We will take a short break in our comparison of Peoples Temple and Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) to bring you a video of a new reality television show. This show is about young people wanting to leave the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) which is a group in the news a lot in the past few years. Warren Jeffs is their prophet and he is in jail serving time for charges related to their practices of underage marriage to older men in the group. I had not watched the show or seen any videos until a blog reader made me aware of them in the last few minutes. The videos are short and I have included two of them.
This post will take quotes from the audio and make comparisons to the life I lived inside of WOFF. The main comparison is the extreme control and also the blind dedication to this imprisoned leader. There are some quotes after the video…
Honestly, I put off watching this film after I came home from work for several hours. I knew it would be remind me of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). However, it was so timely considering the exit drama which has unfolded over the past few weeks concerning a young man who has come out of WOFF. As I reviewed this film, I will compare and contrast to my experience at WOFF and my understanding since I left in July 2008. We have compared the practices of the Fundamental Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) to WOFF in previous posts. There are many of the same practices in both groups and there are also several practices which are not shared.
We pick up our review at the beginning of chapter two of the documentary. There you meet Kevin Black. He is working in a garage. He says he has been out of Colorado City for eleven years. Kevin gives a short history of the FLDS and says several statements of note. Those in the group “believe polygamy was never supposed to be outlawed and they live it no matter the cost.” In this country, we are allowed by our “religious freedom”, to pursue lifestyles and certain choices- “no matter the cost.” This goes on even to the destruction or denial of certain other God-given freedoms outlined and protected in our Constitution. As in WOFF, in FLDS there was the pursuit of certain lifestyle choices at the denial and refusal to exercise and live certain other accepted social freedoms that many consider basic. Is this direction for a group or individuals prudent? For adults, it may be accepted, but, when children are involved and their choices of limiting their freedoms are made for them and their reality does not include certain freedoms, I consider that detrimental and destructive. We can presume that obviously, Kevin Black did also, or he would still be in the group.
Honestly, I put off watching this film after I came home from work for several hours. I knew it would be remind me of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). However, this is so timely considering the exit drama which has unfolded over the last two weeks concerning a young man who has come out of WOFF. As I review this film, I will compare and contrast to my experience at WOFF and my understanding since I left in July 2008. We have compared the practices of the Fundamental Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) to WOFF in pervious posts. There are many of the same practices in both groups and there are also several practices which are not shared.
The film starts with scenes from “The Crick”- a settlement also called Colorado City, located on the Utah and Arizona border. As scenes are shown of FLDS members tending their garden and riding horses, the voice of Warren Jeffs is heard saying, “Oh, young people, eternity was (is) within your reach, if you will just live faithful so the Prophet can place you properly in marriage. I want you to believe these stories. There are no monogamous in heaven. The men have many wives and that is the way men become gods and wives become heavenly mothers. I want to tell you young people, it is a sin to even talk about boy-friends and girl-friends, because you know the right way. But, what happens to people that turn away from this? The Revelation says they will be destroyed.”
In Texas, a jury of his peers sentenced Warren Jeffs to life plus 20 years for his crimes against women under his control. The trial lifted the skirt of the secretive religious cult and allowed the world a glimpse into the ways of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). In this post, I have included a couple of quotes from the article listed below and will share some observations about why I believe the control used by Warren Jeffs is very similar or in many ways the same as what Jane Whaley used/uses at Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF).
Warren Jeffs sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison as picture emerges of 50 brides, bred to worship the polygamous ‘prophet’
By Paul Bentley Last updated at 5:54 PM on 9th August 2011
Standing neatly side by side, 50 young girls pose as if for a school yearbook, their smiles every bit as uniform as their pastel outfits and tightly quiffed hairdos.
Their innocent enthusiasm is focussed on one goal alone – worshipping the man framed behind them, who has cruelly bred them for manipulation.
As a Texas jury sentenced Jeffs to life plus 20 years in prison for his crimes as their church leader, extraordinary pictures have emerged of the wives of the notorious polygamist, offering insight into the twisted world of subjugation with which he surrounded himself.
Brides of the Prophet
Jeffs, the 55-year-old self-proclaimed prophet and leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was last week convicted of two counts of sexually assaulting a child – one 12 and one 14-year-old.
Today, after less than half an hour of deliberations, the jury at court in Texas sentenced him to the maximum possible time behind bars for his crimes.
