The Price of Polygamy
 
Posted by lsaintcrow
God & Consequences
 
I've written a lot about Warren Jeffs lately. The 'prophet' of the FLDS makes a good story, between his nutty ideas on women and his fanatical pursuit of money- and the security cameras on the cinderblock wall around his house. (By the way, he's probably retreated to Texas to avoid the gathering storm.)

Yet there's something else about Warren Jeffs I haven't written about: the cost of his practice of 'casting out' members of his community. A great many of these castaways are teenage boys, thrown out in some cases with only the shirts on their backs- and told to go out into a world they have been raised to fear.

"These are just a few of the boys who've been told to leave or left on their own," Steed said. "Many had nowhere to go, no food to eat. Some of them were kicked out with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and with the understanding they would be destroyed [by God]."

The boys have been exploited, victimized and discarded, deprived of basic educations and threatened with eternal damnation, Fischer said. (Salt Lake Tribune)

One was thrown out because he spoke to non-churchmembers and watched Charlie's Angels. One wanted to go to public school after Jeffs handed down an edict barring any kind of schooling but homeschooling.

Some kids end up at the homes of older siblings who have been kicked out. Others end up at halfway houses run by other kicked-out FLDS members. And a great many of them end up on the street.

It seems the parents are willing, and in some cases eager, to kick out their kids. It seems incredible that in the United States, the land of Amber Alerts and America's Most Wanted, children could be thrown away like this- over 400 young boys kicked out because a self-declared prophet wants to keep the marriage pool nice and safe for his buddies.

The worst sin, though - the one for which most are banned - is simply becoming a mature young man in a society where older married men are seeking younger brides.

"People from outside this region are amazed that this has gone on for so long," said Jonathan Krakauer, author of Under the Banner of Heaven, a book that brought national attention to the FLDS lifestyle.

"This is a pocket of an absolute tyrant who rules the lives of 10,000 people and seems to take pleasure in destroying families." (AZ Central)

I wrote not too long ago that Jeffs should be careful of excommunicating people- that soon there would be no-one left to adore him. Hearing about these children makes me wish and pray that day comes very soon.
 
storyhunters.com
Originally posted August 2, 2004
 
Back