“This trial has not been about religion or vendetta. It was simply about child abuse and preventing abuse,” the victim, now 21, said in prepared remarks after the verdict.
“The easy thing would have been to do nothing, but I have followed my heart and spoken the truth,” she said, declining to take questions from reporters.
One “Jane Doe” has more courage than the combined hierarchy of all the churches in this land. What a great victory for this young woman, as well as the state of Utah. I will never understand why more isn’t being done to stop FLDS. Have you ever known anyone brutally abused, enslaved, imprisoned by force? I have. It haunts the victim forever.
When FLDS began, they were members of the Mormon Church who would not let go of the laws of polygamy the church had decided to ban. Back in those olden days the LDS church could have made sure FLDS didn’t prosper. Utah was a tiny speck of a state at the time. But LDS leaders cut them off and thought that was that, turning their back on what would turn into a spreading cult that turns children into slaves, sexual victims, and women into subservient people without any options. If only the Church of Latter Day Saints had felt responsibility for the cult they spawned, men like Warren Jeffs would never have been allowed to gain power and spread their abusive cult thuggery throughout the west. It takes more than words and speeches of condemnation against FLDS. The LDS church has been inactive against their former brothers and the sisters they abuse for decades and has done virtually nothing about the heinous crimes, child abuse and brutality waged against women from the fundamentalist off shoot. It’s like the Catholic hierarchy turning their backs on the child abuse by priests. If you ignore it it’s not happening. It’s rarely mentioned by Mormons, no doubt due to shame, not to mention orders from LDS church leaders. “Big Love” has done more to expose the FLDS life than the LDS church has ever done. What an indictment. Today Warren Jeffs got what was coming to him. No doubt most LDS members agree with the verdict. But what are they going to do about the polygamists who are an off shoot of their own religion? Nothing. It’s not their problem. The Church of Latter Day Saints banned polygamy long ago, end of story is their tale. Never mind that FLDS grew out of that church. So the abuse will continue. How can these crimes against women and children still be happening in America? When will people care enough to make it untenable for the Fundamentalist of Latter Day Saints to exist? When will other churches care enough to become involved as well? They’re too busy helping illegal immigrants to be bothered with sexual slaves in neighboring states. LDS leaders are too ashamed or afraid that their religion will get tarred. So women and children continue to suffer.
But at least for today one sexual criminal and religious cult leader went down; all because of one young woman’s courage. But how many more are still in bondage? No one seems to care.
The leader of a polygamous Mormon splinter group was convicted Tuesday of
being an accomplice to rape for forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry her 19-year-old
cousin.Warren Jeffs, 51, could get life in prison after a trial that threw a spotlight
on a renegade community along the Arizona-Utah line where as many as 10,000
of Jeffs’ followers practice plural marriage and revere him as a mighty prophet
with dominion over their salvation. … ..
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