A Protestant Christian sect known as Mormons openly practiced polygamy throughout the 19^th century. In 1890, faced with seizures of their churches and other property under the new federal polygamist act, the Church of Latter Day Saints officially denounced polygamy. Shortly thereafter, the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Days Saints was formed by those who refused to adhere to the new policies.  Today their traditions of forced marriages and multiple wives for each man continue.

Located throughout the North Western United States, there just under 40,000 members of the FLDS, with several hundred located just over the border in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The largest FLDS community, some 10,000 strong, call Colorado State home. Shrouded in secrecy and living off the grid of mainstream society, they’ve popped on and off the radar for years. Recently, their practices have once again been brought into the light of day.

In April of 2008, a 15 year old girl ran away from a colony in Colorado and reported her plight to the police. Their polygamy was silently accepted, but the forced marriage of a minor now on official record was not. An investigation ensued and not long afterward more than a dozen church members were indicted for having sex with a minor. Suddenly, the secluded community was on the nightly news for all to see. People watched these odd looking people protesting the arrests, their members dressed as though they were homesteaders from a hundred years past.  Their communal farming colonies cut off from the outside world were exposed for all to see; so was their habit of routinely marrying girls as young as 14 years of age. Many women in the sect have 3-5 children by the time they are 21 , as a woman’s primary role if to bear as many children as possible. It is believed this will  build up what they refer to as the celestial family that will remain with them forever.

The first defendant was convicted in November of 2009, with other trials to come in 2010.

Warren Jeffs is considered by members to be the living Prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints. Calling himself a prophet and claiming to be God’s mouthpiece here on earth, Jeffs placed himself in a role of unconditional power.  Jeffs was arrested and charged with sexual misconduct with a minor as well as incest in 2006. Found guilty he was sentenced to 15 years to life in 2007.

The number of wives for those men closest to the prophet in the church’s hierarchy moves well into double digits. Church lieutenants have more than 20 wives. Jeffs was thought to have as many as 80 at the time of his arrest.

The FLDS, despite arrests and convictions of some it members, continues its long-standing tradition of polygamy to this day. Only men deemed Godly by the church hierarchy can take more than one wife. They can also have their wives and children re-assignedto other men if afterwards there are deemed unworthy. Church Elder Joe Jessup has 5 wives, 46 children and 239 great grandchildren. “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Jessup declared in a recent interview.

Many young boys leave the colony, unofficially excommunicated due to the fact there are no wives for them to marry. The elder guard of the Church take most young girls for themselves and in turn, solidify their position of power over the younger men.

The latest rash of arrests built off the complaint of a 15 year old girl from a Colorado colony has once again produced convictions, but there is little to suggest the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints will ever stop such behavior. For more than a century they have defied the law and one can only assume they will continue to do so in the future.

From David Anthony Hohol…

This past week an American judge accepted what is called a justification defense from a a man on trial for the murder of Dr. George Tiller, who performed late-term abortions. Scott Roeder has entered a defense that his shooting was justified, because in doing so he was saving the lives of unborn children. Many voiced both sympathy and understanding of his actions. This is yet another example of the radical Evangelical Christianity that exists in America. With Pat Roberston’s gem about the devil in Haiti coming just days after this judges decsion, (see next post) its easy to see fundementalist thinking  is not just an Eastern phenomena, is alive and well in the West.

The world is filled with religious nut-jobs. This is not a criticism of religion itself, but an observation of those who pervert and hi-jack religion to explain away their equally perverse thoughts and actions. As you read these words, thousands upon thousands of Haitians are dead;  hundreds of thousands more and suffering the wrath of a mammoth earthquake that took place on Tuesday. The entire impoverished country is in ruins. American Christian Leader Pat Robertson, the popular Evangelical Radio and TV personality, has claimed that the recent Earthquake in Haiti was to Haiti’s “pact with the devil.”  Below are his own words:

“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about. They were under the heel of the French, you know Napoleon the third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the prince.’ True story. And so the devil said, ‘Ok it’s a deal.’ And they kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got something themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another.”

The United States of America is home to some of the world’s most fundamentalist Christians, radicals if you will. The scary part is that in a country of 300 million people, there are numbers in excess of a million (and perhaps much more) that would fully agree with Robertson on this and all that he has said in the past. In our ever shrinking Global Village, these words are then sent around the planet in an instant and people in  Central an South America, the Middle East, Africa and beyond see them as representing America. This is what makes people like Robertson or even Glenn Beck so very dangerous. They breed hate and misunderstanding.

The Muslim world deals with this all the time. With 1.3 billion Muslims in the world over, even if only 3% are radical fundamentalists, their numbers are in the millions and they have come to represent the other 97%.

What makes Robertson’s words so disgusting is they don’t come after a terrorist attack or a violent protest of some sort, they come on the heels of the complete devastation of an already horribly impoverished people, their dead stacked ten of thousands high all around them. His words are so bitterly cold and cruel, that it’s hard to comprehend a human being able to say them; even more so at such a horrible time for the Haitian people.  He should be ashamed of himself and America should be ashamed of him. And the next time people throw the word fundamentalist around, don’t forget to look over at toxic pool of the American Evangelical Christian Right. Radicals don’t only live in the Middle East. Sometimes they’re right next door.

From David Anthony Hohol…