Don't know how much you've been following the trial, but Warren Jeffs was sentenced this week. I'll be honest, I've not followed the legal proceedings very closely, but I have come across the powerful stories of girls & women who grew up in this community- this small corner of Arizona real estate- trapped and afraid of what much older man they would some day be married off to. The compelling stories were ones of escape and banishment. The way they grew up, taught outright that their only hope for the future is to be one of many wives of a man chosen for them, and seeing their mothers disrespected and downtrodden, made them fear being married off.
This hyper-patriarchal FLDS society is finally coming to light with the Jeffs trial. Hopefully this will allow more women to speak up, and leave a life of fear and abuse, and spare their children the same fate. I've been reading about conservative Christian (not FLDS) groups that, while they obviously don't practice polygamy, have somewhat similar attitudes toward the value and purpose of women in society, and it is heartbreaking.
But more on that later.
4 comments:
Being from Utah (but not LDS), this post was of interest to me. I will point out, however, that many Mormons would take offense at your use of the term Mormon and polygamist/FLDS as synonyms ("the hyper-patriarchal Mormon society...."). An interesting blog to read is blogs.sltrib.com/plurallife. Also, just as sidenote, a polygamist girl volunteered at my work today. Her name? Alissa Wall (the same as Jeffs' accuser). The coincidence was almost too much!
It should be made clear that the The FLDS sect has no connection to the Church of Jesus Chrust of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church)a/k/a "Mormons". The FLDS has never had any ties to the LDS or Mormon Church. The FLDS sect is not a splinter group of the LDS or Mormon Church. The LDS or Mormon Church does not practice polygamy and if any member did, he or she would be ex-communicated. The FLDS took a name similar to the Chruch of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in order to benefit from their good name and reputation.
You are both correct, and I recognize the mistake. I edited the post to more clearly differentiate.
Wow. Glad your commentors were nice, well-bred folks. I did not know that about the FLDS. How could they use the name if they weren't in any way related?
Post a Comment