plural marriage

Source: Salt Lake Tribune

Child welfare officials plan to ask a Texas judge to keep a 14-year-old FLDS girl in custody because her parents continue to be uncooperative.

Merril Jessop, the girl’s father and bishop of the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, remains in hiding and Barbara Jessop, her mother, has circumvented visitation rules on several occasions, a newly filed court document says.

It says that Barbara Jessop asked the state to let the girl’s younger brother or friends be allowed to join her in custody. She also asked that another daughter be allowed to trade places with the 14-year-old.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective services filed the report for a Sept. 25 status hearing before 51st District Judge Barbara Walther.

Walther ordered the state to take the girl, allegedly married at age 12 to sect leader Warren S. Jeffs, on Aug. 19. She is the only FLDS child in state custody and is in a foster home.

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Via the Salt Lake Tribune

Months after helping to send Warren S. Jeffs to prison, Elissa Wall is telling her story in a book she hopes will lead women and girls to leave his polygamous sect.
Stolen Innocence debuts amid a child custody battle in Texas involving the polygamous lifestyle and marriage practices of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Wall was traveling Tuesday to New York for an exclusive appearance on the “Oprah” show, according to Roger Hoole, her attorney.
She writes, however, that her goal is to help other young girls and women in the sect “cry out against injustice” and reclaim “the power of choice.”
The book’s fulcrum is Wall’s 2001 arranged marriage at age 14 – despite her objections – to her cousin Allen Steed, then 19.

Although I did look, I found no mention from CNN about the news late last week that the warrant issued for Dale E. Barlow was canceled. This type of news however, CNN can spin with great enthusiasm.

We all know that the FLDS practices polygyny, so this isn’t really “news” as much as is it…ummm, infotainment propaganda. Besides, no one at the YFZ Ranch is being accused of polygamy (that would be rather silly, now wouldn’t it), but crimes against children. Anyway, let’s not skip the latter parts of this story, and instead read them first:

No formal criminal charges have been filed in the case. The next court
hearing regarding the state’s custody of 463 sect children is set for
later this month.

Via CNN.com

In the secretive, illegal world of American polygamy, life has been good to 67-year-old Wendell Loy Nielsen of Eldorado, Texas.By his own account, Nielsen has 21 wives — and 36 children.

His oldest wife is 13 years older than he is, and his youngest wife is 43 years younger — she’s just 24.

His oldest child is 21 years old, and his youngest is a 6-month-old baby.

That’s one of the longer, single-family genealogies uncovered in a CNN review of the “Bishop’s List” — a series of documents listing the age, marital status, children and address of the members of the Yearning for Zion polygamist ranch in Eldorado, Texas.

The ranch is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon offshoot that practices polygamy.

The Bishop’s List was found among nearly 1,000 boxes of paperwork taken from the ranch by investigators who are considering child-abuse charges against some of the sect members.

If these numbers are accurate, the very act of placing all of these children in foster care is an abusive act, perpetrated by the State, and done under the guise of protection.

Watch the video of Dr. Phil being interviewed on Larry King Live.

I think we’re in a situation here that there is not necessarily a good option. Now, think about this: there are only a certain number of these children that were believed to be at risk. But, yet, all of the children were taken out and put into foster care.

Now, I’ve said this before, the statistics tell us that 73 percent of all children that go into foster care wind up on the street or in jail. So, that means that if you apply those numbers to these 416 children, 304 of them would be predicted to wind up on the street or in jail. Is that a good alternative? And I don’t think it is. And I don’t think that it makes sense to take all of the children out of this situation without doing a case-by-case study, to see which one of these children are at risk and which ones are not.

Now, clearly, the principles that seem to govern the FLDS would be imminent danger for these children. But somehow or another, you have to figure a way to train these people, create an open door policy, get monitoring, get access and try to get these children back with their biological mothers, but with protection, and monitoring.

Via 9NEWS

The hearing for a Colorado Springs woman who investigators think could have made a call that resulted in a massive raid on a Texas polygamist ranch has vacated her May 1 court date for unrelated charges.

Thirty-three-year-old Rozita Swinton is scheduled to be in court June 6 for a pre-trial conference in connection to an incident in February, according to the El Paso County Court Clerk’s office.

Police allege Swinton pretended to be a girl trapped in a basement. It prompted police to go door to door searching for the supposed victim.

