I haven’t written about or even heard much about the FLDS in quite some time now, and have been considering just putting this particular blog on standby, as I haven’t had time to do much with it.  We’ve spent the last few months relcating to a more remote location and I’ve not had time sufficient to pay much attention. 

However, last night I was listening to a lecture from the Witherspoon School of Law & Public Policy 2008, entitled “The State of Parental Rights in Light of the Texas Polygamy Case” (highly recommended), and wondering about the real motivations behind the raid on the FLDS in Eldorado.   It is quite obvious to anyone with half a brain that the health, safety and welfare of those children were NOT the main concern of CPS.  What was, exactly? 

This morning I read at  Occidental Dissent the following:

National Geographic has written a relatively balanced and comprehensive article on the FLDS (Fundamentalist Mormon) communities throughout the American Southwest. They’re explicitly racial, have one of the highest fertility rates in the world, are completely self-sufficient, and leverage media and technology in defense of tradition and family rather than against it. The government and the media are becoming increasingly concerned about and focused on Latter-Day Saint movement for good reason: it poses the last credible threat to their hegemony in the West.

Interesting.  We have with the FLDS a basic tribal structure (RESILIENT COMMUNITY ?), which is ideologically opposed to and operating independently of (to the best of their abilities I’ll assume) the dominant corporate state system, whose religion is secular humanism.  Thus, the FLDS are understandably persecuted by that system.  You may wonder how I say that this is understandable.  I did not say it is right, simply understandable.  I’ll quote Rushdoony here, from his introduction to The Institutes of Biblical Law Vol. I.

Fifth, there can be no tolerance in a law-system for another religion.  Toleration is a device used to introduce a new law-system as a prelude to a new tolerance.  Legal positivism, a humanistic faith, has been savage in it’s hostility to the Biblical law-system and has claimed to be an “open” system.  But Cohen, by no means a Christian, has aptly described the logical positivists as “nihilists” and their faith as “nihilistic absolutism.”  Every law-system must maintain it’s existence by hostility to every other law-system and to alien religious foundations, or else it commits suicide.

I guess I return to the same conclusions I had reached before, but feel as though it is incomplete.  Regardless, the idea of persecution by the state is something for those of us who are rebuilding the tribes from the ground up to strongly consider.  Contingency plans are needed.

However you look at it, all of those FLDS children who were kidnapped by the State of Texas will most probably be scarred for life by the State’s actions, and have most certainly lost their innocence for good.  Even though I do not share their theological perspectives, I still pray for healing, in their hearts and in their homes. 

The British Columbia Supreme Court is expected to consider in 2010 whether laws prohibiting polygamy are in conflict with Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, The Globe and Mail reported Monday. The case will likely affect religious and immigrant groups across Canada that accept polygamy as a way of life, the newspaper said.

Source/Full Story: breitbart.com

The leader of a northern Arizona-based polygamous sect who has been convicted in Utah and is charged in Texas is expected to stand trial in Kingman some time next year.

Sexual conduct occurring through arrangements of unions involving underage girls and male adults is the common theme premise in each of the tri-state prosecutions of Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS).

Hearings in the Arizona case against Jeffs, 53, have occurred months apart in the near two-year period he’s been awaiting trial in the Mohave County jail. That doesn’t mean attorneys aren’t working the case.

“I wouldn’t look at it that way,” said Mohave County attorney Matt Smyth. “I think that the defense in this case is being paid an extraordinary amount of money to turn over every rock and to look at every possible angle in the case, and we’ve actually done more witness interviews in this matter than in any other case I’ve ever been involved in.”

Jeffs does not qualify for indigent representation, and Smith said church donations are financing his defense team that includes Richard Wright of Las Vegas and Mike Piccarreta of Tucson.

Piccarreta agrees that pretrial preparation has been exhaustive. Piccarreta, however, is building a defense that big money flowing from a former FLDS member who is trying to take down the church is possibly fueling the prosecution of Jeffs and civil litigation against the FLDS.

Source/Full Story: Standard-Times

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office says liquidating a property trust set up by a polygamous community may be the best way to save it.

The United Effort Plan Trust owns most of the property in the twin communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., as well as Bountiful, British Columbia, in Canada. The trust was created in 1942 by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a breakaway Mormon group.

In a motion filed with Judge Denise Lindberg in Utah, Arizona officials asked her to start a six-month investigation by the attorney general’s offices of both states. In court papers, officials suggested liquidation might be the best way to safeguard the UEP’s remaining assets.

Utah moved for a takeover four years ago, saying that would protect residents of Hildale, Colorado City and Bountiful from losing their homes because of lawsuits against the FLDS. But there is now new litigation involving the court-appointed trustee and his actions.

Source/Full Story: UPI.com

Winston Blackmore of Bountiful, B.C. has made “one prediction” for the coming year for “responsible persons that deliberately break up families”: “This year will be the beginning of your end.”

Blackmore won a court victory in September when B.C. Supreme Court Judge Sunni Stromberg-Stein threw out a charge of criminal polygamy against him and Jim Oler.

Source/Full Story: The Hook

A jury in Schleicher County, Texas, said polygamist Allan Eugene Keate will spend 33 years in prison for sexually assaulting a child.

The San Angelo (Texas) Standard-Times said the jury’s sentence on Thursday came after the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints member was convicted of assaulting a 15-year-old girl he claimed as his bride.

State prosecutor Angela Goodwin said during Keate’s trial that Keate, 57, and his teenage victim appeared before FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs and the victim was told to remain close with Keate.

“She offered up just a little bit of resistance, and that was squashed,” Goodwin said of the victim, whose identity was not released. Keate also fathered a child with the teenage girl.

The Standard-Times said defense attorney Randy Wilson attempted to portray his client’s actions as those of a man whose religious beliefs allowed him to have multiple wives in service of God.

“Does this sound like a pedophile, or does it sound like a man devoted to God,” Wilson asked the jury during the trial.

Source/Full Story: UPI.com

…
Jeffs’ attorney, Mike Piccarreta, argued to have Superior Court Judge Steven Conn order Sam Brower and Dr. Dan Fischer for another deposition. Brower and Fischer were previously interviewed by Piccarreta but refused to answer certain questions. Brower is a private investigator who has worked with the Mohave County Attorney’s Office. Fischer is a dentist and former member of the FLDS, who Piccarreta says funds an anti-polygamist campaign against his client.

Piccarreta is asking for Brower and Fischer to answer more questions related to conversations between the men and Jeffs’ accusers, Elissa Wall and Suzie Barlow. The defense attorney said Fischer and Diversity Foundation have poured millions of dollars into a campaign against the FLDS church.

The defense is entitled to communication between Wall and Barlow and Hoole & King, a Salt Lake City law firm, through Fischer. Piccarreta also said Brower was an informant for the FBI and would also not talk about conversations with law enforcement in previous interviews.
…
“I smell a rat,” Piccarreta said. “Elissa Wall has received so much money. I want to show that she’s biased against my client.”

Source/Full Story: Mohave Daily News