Brownwood's Backyard & Bulletin Reporter/Columinist Steve Nash
The polygamists next door
Now's not the time to be neighborly to the religious sect members building a West Texas retreat, says NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY
12:55 AM CDT on Sunday, June 5, 2005
About a year and a half ago, several men representing a company called YFZ Land LLC arrived in Eldorado, looking to buy a ranch outside town. They told real-estate agents and local police they were planning to open a hunting retreat. They were lying. Scores of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) have begun to descend on this sleepy West Texas town and are planning to make a permanent home for hundreds of their members – to be called Yearning for Zion (YFZ).
Earlier this year, rumors flew that the leader of the secretive polygamous sect, self-proclaimed prophet Warren Jeffs, may be planning some kind of Waco-style violent end for the members.
Town members have so far been relieved that the church members are keeping relatively quiet. A local sheriff's deputy told the Associated Press that they seem to be "hardworking folks" and "awesome contractors, great at what they do."
Schleicher County Judge Johnny Griffin told a reporter that "they've done nothing to warrant any kind of great fear." And that any legal action might threaten the members' rights to privacy and religious freedom.
It is perhaps commendable that the people of Eldorado want to be as welcoming as possible to their new neighbors – local clergy have tried to go introduce themselves – and believe that they are entitled to practice whatever religion they like.
But the people of Eldorado should not be lulled into complacence. They have a serious crisis brewing in their back yard. And it would be no sign of bigotry for them to recognize that the newcomers do not represent an opportunity for interfaith dialogue, but rather a danger to themselves and any civil society that surrounds them.
FLDS is one of a few fundamentalist sects that split off from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the late 19th century when the federal government forced Mormons to end polygamy. Polygamy, of course, remains illegal in all 50 states, despite the best efforts of polygamist Tom Green, who recently lost a bout in federal court in his suit to overturn Utah's 114-year ban on the practice.
But several polygamous communities, each with a few thousand members, have been allowed to grow in Utah, Colorado and Arizona, among other places.
Polygamy's negative effects on children in these communities are well-documented and truly shocking. We know from firsthand accounts and court cases that child rape, incest, physical abuse, sexual abuse and child marriage often occur within those closed sects.
----------------------
as this relates to Brownwood Bulletin Reporter/Columinist Steve Nash's Matt Hale Column:
Supremacist should stay the heck out of Texas -- Steve Nash
Thankfully, this group moved west instead of south. The white supremacist organization World Church of the Creator, led by the "Rev." Matt Hale, recently moved its headquarters from my old stomping grounds -- East Peoria, Ill. -- to a small town in r...3.9K - Jan. 2, 2003; scored 966.0
-------------------
Where are you Nash when it takes place in your own backyard ?
<< Home