ARIZONA-UTAH BORDER (CNN) -- After 115 days on the FBI's most-wanted list and a year in solitary confinement in a jail called Purgatory, the leader of the nation's largest polygamist sect is going on trial in St. George, Utah.

Warren Steed Jeffs, 51, is the President and Prophet, Seer and Revelator of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as the FLDS. He stands accused of being an accomplice to rape. The trial is in its fourth day of jury selection.

The charges stem from Jeffs' alleged practice of arranging marriages between adult male followers and underage brides.

The young accuser at the center of the trial is under police protection. "Jane Doe," as she is known in court documents, was 14 at the time she says Jeffs forced her into a "spiritual marriage" with a 19-year-old first cousin.

The two were married in Las Vegas by the prophet. "The whole time I was there I was crying. I wanted to die. I was so scared," the reluctant child bride testified at a preliminary hearing.

She told authorities her husband's demands for sex made her uncomfortable. But when she sought the advice of the prophet, she says he told her it was her spiritual duty to submit to her husband, who is her "priesthood head and leader." If she didn't, he warned, she'd lose her "salvation," according to an affidavit.

More of the article here: Link

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A pretty disturbing story in this day and age in this country. I still find it amazing how so many of these religions are so hateful against human rights.

I am glad he is going on trial, the things he said to that girl (and no doubt, countless others) was unforgivable.

He is a megalomaniac and a brainwasher - just where he gets his ideas from beats me

His ideas are twisted and wrong, but the source is Christianity.

I don't actually have an issue with polygamy between consenting adults, to me if you are of age you can do what want relationship wise as long as its consentual but this is just wrong. I am glad they put Warren Jeffs on trial but there are still marriages between old men and little girls going on in his group, even with him on trial. There are also other polygamist sects that if you can believe it are even more twisted. I know of one family where they are so inbred that serious genetic defects have caused the infant mortality rate among the group to skyrocket. It's amazing to me (in a sad way) that in this day and age with what we know about genetics that these close marriages are allowed in sects. One of the girls that testified against Jeffs was married off to her cousin, which in some states is illegal but some not. On the surface that doesn't seem so bad but you have to realize that very little outside contact has been allowed for a long time in that sect. So those kids aren't just cousins, they are probably even more related than that and so by just the nature of that Jeffs should be up for promoting incest as well as all the other charges...

I agree, darkmoonlady. I grew up near a sister sect to this one, and the things that go on there are just horrible. As for the two consenting adults you have to understand that these women are brainwashed, coerced and threatened if they do not marry who they are told. A woman can be taken from one husband and given to another just because the prophet tells them that God told him she should be with the other guy. The women are told that if they don't give their husbands lots of babies they are going to Hell, they are little more than slaves in that society, they have no voice.

Debbie Palmer

Blackmore

jeffs

I completely agree with you on the whole brainwashing thing especially within sects, I should have qualified that by saying I've seen a few polygamist that weren't affiliated with a sect persee and were just living as polygamists. It think there are some out there that aside from religious reasons like living that way and for those that do not do the things pointed out, I can't say I take issue with it. I realize it isn't like on the HBO series Big Love in most cases but those that are like that do exist. If any coersion and brainwashing is part of it them no it should not be allowed...

In examples like you pointed out, yes, if the women are making a conscious choice and have freedom to make that choice without any threat, be it physical or spiritual, then it is up to her. Unfortunately, the only polygamous relationships I have seen have been the scary sort. And genetically speaking,t you can tell the Mormons from Creston, they all have a certain look to them (I want to say stunned, but well, that isn't really nice even if it is true). They are a law unto themselves which is really really scary.

people will do crazy things when religion is involved, like they have some "sacred duty" to this oh so great god, as if!!

some people need to open their eyes and let their conscience out, because there are some WACKOS out there. . . like the terrorists who blow themselves up for tons of virgins in iraq,

I agree to an extent, but I think that monogamy does create a situation in which the resulting kids have two adults legally responsible for them. With polygamy you can end up with a dad who has 50 kids. So each kid gets 1/50th of the fathers support, emotionally and financially. I'm not saying polygamy is evil. Just that kids born in a monogamous relationship are more likely to have money and adult attention.

