorado.
When I first read of this cult moving to West Texas my first thought was,Yep,them “good ol’ boys” have got a live one on the hook.
It isn't a fishing expedition, but I do think that some freepers think that this is just one of those things that pop-upped when an anonymous call came in about some local oddballs that made locals uncomfortable.
FLDS is a long term cult that has been one step in front of the law for generations, Texas passed special legislation when the cult started moving in.
The recent conviction of their leader for overseeing these rape activities is evidence that law enforcement is learning how to deal with this child rape, polygamy cult.
Limestone.
That's because there's more similitarities within the Mormon heritage than folks think.
Consider this quote from a 19th century mainstream Mormon General Authority (who has a Utah city named after him--Heber City): (Heber C. Kimball in the Tabernacle, Feb. 1, 1857: "They [his wives] have got to live their religion, serve their God, and do right as well as myself. Suppose that I lose the whole of them before I go into the spiritual world, but that I have been a good, faithful man all the days of my life, and lived my religion, and had favor with God, and was kind to them, do you think I will be destitute there? No. The Lord says there are more there than there are here. They have been increasing there; they increase there a great deal faster than they do here, because there is no obstruction. They do not call upon the doctors to kill their offspring. In this world very many of the doctors are studying to diminish the human race. In the spiritual world...we will go to Brother Joseph...and he will say to us, 'Come along, my boys, we will give you a good suit of clothes. Where are your wives?' 'They are back yonder; they would not follow us.' 'Never mind,' says Joseph, 'here are THOUSANDS; HAVE ALL YOU WANT.'" (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 4, p. 209)
Don't you all see? With the poor heavenly neighborhood Muslim martyrs inherit, why, they'll be limited to a 72-virgin quota. But the Mormon general authorities promise you an unlimited supply of wives...'have all you want,' he says!
The fLDS heritage re: treatment of girls & women as an all-you-grab-buffett was prompted by mainstream Mormon leaders acting like they were kids in a free candy store (to put it the way Mormon authority Jan Shipps framed it).
Would it be just as OK then? Would the Texas authorities be taking justified action in that case? If we allow if for one sect we allow it for all. Good on the GREAT State of Texas for taking down this criminal organization, no matter what ‘spiritual’ inspiration they claim.
Will anyone ask HILLARY! the obvious question?
Is the Eldorado ranch wrong if it takes a village to raise a child?
All those pregnant 12-16 year old children seem to indicate they aren’t using their “privacy” in a lawful OR moral manner.
I guess child rape is a minor matter, huh?
For example, from Reynolds v. United States case (98 U.S. 145), as annotated HERE, George Reynolds, Brigham Young's personal secretary, argued as follows:
On the trial, the plaintiff in error, the accused, proved that at the time of his alleged second marriage he was, and for many years before had been, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly called the Mormon Church, and a believer in its doctrines; that it was an accepted doctrine of that church "that it was the duty of male members of said church, circumstances permitting, to practise polygamy; . . . that this duty was enjoined by different books which the members of said church believed to be to divine origin, and among others the Holy Bible, and also that the members of the church believed that the practice of polygamy was directly enjoined upon the male members thereof by the Almighty God, in a revelation to Joseph Smith, the founder and prophet of said church; that the failing or refusing to practise polygamy by such male members of said church, when circumstances would admit, would be punished, and that the penalty for such failure and refusal would be damnation in the life to come." He also proved "that he had received permission from the recognized authorities in said church to enter into polygamous marriage; . . . that Daniel H. Wells, one having authority in said church to perform the marriage ceremony, married the said defendant on or about the time the crime is alleged to have been committed, to some woman by the name of Schofield, and that such marriage ceremony was performed under and pursuant to the doctrines of said church."It should also be noted the LDS Church steadfastly resisted all attempts to abandon the Principal (of polygamy) until the church was disbanded as a criminal organization under the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887 and their property ordered seized.
Furthermore, many in the LDS Church ignored President Woodruff's instructions to abandon polygamy until the Church was embarrassed in the Smoot Hearings (1904-07), at which time two members of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles (among others) were expelled from the brotherhood for increasing their number of polygamous wives.
Finally, it should be noted LDS Church Presidents openly practiced polygamy (they were allowed to keep their plural wives) until 1945.
In light of the above, I find attempts by current LDS members to distance themselves from their FLDS cousins on the grounds polygamy is morally and/or spiritually and/or doctrinally wrong both amusing and disingenuous.
I think we need to do the death penalty for this kind of behavior for the men and the women who enable this behavior need to be put into prison for life. And the kids need to be put into families with no ties with this group. This is the best way to eridicate this behavior.
Why are you spamming every thread with this?
Because I want to make my point. Is there a limit to post on the same topic or create similiar threads like you? I have no problem with you posting similiar threads but apparently you have a problem with me responding to them? WTF is that about?
Anyway, I am amazed of the stupidity of the crowd here. You guys think that a single raid is going to stop it? Last time this happened it went to court for several years. You think Texas can endure do that? This thing will go to the Supreme court.
Use you brains, the FLDS went to Texas because of that consenting adults ruling for sodomy. My fear is that they are playing rope a dope AND want to get this in court so that it will be legalized or decriminalized just like Texas did with sodomy.
Texas has been setup. The only way to stop it is to increase the punishment to extreme levels and enforce it. You put one of these guys to death and they will stop.
I think that you sound like a Mormon that is angry at Texas for taking on these Latter Day Saints child molesting, polygamists.
I live about 10 miles from Palmyra, NY and Hill Cumorah and the home of Joseph Smith.
We see these “pilgrims” every summer for the Hill Cumorah Pageant. We have always wondered about some of these families who show up. In many cases the wife looks awfully young to have children that are school age.
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