| Life in the Creek | |||||
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By Patrice St. Germain patrices@thespectrum.com | |||||
(EDITOR'S NOTE - This is the second installment of a two-part series on the young men and women who either leave or are asked to leave the twin cities of Hildale and Colorado City a community made up of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The names have been changed to protect the identities of those who shared their stories.) HURRICANE - Since the community once known as Short Creek was settled in the early 1930s, the twin cities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale have been through turmoil, from a 1953 raid where all the men practicing polygamy were rounded up and arrested to the recent hunt for the community's religious leader Warren Steed Jeffs, which ended a year ago. The community, made up of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has had five primary leaders. Until recently, the community, although different by many people's standards, lived, worked and worshiped together as a whole. The FLDS church, which claims polygamy as one of its tenets, is not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which denounced polygamy in 1890. Yet changes in church leadership brought about changes in the community and many, reportedly judged unworthy in the eyes of Jeffs, were told to leave. In a sense those - especially the young people - who either choose or are told to leave, are caught between two worlds and struggle when forced to adapt to life outside of Hildale and Colorado City. Born and raised in Hildale, Lacey's parents separated when she was 7. Her mother left the community and lived in St. George and Salt Lake City. Lacey shuttled back and forth through the invisible barrier that separates the rest of the world from the two cities that straddle the Utah and Arizona borders. She had trouble fitting in when she was in Hildale because she wore pants, bangs, jewelry - all frowned upon by the FLDS community - and shunned the traditional braided hairdos that most of the women in the twin cities of Hildale and Colorado City wear. Lacey said she remembers being in church one day when they were told the end of the world was near. "I remember being so scared," Lacey said. "The religion was based on a lot of fear." She said her mother reassured her, but Lacey said at times she was sick to her stomach from fear. But despite the fears from the church preaching, Lacey remembers what the community was like before Jeffs took over. There were community activities - parades, dances and group dinners after work projects. "When Warren and his father (Rulon) came down, there were a lot of new restrictions," she said. Matt agreed. Raised in the Salt Lake City area and a student of Alta Academy where Warren Jeffs was once the principal, Matt agreed that life changed as Rulon Jeffs, Warren's father, grew older and weaker and Warren replaced him as head of the church. "We used to play paintball and we were told we couldn't do that and no more touch football," Matt said. Kevin, who was also raised in Salt Lake and attended Alta Academy, said there was not only a marked change in the community when the Jeffs family moved to Colorado City, there was also a change in Warren Jeffs. Kevin said in school, the students were taught a lot of church history and religion, but he said Jeffs was a "cool" principal. Matt said Jeffs used to play soccer with the kids at the school and also led the students on hikes. As Warren Jeffs took over from his father as the leader, the residents were given less freedoms and families didn't mingle as they did in the past. Some of the men were told to leave the community, leaving behind their wives and children, Kevin said. Matt's family no longer lives in the community but is still part of the FLDS church. Although he still sees his family, it is not on any regular schedule nor is his relationship with his family the same. Kevin said he recently went to visit his mother and sisters and while he was there, all was well. He was told that after he left, they all prayed. Marc said he grew up happy in the twin cities and, at least in his family, did not witness any spousal or child abuse. "My childhood was a Utopia," Marc said. He was happy, not abused, and like other kids, rebelled against going to his violin lessons. Holidays, with the exception of Christmas, were celebrated, but there were some strange restrictions as well. Red was a color not worn by members of the FLDS religion and some symbols were frowned upon. Clothing with any type of writing or logos was forbidden and Kevin said even as time went on, the long-sleeved shirts the men and boys wore turned more to solid color, button-down shirts, eliminating polo pullovers and stripes. Sex, drugs and alcohol - all topics that are often hard for parents to talk to the children about - were non-existent for youth in the twin cities. Kevin said he gained knowledge about sex through the Internet and books and Lacey said many kids didn't know anything about sex until they were married. Once, girls and boys mingled and even danced together, but as Warren Jeffs gained a foothold in the community boys and girls - outside of families - no longer related to each other. "Boys were told not to greet them (girls) or look at them," Lacey said. "Basically, they were told to treat girls like poisonous snakes - be respectful of them but stay away." Lacey, a young mother with a 2-year-old, considers herself lucky that she no longer is involved with the community. One of her sisters, married at 15, already has four children at the age of 22. Kevin said one of the reasons he left was because he was afraid of getting "assigned" a wife. "My first fear was I would get married to an ugly girl," Kevin said. Even before his death, Rulon Jeffs' power was slipping away to his son, Warren, and life for those living in the community became harder. "Exiles always happen," Marc said of the religion. Originally, church services were held every Sunday and lasted two hours. But services, Marc said, were discontinued about eight years ago. He said after the formal church services ended, his father did the teaching and that even at the Saturday work meetings, there were still church lessons. While there was always a buffer between the twin cities and the "rest of the world," Marc said the community was not isolated to events happening outside Short Creek. Marc said he knew of the events happening on Sept. 11, 2001, when a relative informed him war had been declared on the United States. The family, he said, went to his grandmother's house to watch the events unfold on television. Members of the FLDS community tend to avoid the "rest of the world" not out of fear, but because they see it as "wicked and perverse," Marc said. "You can be in the world but not of the world," Marc explained. Marc said the next generation of FLDS faithful living in Texas may grow up with little interaction with the outside world and instead, remain in a secluded environment. Marc said stories about church leader Warren Jeffs most likely will be portrayed in a favorable manner, just like the raid of 1953 was explained to him: That the government was wrong. Trying to explain the beliefs and the lives of those living in the twin cities is difficult and Marc said the more you try and understand, the more confusing it is. "Don't try and understand it," Marc said of the lives of the FLDS members. "You'll get lost in it." | |||||
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TheSpectrum.com Originally published August 19, 2007 | |||||
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