Good point, bluezone!

Earlier this year an Australian television show, sent a female reporter to a "sect", "cult" town in the US after getting in contact with a famale escapee who is even to this day still hunted down by the members of that cult. As soon as she entered the town she was followed and run off the road by numerous big white pick-up trucks. The women she managed to approach were completly brainwashed and loved thier lot in life, they believed this was the only way to live. Its not just scary, but trully disgusting, these women and children are no more than slaves and have no free-will or idea of what life should be like. I felt sick and despairing for these women, as although the F.B.I and other similar agencies were trying their best, they were struggling to change things as the local government and police were all cult members.

In Jeffs trial, teen bride says she married out of fear of isolation, damnation

ST. GEORGE, Utah (Cou rt TV) - A woman who was married at 14 to her older cousin told a jury Thursday that she married at the instruction of Warren Jeffs, the leader of a polygamous sect, and out of fear of eternal damnation.

As the first witness to take the stand in the case against Jeffs, the woman, now 21, said that Jeffs, her schoolteacher and spiritual adviser, taught that her purpose in life was to be obedient and submissive to her husband.

"I was a mother to his children. I would keep home for him. I would be committed to him," testified the woman, dressed in a black pantsuit with her long blond hair pulled back with a headband. "We were to follow as though led by a hair."

Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, faces a potential life sentence on two counts of rape as an accomplice for allegedly encouraging the follower to marry and have sex with her 19-year-old cousin against her wishes.

The woman said that growing up, she was taught to regard boys as "snakes" and to "keep the bars up" when it came to any kind of physical contact before marriage. Once married, it was the husband's job to teach his wife about sex, a subject the witness claimed to be entirely ignorant of before her husband made unwanted advances toward her.

More of the article here: Link

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Sounds just like a bunch of other virgin crazed cults with a male domination in it's religion. Truely disgusting to see items like this survive today. This just isn't right and religion should be more harshly confronted because of their vile immorality.

"there is neither male nor female....for you are all one in christ jesus".

That is it. That is what is stopping the Government from breaking this up. When the sherrif and judges are polygamists, how can you do anything about it? And the fear the women have, they may have doubts, but they are not allowed to speak of them. I feel so sorry for them, it is horrible.

Genesis 3:16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
Source (biblegateway.com)

Your white washed quotes won't ever cover up the shame of religion against women.

Thanks for sticking up for us, Kratos. Have you ever read about the sins of Eve and what the church would do the women? And what would happen to the child if it was deemed that the mother did not suffer enough? Sick sick priests back then.

whatever creed people followed before christ, the messiah changed the rules. women were the first to see the resurected christ, and have been estimated to populate 60% of the early church.

So, the suffering the women were expected to go through is acceptable because of Jesus? That is not an incentive to be Christian IMO.

Teen bride in Jeffs trial says before wedding, she felt like she was 'getting ready for death'

ST. GEORGE, Utah (Court TV) - A woman wiped away tears on the witness stand Friday as she described the "horror and despair" she felt the night before her arranged marriage to a first cousin conducted by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.

"I kept thinking that I was getting ready for death," testified the woman, who was 14 years old when Jeffs' father, then the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), said God told him she was to marry a 19-year-old first cousin. "I felt trapped and betrayed."

A few days before the wedding, the woman said, she met with Jeffs and his father, Rulon Jeffs, to try to convince them to change their minds.

"I didn't want to defy him, but I was asking for at least two years, or to find someone who wasn't my cousin," the woman, now 21, testified before a packed courtroom in Jeffs' trial on charges that he forced her to marry and have sex with her husband against her will.

More of the article here: Link

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It's great that people always quote passages like this to show that women are being discriminated against, all the while ignoring the very next verse/s

Genesis 3:17-19 - To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it" Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." (same source as yours).