Police arrested Swinton on April 16 for allegedly filing the February false police report

Here we have an opinion, and it’s rather interesting, when one considers the blatant errors in the “facts”, such as Warren Jeffs being convicted of rape…that is incorrect; or that he is facing “polygamist charges” in Arizona…that is incorrect also.  It makes one wonder what else is incorrect, other than the logic.

Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs is set to have his Arizona hearing on May 19.

Jeffs, 52, faces four counts of sexual conduct with a minor and four counts of incest. He is accused of arranging marriages between teenage girls and adult males in Utah and Arizona.

I don’t really see how being accused of underage incest marriages is anything more than a pretense considering he is a Fundamentalist LDS church leader and was already convicted of two counts of rape in Utah. I think I can pretty much say, without assumption, that he is guilty.

Opinion inFull

Without assumption, huh ? Whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty” ? For Megan, it obviously is “guilty, no need for further proof”… We wonder if she wished to have the same standard applied to her.

Well, it is obvious that she speaks without talking, therefore it is safe to assume that she is an uneducated twit whose opinion isn’t worth the electrons used to spread it. But for the sake of truth and justice we will comment more on her opinion later on anyhow.

Via the Deseret Morning News- Read the full story

BOUNTIFUL — The words stand out amid the signs for new houses and fast food.

“Escape polygamy.”

From Ogden to St. George, billboards are popping up in an evangelical Christian ministry’s efforts to reach out to those seeking to leave polygamy.

“It’s an awareness campaign for people to know that someone is there and to give them this number,” said Doris Hanson of A Shield & Refuge Ministries, which is behind the billboards.

Hanson is starting the campaign as part of her ministry’s efforts to reach out to people dealing with abuse and neglect in polygamous communities and provide help through provisions, education and prayer.

“We will provide anything we can to help someone leave,” she said in an interview with the Deseret Morning News.

A Shield & Refuge Ministries was born, in part, out of Hanson’s own experiences in polygamy, which she called “abusive emotionally.” Hanson said when she finally left the Kingston group in 1964, she had few people willing to help her.

Technorati Tags: polygamy, plural marriage, Winston Blackmore, FLDS, A Shield & Refuge Ministries

Heirs of dead man seeking inheritance from polygamous group

By Pamela Manson
The Salt Lake Tribune

“Heirs of a man who spent years working in a cooperative managed by the polygamous Kingston clan are asking a judge to order the group to turn over $1.2 million and two residences to them.
In a lawsuit filed last week in 3rd District Court, they claim the money and property belong in the estate of Deward John Peterson, who died in 1996 without a will.
According to nine of his heirs, Peterson – a member of the Davis County Cooperative Society and the religious order that holds plural marriage as a central tenet – transferred daily proceeds from a door-to-door fruit selling enterprise into an account run by cooperative and church leader Paul Kingston. In addition, he allegedly bought residential real estate in Woods Cross and Murray.
The descendants filed suit in 2003 asking to be identified as heirs. A judge determined that 21 people were heirs and on March 5 awarded an equal portion of Peterson’s estate to each one.
The latest suit, filed Friday, asks that a trustee be appointed to take charge of the money and property that allegedly belongs in the estate and to distribute the assets. In addition, it seeks unspecified monetary damages from the cooperative, its businesses and Paul Kingston.”

Faced with an uncooperative witness, Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith has asked that two of 10 charges against Warren Steed Jeffs be dismissed.

Smith said he received a letter from the attorney of alleged victim Candi Shapley saying she would not take the stand against the 52-year-old polygamist sect leader.

Smith told the Associated Press Monday that Shapley “does not want to have to deal with all the family and community pressures to be involved in this case. And that’s her decision, and I’m going to respect it and have always respected it.”

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Warren Jeffs, polygamy, flds

From the Houston Chronicle

PHOENIX — An Arizona prosecutor has filed a motion to dismiss two of 10 charges against polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs because the alleged victim refuses to testify.

Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith said Monday that he received a letter from Candi Shapley’s attorney explaining that she doesn’t want to take the stand against Jeffs.

“She does not want to have to deal with all the family and community pressures to be involved in this case,” Smith said. “And that’s her decision, and I’m going to respect it and have always respected it.”

Warren Jeffs, FLDS, polygamy , plural marriage

The following excerpts from worldontheweb.com, along with the corresponding comments, are yet another example of idiotic pseudo-christians condemning biblical plural marriage, without having the least bit of actual scriptural knowledge. I am very glad that I stopped trying to reason with such people years ago..these people hear and see what they wish to hear and see, and nothing more.