Jeffs’s wives were both the victims of his abuse and the accomplices, subjected to a cruel world of worship and sexual abuse, while also proving their worth to their leader by holding down their peers while they were assaulted.…
In previous posts, we have outlined the similarities between certain practices within the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). My basis for these comparisons comes from documented accounts of survivors of FLDS and my own experiences from attending meetings and eventually moving inside WOFF. The time span for my experiences is 1992 until 2008. One of the first posts on this comparison topic was written January 19, 2010 and can be found here- FLDS vs. WOFF – The Similarities – Part 1– http://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=86 . I have learned much more since writing that post, but still agree with my conclusions at that time.
During this last week, Warren Jeffs, the leader of FLDS, has been in the news again as he is facing additional charges in Texas stemming from his practices within the FLDS. Frankly, I have been quite surprised at the coverage Jeffs has received from mainstream news sources. The first article tells how Jeffs fired his legal team on Thursday and the judge allowed him to represent himself.
Polygamist leader to represent self in sex assault case–
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs threw his child sexual assault trial into disarray on Thursday when he fired his defense lawyers and demanded the right to represent himself, which the judge then granted. “It’s not as easy as it looks on TV, Mr. Jeffs,” State District Judge Barbara Walther told him. “You’re on your own.”
Then on Friday, the trial took another strange turn as Jeffs objected to the testimony of a witness and then proceeded for 50 minutes. The following article quotes Elissa Wall, a survivor of the group, and has video. There is also some concise background information that helps answer questions. (second video later in the post. It is cute.)
Several times on this blog I have mentioned my “search for answers”. However, I have not shared all the questions or gathered them into one place. In this post and possibly one more, I will gather as many of the questions as I can remember and share some of the answers I have at this point. During the 16 years of being under the teachings and influence of Jane Whaley, there have been many questions. Life at Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) was not centered on asking questions or getting answers; it was centered on obedience to Jane. All of this was disguised as “obedience to God” or “the call of God”. However, how did you know you were obeying God? Jane would confirm it or voice her doubt and/or disapproval.
One reason I believe that WOFF is subject to being called a “cult” – the members show more fear of Jane than God. This I realized in May of 2008. It helped me along in my exit. ( see related post here.. http://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=1396 ) Some would doubt the question and some may doubt the answer. However, if they do, you must ask – are they in WOFF or out? How long were they in (if, so) and what level of faithfulness to Jane did they “enjoy”? Certain members were VERY faithful to Jane and Sam. As with any group, you have different levels of commitment and in WOFF, different degrees of adherence to WOFF-isms. So, for now, the first question- Why is WOFF subject to being called a “cult”?
Other questions include- What is life like inside of WOFF? In a previous post, I answer some of that question. (see link here… http://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=2440 ) However, life for different ages or groups of folks could look different in some ways. Those who work during the week would have a different schedule than those who do not work and are involved in activities at the church every day. There were always places to “be a help” or errands to run or tasks to do for those that did not have a regular job. Life at WOFF was not sedentary. Life in WOFF is highlyregulated, to say the least. Refer back to the previous paragraph/question.
In previous posts, I have quoted often from this book. This book is 438 pages, beginning with the struggles of a child born into the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FDLS). The book has three main parts that cover the years of her life up until the end of the trial of Warren Jeffs. In Part 1, she outlines her childhood days living in a polygamous family and the struggles inherent with that structure. Her family grew to include eleven brothers and twelve sisters. At one time, there were three mothers in her house- married to the same man, her father.
The insights into her childhood including her perspectives and thoughts about Warren Jeffs, were a key to the book’s value for me. She describes her interactions with Warren Jeffs and her eventual marriage to her first cousin- Allen Steed. She fought the arranged marriage vehemently. However, in FLDS, she would be forced to follow the word of the Prophet “Uncle Rulon”, as dictated through Warrren Jeffs. Her story of anguish at the eventual marriage was heart wrenching. The ominous “authority” that Warren Jeffs secured over the members of FLDS smelled just like the same situation at Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) involving Jane Whaley. This fact made reading this book and others about FLDS, so enlightening to me.
After the illegal marriage ceremony held at the Hot Springs Motel in Caliente, Nevada; Elissa struggles intensified. She explains in the second part of the book her struggle just to survive. She spent many nights in her mom’s company in order to avoid contact with her husband. Later, she would spend nights in her truck and that would lead to an encounter with Lamont Barlowe. Their friendship would eventually lead to a legal marriage and two children.