If you're going to quote a punishment given to one person, you should quote it all. Your half-quote quotes won't ever cover up your lack of contextual quoting

Thanks for quoting the whole section so no part was out of context. That being said, I do not think anything in the verses you gave counter-acts this line: "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." It sounds exactly like what Jeffs was teaching the girls. "Your purpose in life is to do the will of your husband, who is your leader."

^I should have clarified. My reason for quoting the next few verses of Genesis 3 was to point out that women are not being singled out here for special treatment - both men and women were punished. So you are probably correct here in your statement, but in relation to this issue, it also counteracts what Ephesians says about how husbands are to relate to their wives (Husbands, Love your wives). Just looking over this court case, and the fear that the women have, I do not get any impression that the men are living up to their end of the marriage bargain.

And it's not just any kind of "Love". This is the same Love that Jesus held for the body of believers. He didn't Lord it over them and set himself up as master and commander, keeping women in servitude. Jesus, though he was God, became a servant to all, eventually giving up his very own life to save us all. That is the instruction in Ephesians on how husbands are to treat their wives.

In this sense, the concept of Headship does not mean dominance over the woman, and the concept of submission does not mean servility for women. I agree that when used incorrectly, these laws can be used to subjugate women, but it should not be so. When looked at correctly and applied to our lives correctly, it doesn't lead to objectifying women as this court case is showing can happen.

Thank you for pointing that out, I should have been clearer the first time

~ Regards, PA

Forgive me if I misunderstood, but if you think it is members of the Mormon (LDS) church you are mistaken. The people responsible for modern day polygamy are members of tiny offshoot sects.

The LDS church has around 13-14 million members. These sects have 5000 members if lucky.
The Mormon (LDS) church strictly forbids the practice of polygamy.



I do not think there are any officially recognized judges anywhere who are polygamists. The same is most likely true of Sheriffs...and if there are Sheriffs who are, its like 1 or 2. These polygamists live in tiny little villages in remote/semi remote places. They don't have official police forces for the most part.

So what if both were punished? This thread is about the mistreatment of women and that quote showed it. This thread isn't about the punishment as you so dearly want it to be. There is no need for me to post the other quotes from the thread, therefore with the arguement at hand, it's not out of context. That's just your silly way of trying to take this thread off-topic.


Child bride wanted to preserve 'eternal salvation,' court told

ST. GEORGE, Utah (CNN) -- A reluctant child bride told a Utah jury Friday that she was trying to preserve her "eternal salvation" when she obeyed a command by polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs to marry her cousin at age 14.

Referred to in court as Jane Doe, the young woman was married in a 2001 religious ceremony officiated by Jeffs to the cousin, then 19. She said she disliked him because he once had sprayed her with a water hose on a freezing day.

"I preferred to stay away from him," she said.

Later, miserable in her marriage, she testified she sought a meeting with Jeffs, and she told him she couldn't see herself having a family with her husband and "could not do what they expected me to do." She begged to be released from the marriage, she said.

But Jeffs told her she needed to repent and to "go home and give myself to [my husband]," she testified, and he gave her a book of teachings.

More of the article here: Link

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And people say religious brainwashing isn't harmful to children...

It was a lot more recent than back then. Even in the 19th and early 20th centuries many doctors still thought it was wrong to give women pain killers during childbirth because God wanted women to suffer.

I realise I didn't fully address the issue in my post. I was not attempting to drag the thread off topic, I just didn't give a full and proper response, which is my fault, and I apologise for that. My later post (I hope) qualified any issue and brought it squarely back on topic with a biblical response to why what these people were doing is wrong and how using Genesis 3:16 is not an excuse to mistreat or subjugate women.

OK, before saying anything, you shold get some clarification. These scet call THEMSELVES Mormons. I know they are not LDS, LDS kicked them out. And watch a few episodes of American Justice on A&E, then tell me that there are only one or two sherriffs in Utah/Nevada that are polygamists. I have researched a tonne on this subject since I lived so close to one of the communes. When Jeffs took over as prophet, Winston Blackmore wanted to gain that standing. Since he didn't, there are now two different sects in Creston. Some followed Jeffs, and the other half followed Balckmore. Check out hte links I put in a previous posting so that you can get more information on what is going on here. There are a lot more issues than what is in the papers.

