Shouldn't we expect just a bit more honesty from God's one true church?
 
The Eldorado Success
 
Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have been taught by their prophets for generations that they represent the one true church of God. The prophets knew this because that same God had told them so, personally.

He, and that's a He with a capital "H," also told the prophets that the practice of plural marriage is not only approved, but required.

The idea of plural marriage, or polygamy as it's better known here, seems a bit odd to many of us, but to the members of the FLDS it is a principal about which there is no room for compromise. In fact, when the leaders of the Mormon Church, the original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, bowed to pressure from Washington, D.C. and gave up the practice of plural marriage so that Utah could be admitted to the Union, the forefathers of the current FLDS turned their collective backs on their brethren, and their sistern, too.

Please, if it seems as if I am demeaning the FLDS, or the LDS for that matter, over their religious beliefs, I hope you will understand that I mean no disrespect. I only inject a little humor here because some of these things are so serious that laughing is the only way to keep from crying.

For years, nay, for decades, the FLDS stayed well below the radar and out of the national limelight. Stories of plural marriage, even the forced plural marriages of underage girls to vastly older men, a practice that many allege is routine within today's FLDS, attracted scant attention outside the boundaries of Utah and Arizona. Even a news junkie like me was shocked to learn that the practice of plural marriage is so widespread.

I do remember reading not too long ago that a Utah man named Tom Green had been convicted of polygamy, or was it child rape...and that wee bit of random news probably caught hold in my brain only because the county to the north of Eldorado is also named Tom Green.

So, when we were told that a local ranch had been purchased by a Utah man who planned to build a corporate hunting retreat, the idea seemed plausible. But, when the first photos of the place came to light, the whole thing began to smell a little fishy.

When Flora Jessop came to Eldorado in late March, and brought the blinding glare of the national spotlight with her, the only people who continued to cling to the thought that the YFZ Ranch was going to be a hunting retreat were the YFZ officials themselves, but even they didn't believe it. Still, they kept up with the charade even in the face of incontrovertible evidence to the contrary.

Well, last week the group finally came clean. No, the YFZ isn't going to be a hunting retreat, and no, it isn't owned by David Allred. It's owned by the FLDS, always was, and it will soon be home to a couple of hundred FLDS members. That's if the current story can be believed.

If I seem overly cautious, I'm sorry. My otherwise trustful nature has been sorely tested in recent weeks.

Call me a cynic, but I can't help it. After dozens and dozens of attempts to get anyone associated with the FLDS to comment on the record, I've grown tired of their claims that they won't talk to a newspaper because newspapers can't be trusted to tell the truth.

Sorry, but in the light of the YFZ hunting retreat fiasco, the thought that the FLDS questions anyone's truthfulness is absurd.
 
MyEldorado.net
Originally published May 6, 2004
 
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