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.)
“Sons of Perdition” The story of polygamy’s exiled teens. – is a documentary about three boys who had been a part of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS). We have posted many times before on the FLDS and its destructive nature. This post will link to an interview done with the film’s producers at the Tribeca Film Festival, earlier this year. The interview is in two parts and gives some insight into the struggles for the producers as well as the boys involved in the film. The subject of polygamy and the many effects it has on ones who stay inside and ones who leave are well documented. The producers, Jennilyn Merten and Tyler Measom talk very openly about not only what they learned, what they filmed, but how they took steps to become personally involved in the lives of their subjects over the four years in making the film. Jennilyn and Tyler are both former Mormons which helped them have a beginning in understanding the scope of the subject, as well as the trauma involved in leaving a group such as FLDS.
“Sons of Perdition” is presented by LeftTurn Films and is pleased to announce that the film has been acquired by the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). The film will be presented as part of Oprah’s Documentary Film Club. The link to the website for the film ishttp://www.sonsofperditionthemovie.com/Sons_of_Perdition_Home.html
Part 1
Part 2
Here is a second interview done by Nick Gillespie of reason.tv with the producers. It presents a few different points about FLDS.
Thank you, for taking time to visit and read this blog. Please, consume the information on this site responsibly. The author is not a licensed mental health professional and encourages those that need professional help to seek it. The intent of the material is to inform and be a resource. Be sure to tell every member that you know at WOFF about this blog. There are readers at WOFF. Comments are invited from all readers, including present or former members. Polls are not scientific and no private information is gathered.
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We have been following the case(s) against Warren Jeffs. He was the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) until he was jailed on charges stemming from performing underage marriages between FLDS members. The link to the following article provides more background. It is important to note the number of convictions coming out of the state of Texas against several men from this religious cult. There are five convictions in Texas and the trial of the sixth man is in progress. It should not be shocking, but it is in some ways.
Arizona drops cases against polygamous sect leader
A judge has dismissed two cases pending against Warren S. Jeffs in Arizona and ordered that he be sent back to Utah, a move that abruptly ends the state’s prosecution of the polygamous sect leader and potentially puts Jeffs on a faster track to face more serious charges in Texas….