Some Christians are sloughing off the Bible’s “one wife” injunction and practicing polygamy. Thanks to the Internet, their search for superfluous spouses is getting easier.Mark Henkel, founder of Truthbearer.org, estimates that 50,000 Christians have become polygamists since the movement (unconnected to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) began around 12 years ago.

christian polygamy, plural marriage, polygyny

Polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs refused to answer any questions that might reunite a teen with his mother during a short interview at the Utah State Prison Thursday. Jeffs met with attorney Roger Hoole for about 10 minutes in the prison infirmary, where he was moved Feb. 19 after beginning a partial fast. Hoole represents Johnny Jessop, who sued Jeffs in hopes of being reunited with his mother, Elsie Jessop. The teen spoke with his mother several times after filing his lawsuit last year, but has had no contact with her since.

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Warren Jeffs, deposition, 5th amendment, FLDS, polygamy, plural marriage

“When Carolyn Jessop sums up the first 35 years of her life, she calls it a “horror story”.
But then beatings, polygamy and even child cruelty were part and parcel of her existence in the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints cult.”

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I have been actively involved in the christian plural marriage “movement” for a number of years now…since around 1998. I have heard the same arguments over and over again, and have been successful in defending the concept (it’s marriage!) from a scriptural perspective, without exception. It is this pool of experience that I draw from, and share with you the following.

One of the most interesting comments that has been made- and it has been made by numerous individuals, both male and female- is that while they come to realize that polygamy is not, contrary to popular opinion, condemned by the bible, and that at times it may even be commanded (think levirate marriage) they still insist that it’s “not for me.”

I would agree completely, that it is not something that just anyone should undertake, but the next part that inevitably follows is something to the effect that “I can’t understand why anyone would want more than one wife”, and is often accompanied by something akin to “I can’t even handle the one wife I already have!” This comes from the males of course.

I too have wondered why it is that some men (and women!) seem so hell bent on having a plurality of wives. I have a few ideas, but the most salient idea is as simple as…yep, you guessed it: Sex.

Often times, when you stumble across a christian family that is looking for a plural wife, what you find is a couple who is looking to add another wife to the family in order to increase the “love” for all parties involved. This is done under the banner of a rather liberal variant of christianity. They engage in intense bible studies that, interestingly enough, convince them that their initial impulses are actually biblically valid, that lesbianism is in fact not even treated within the pages of scripture, and  ultimately come to the conclusion that it is entirely acceptable for a christian family.

Afterwards this spiritual bolstering is complete, they end up searching high and low for any female who is willing to accept a plural marriage arrangement, and will, more often than not, compromise in any number of ways in order to make the situation work. And why not compromise? They have compromised already. Who knows, perhaps they will even begin a “ministry” to bisexual women, in order to help them in some fashion. Well, this motivation for plural marriage quite obviously includes bisexuality, and is forbidden in Yahweh’s law. You don’t need to look very hard in scripture to find prohibition against such iniquity, if you’re interested in knowing.

I say this with a certain degree of hesitation, because it is the #1 reason I hear from just about every opponent of plural marriage, (that it’s all about sex!) and although I resist the notion that it is true in every case, I think that, to a large degree, it is an accurate statement. How sad.

Another reason that tends to motivate couples to seek another wife is of an economic nature. They are looking for another income, a built-in babysitter, or perhaps another pair of hands to help chop the wood, plow the field, or milk the cows. Honestly, it has been my experience that these couples are lead by a man who has suffered some form of injury, and is either unable to work at all, or has significantly diminished income potential.  Hmmmmm…

Well, these are not good reasons in my opinion to engage in plural marriage.

So there you have it, in a nutshell: Sex and Money. Imagine that! These two things cause more trouble in a common marriage than anything else, and can only be compounded to disastrous levels within a plural arrangement that has, as its primary motivating force, sex or money.

Really, I wanted to get around to discussing our motivations for polygamy, but am running out of time, so I ask you to come back tomorrow for part II, which I will entitle “Kingdom Building.”

Safety Net effort targets polygamous communities
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News

After losing a federal grant to provide support for women and children grappling with abuse in polygamous communities, Utah’s attorney general plans to ask state lawmakers to help pay for it.
The coordinator of the Safety Net Committee possibly will be part of a larger appropriations package dealing with domestic violence and abuse. That may be the only way it could get through the Legislature, said Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem.
“If, in fact, it’s going to be strictly for the polygamous situation, they’re going to have a higher burden of proof,” Valentine said Thursday. “If it is for a … broader, general population, they will have a very favorable outcome.”

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