I posted some articles a couple of years ago about this freak; I found one.

link

The source that was twisted and distorted to empower people to rule over others? I agree. But his teachings are not Biblical.

Freak is a good description What I really wonder is if any of these so called 'prophets' actually believe what they force on others or is it all for power and their own perversions?

Make an example of this b******, please, US legal system. Absolutely the best thing to do to get people mobilized to stop this kind of open flouting of statutory rape laws is for Warren Jeffs to be repeatedly dragged through the mud before being sentenced to the maximum possible time between bars. Hopefully, when he gets out, all of his wives (and like any good lecherous baboon, he took many of the prettiest young women when he came to power, hence why there are always young men getting kicked out) will either be free or out of his control.

Actually it is. Your own little spin on it doesn't cover up the last 2,000 years of male dominated religious beliefs.

As for being off-topic, this thread isn't even about mainstream christianity... It was only brought up by Skim Milky and I replied quickly. This is more on mormonism then anything, that is a off shoot from mainstream cults to form their entirely new and crazed cult.

This is being used to critize awful immoralities that religion preaches and breeds because of their backwards ignorance and hateful ways. Many of those people in the community were raised there and forced to stay and were made to due to brainwashing by religion. How sick is it to tell a child that they'll be suffering damnation if they don't follow?

Child bride says she never cried 'rape'

ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) -- A young woman who said she was forced to enter an arranged marriage at age 14 testified Monday that she never complained to her mother or sisters that she was being raped.

"I never told anyone," the woman, now 21, said during cross-examination at the trial of polygamous-sect leader Warren Jeffs.

Jeffs, president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is charged with two counts of rape as an accomplice.

Prosecutors say he used his influence to push the girl into a ceremonial marriage with a 19-year-old cousin in 2001 and force her to have sex.


More of the article here: Link

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Hmm...She's still a child... 14... Gotta love believers justifying rape.

make you sick to the stomach don't it?

This Jeffs fellow as well as the woman victim are not even mormons, but come from a little-known and tiny offshoot of mormonism. I'd say whether true or false, a good representation or a bad one, their religion is Christianity, however.

Want to debate it?

^ No. I get were you're coming from.

Spurned husband testifies for polygamist 'prophet'

ST. GEORGE, Utah (CNN) -- The spurned husband whose arranged marriage is at the center of the rape-accomplice charges against polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs took the witness stand to defend his prophet on Wednesday.

Allen Steed, 26, told the jury he did everything he could think of to make his 2001 marriage to a 14-year-old cousin work. That included seeking the advice of Jeffs, then second-in-command of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS.

He said his bride, known in court as Jane Doe, was affectionate to him in private, but cold in public. He denied that he or Jeffs had forced sex on his bride, although he did acknowledge exposing himself to her in a park and being surprised when she took offense.

"I could tell by her actions that she was surprised and I offended her." At that point, Jane Doe, her husband and one of her lawyers got up and walked out of the courtroom.

More of the article here: Link

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I think the article speaks for it's self.

Found this on CNN for those who don't think that the police and such are involved in this:


There is more.

Polygamist leader convicted in Utah

ST. GEORGE, Utah - The leader of a polygamous Mormon splinter group was convicted Tuesday of being an accomplice to rape for performing a wedding between a 19-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl.

Warren Jeffs, 51, could get life in prison after a trial that threw a spotlight on a renegade community along the Arizona-Utah line where as many as 10,000 of Jeffs' followers practice plural marriage and revere him as a mighty prophet with dominion over their salvation.

Jeffs, like his 15 followers in the courtroom, stood stoically as the verdict was read.

Prosecutors said Jeffs forced the girl into marriage and sex against her will.

More of the article here: Link

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A blow to religion and a stand for decency, human rights and progress.