| Cruel America-Hating Cult of 6,000, Controls Town in Arizona | |||
| The National Enquirer | |||
A cult-run town where the incestuous rape of underage girls is not uncommon flourishes in the Southwest desert-and your tax dollars are helping to pay for it! The American hating cult of more than 6,000 people completely controls the town of Colorado City, which straddles the Utah-Arizona broader 30 miles north of the Grand Canyon. And “Prophet” Warren Jeffs completely controls the cult. “The people in Colorado City are worse than the Taliban,” said Bob Curan of Help the Child Brides, A Saint George, Utah, organization dedicated to wiping out the abuses in Colorado City. “Having forced sex with your own daughter is not that unusual in Colorado City. This is an absolute nightmare situation and Americans need to know this culture is of violence is funded by their tax dollars.” An Enquirer investigation into the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints — more commonly known as United Effort Plan (UEP) — found that the cult thrives because it bilks millions of dollars in welfare for “single” mothers who are, in fact spiritually married. Many of the men in Colorado City have five of more “wives” and when the young women have children they qualify for welfare because in the eyes of the law they are still single mothers. “These undereducated women are raised to believe that prophet Warren Jeffs is the absolute authority in the world,” Rick Ross, and expert on cults, told The Enquirer. In his explosive new book, "Under the Banner of Heaven", Author Jon Kraukauer reveals that the U.S. government dumps nearly $6 million a year in welfare grants on the small town. The church preaches that it’s proper to take government money, Kraukauer writes, because UEP members alone are the Lord’s chosen people and defrauding the government is considered a virtuous act they call “bleeding the beast.” As in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan before the U.S. liberated the county, residence of Colorado City are forbidden to watch TV, read books or newspapers or have contact with outsiders. And Flora Jessop, who fled the cult 16 years ago, said they share one more key trait with the Taliban: both were overjoyed by the attacks of Sept 11, 2001. “They celebrated on 9-11. To them it was a sign if end times when they will be called to heaven while the rest of us go to hell. To them it was very much a reason for celebration.” Jessop, 34, grew up in Colorado City as one of 28 children in a polygamist family. At 14 she ran away to file sexual abuse charges against her father, but officials returned her and the church ordered her confined to the home of an uncle. “I was still rebellious when I turned 16 so the church said I could either marry a guy they’d picked out for me – one of my uncle’s son’s --- or be committed to a state mental hospital,” Jessop Said “I said I’d get married but ran away the first chance I got. I was lucky I got out.” Her younger sister Ruby wasn’t so lucky. She was 14 when she was forced into a marriage with an older member of her extended family. Today Flora Jessop lives in Phoenix, and has founded Help the Child Brides. She has not spoken to Ruby in more then three years. Colorado City Mayor Dan Barlow, 70, is a practicing polygamist who was publicly supportive when his son Dan Jr., 52, was accused of molesting five of the mayor’s granddaughter’s ages 12 to 19, and plead guilty to one felony count of sexual abuse. Mayor Barlow pleaded for leniency on behalf of his son. A judge sentenced Barlow Jr. to time served plus seven years probation. Total jail time for the admitted child molester: 13 days. But in Utah, Ric Cantrell, a spokesperson for the state Attorney Generals office, told The Enquirer: “We are not going to tolerate child molestation and rape that is being done under the guise of religion.” Warren Jeffs and his church did not respond to Enquirer phone calls. Jessop added: "Jeffs says polygamy is part of his religion. But any religion that gives you the right to rape children is evil and should be banished, especially right here in America." | |||
|
NationalEnquirer.com Originally published September 3, 2003 | |||
| Back | |||
| For more information email: | |||
