Letter: Barlow has right to lead
 
By Jane Zhang
jzhang@thespectrum.com
 
ST. GEORGE -- An anonymous letter believed to be from the excommunicated Barlows appeared in the Colorado City area on Tuesday, saying the eldest Barlow brother has "received the mantle of the prophet."

"Behold, these children are pure in blood and hold the birthright to this sacred valley," reads a copy of the letter obtained by The Spectrum. Louis Barlow, it says, has been commanded to "forsake his birthright no more, that his time remaining quiet has passed."

Louis Barlow, along with his brothers Joe, Dan and Nephi, was one of about 20 men ousted Saturday from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Reading from what he said was a revelation from God, Warren Jeffs, the prophet since Sept. 2002, stripped the men of their priesthood, their wives and children and their right to live in town, according to a source who attended the meeting at the Leroy S. Johnson Meeting House.

While the evictions were widely seen as a power struggle between Colorado City's most powerful family and the prophet, the Barlow brothers have remained out of the public eye.

Dan Barlow, Colorado City's mayor of 19 years and a longtime unofficial spokesman for the FLDS church, didn't attend Monday's City Council meeting, where his one-sentence resignation letter was announced to the council.

Benjamin Bistline, a polygamy historian who has self-published a book about the history of Colorado City, said the anonymous letter, apparently written by one of the Barlows, signaled "a significant turn" in the most recent shake-up inside the FLDS church, which, as an offshoot of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, still teaches polygamy as a central tenet.

"It's significant to me because it's paving the way for them to make the claim that they are the ones who should be in control of the church, of the town," said Bistline, who received the letter dated Jan. 11, but without names or return address, in his mailbox.

Many people, he predicted, will support the Barlows rather than Warren Jeffs, who has ruled as "a tyrant." Jeffs, who had an 8-foot wall built around his compound, has recently set up new rules, including forbidding members to talk to anyone outside the religion, even their family members.

The Barlows are "a lot easier for people to follow than Warren Jeffs," he said. "They are just more lenient. They are not vicious." After all, Bistline said, "the city, the whole thing" is their heritage.

Colorado City, formerly Short Creek, was founded in 1935 by John Y. Barlow, Bistline said. He established the United Order, later the United Effort Plan, fostering a polygamous enclave, which later became known as the FLDS Church. The church now has about 10,000 members in the border towns of Colorado City and Hildale, Bistline said.

John Y. Barlow, who died in 1949, chose his protégé, Leroy Johnson, as the prophet, who reigned until his death in 1986, Bistline said. Johnson was succeeded by Rulon Jeffs, who died in 2002, and now his son Warren Jeffs.

But many of the Barlow family, which has about 4,000 members, occupied important positions both in church and in civil matters. With third wife Martha Jessop, John Y. Barlow fathered four daughters and eight sons: Louis, now about 80, Joe, Dan, Alma, Truman, Sam, Alvin and Nephi.

"They are related to everybody in the valley by marriage, by extended family," Bistline said. While the Barlows followed the prophets, he said, "they are just waiting for the chance to take over. They are just playing the game."

Dan Barlow, who was believed to have left Colorado City, didn't return The Spectrum's page Tuesday for comment about the anonymous letter. Calls made to FLDS Church attorney Rodney Parker's office Tuesday night were not returned.

Bob Curran, founder of Help the Child Brides in St. George, an agency that targets abuses in the polygamous culture, said he was not surprised that Louis Barlow was chosen to be the prophet.

"You can almost picture all the Barlow brothers huddled around a table composing this letter," he said. "It is obviously meant to win the hearts and minds of the people to their side and away from Warren Jeffs."

Coming after months of an intensified power struggle since the dedication of a monument to the 1953 Short Creek Raid, the power split has set anti-polygamists and law enforcement officers on guard. As in previous excommunication cases, women and children fear that they would be "assigned" to other men.

On Sunday morning, Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan deployed a squad, including four deputies and a canine unit, from Kingman to Colorado City. For as long as needed, Sheahan said, the armed, uniformed officers will patrol the town 24 hours a day as "a prevention measure."

Since Saturday, a deputy from Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith's office has also been patrolling the neighboring town of Hildale. Smith said he would stay until at least the end of the week.

With the unidentified letter circulating, Smith said, law enforcement officers will "continue to watch." But he would not speculate on what would happen next. As "a community that's veiled in secrecy," he said, the Colorado City-Hildale area has proved hard to deal with.

"If they want to split, then that's their business," Smith said. "As long as no crime is committed, that's not my business."
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published Wednesday, January 14, 2004
 
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