Yes, those Mormons are at it again. Why swap wives when you can have a few?
Religion and the law
A brewing storm
Oct 13th 2005 | COLORADO CITY
From The Economist print edition
An increasingly nasty battle between a strict polygamous sect and the state
THIS small Arizona town on the Utah border looks idyllic enough. Mountains loom behind it, tomatoes grow wild, and children trot past on pet ponies. But when Gary Engels, the Mohave County state investigator, does his morning rounds in Colorado City, drivers try to run him down, women in long skirts call him a bastard and small boys spit at him. “They hate me,” sighs the state investigator, dodging another truck.
Nothing quite like getting spat at by small boys.
Such hostility conveys the growing tension between the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), America's largest independent polygamist group, and outsiders. The 10,000-member sect dominates Colorado City and the neighbouring town of Hildale. In June, as a result of Mr Engels's snooping, the leader of FLDS, Warren Jeffs, was indicted on two charges to do with organising child-bride marriages; he fled immediately. Eight other members, who turned themselves in, face similar charges, which they deny.
10,000 members? Obey the law of God! Screw many and frequently!
What right does the law of man have to condemn such behavior!
Child brides? Oh please! People have been marrying off children for thousands of years! Glory be to God!
The FLDS used to be a rebel offshoot of the Mormon church. Its members believe they are the chosen people, Mr Jeffs is their prophet and everyone else is damned. Members also openly practise polygamy. This is illegal but there are no penalties cited in the Arizona constitution.
And if you are The Chosen People, why should you listen to the "not-so-Chosen People"?
The current dispute has to do with two different sets of former FLDS members. The first are the “lost boys”, disillusioned rebellious teenagers who have been ousted from the FLDS and dumped in towns such as Hurricane, Utah. They are the source of many of the accusations against Mr Jeffs. Lawyers in Salt Lake City, working on behalf of the young men, claim that Mr Jeffs forced families to kick them out and cite both emotional and physical abuse.
The second, equally embittered, group are older excommunicated property owners. Rather than moving away and “repenting from afar,” as FLDS leaders insist they should, these refuseniks have stuck around to reclaim their homes. All the homes and chattels of FLDS members belong to a United Effort Plan which holds the property in trust. Now state officials are trying to let former members reclaim “their” homes.
Meanwhile, another battle is raging in the Colorado City Unified School District. Teachers claim school funds were pilfered by FLDS leaders. The state has petitioned to put the district into receivership; the district is arguing back. A special state Board of Education meeting on October 20th will decide whether the FLDS can retain its financial control. And to put even more pressure on the city, Arizona's attorney-general has just announced a federal civil-rights review of the police department.
And so mixing law and politics becomes messy- until one side wins and the other loses.
There can be only one hegemon! And they have God on their side.
All this is making the FLDS fight for its life, says Benjamin Bistline, a local historian. Its members fear a repeat of the mass police raid of July 1953, where scores of men were arrested and children were separated from their parents.
Much like the raid on Innsmouth, MA in 1928.
Colorado City and Hildale have become very tense towns. FLDS homes are distinguished by huge fences and “No Trespassing” signs. Members separate themselves from non-members by their clothes: the men in long-sleeved shirts, the women in long dresses. Outsiders have never been particularly welcome anyway; Colorado City boasts no hotel, bar or café, just a post office, a corner shop and a tiny milk store.
Mr Engels is not the only harassed local. The teacher who revealed the alleged misuse of school funds wound up with his windows smashed. A couple who spoke to a television station last year had rubbish thrown on their driveway. Ousted children quiver before journalists lest their parents, who are still members, are punished. “This is like communism,” says Guy Johnson, a construction worker in Hurricane who left the group 20 years ago. “You leave penniless and alone because even your family turn on you.”
Commies and Christians!
CCR, you might be interested in noting that in Iran there has been a strange mix of Islam and Marxism. Who says they don't go together.
Even so, the exiles are fighting back. Enough lost boys returned over the summer for the North Mohave Community College's Colorado City campus to start a general education course designed to equip the ousted teenagers for the modern world. Most have been to a private school that teaches Mr Jeffs's beliefs.
The former homeowners meet fortnightly to work out their strategy. Andrew Chatwin was thrown out 15 years ago after confronting Mr Jeffs. His Mormon wife, Michelle, and their four small children stay at the cramped home of Uncle Marvin, a former FLDS member with 32 children from his four wives. Their handsome grey stucco property lies uninhabited, but monitored by church members a block away. “I won't stop till I get the deed,” Mr Chatwin says.
A family that loves together, stays together. Wonder what to expect when the kids start mixing it up (after all there are 32 of them).
Then again, maybe this is where the characters from "The Hills Have Eyes" got their start.
Some form of showdown looks inevitable. Mr Bistline reckons half the group will leave once Mr Jeffs, thought to be in either Mexico or Texas, is caught. The exiles claim all they want is a return to the freer life they enjoyed before Mr Jeffs took control. At the back of Uncle Marvin's property, a can of fly spray lies in the children's playhouse. Neighbours threw it, the children say. Mr Chatwin refuses to budge. “I was born here, and we won't leave our family or roots.”
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I wonder if they could get away with this in Mexico? Maybe in a couple of hundred years Mexico could be the ZIon for Mormons?
