News from other sites

[mysteriew]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-04-27-pringle_N.htm


The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) has put roots on 140 acres of rugged territory. It is the same sect as at the ranch near Eldorado, Texas, where the practice of men taking multiple wives and allegations of sexual abuse of underage girls have sparked a custody battle over more than 400 children.

No such allegations have been made here, but local police worry about whether they can do their job when many of the people in their jurisdiction live in a closed, secretive society.

[Reader]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/28/flds.openness/index.html

Excerpt:

The sect's sudden openness appears an attempt to reunite mothers and children. However, the stakes may be higher, said Walsh, who explained that FLDS members believe polygamy and ably caring for many children are essential to reaching the highest tier of heaven.

According to FLDS beliefs, you must be free from sin -- as with most Christian religions -- to get to heaven. Those deemed "wicked" go to hell until they atone for their sins, said Walsh, a mainstream Mormon doing post-doctorate studies at the University of St. Thomas-Houston in Texas.

Those who aren't deemed wicked go to the "spirit world" to await the final judgment that dictates in which of the three levels of heaven they will reside for eternity. Everyone will eventually go to one level of heaven, Walsh explained, but to ascend to the highest tier, you must first learn certain lessons -- how to be a good parent and spouse among them.

"To really enjoy heaven, you have to be married and you have to have your kids with you," Walsh said. "Everything experienced on Earth will be in its more perfected form in heaven." See a map of FLDS enclaves »

If you haven't learned the lessons you needed to learn on Earth, "you would have to learn these lessons in the spirit world" before entering heaven, he said.

If your children are taken away, you may have to learn how to be a good parent in the spirit world, thereby postponing your passage to heaven, Walsh said.

In short, the parents are willing to sacrifice their secrecy in exchange for the children -- a level of desperation that Walsh believes Texas authorities could tap to reach an "amenable" compromise.

But don't mistake FLDS openness for candor, said Marci Hamilton, a professor at Yeshiva University's Cardozo School of Law who has studied polygamist sects for 10 years.

The FLDS is only as open as it needs to be. Everything church members offer -- the news conferences, the interviews, the tours of the YFZ compound, even the Web site's name -- has been scripted to elicit sympathy, she said.

[Reader]

http://origin.sltrib.com/ci_9095956

WASHINGTON - A Texas congresswoman wants the House Armed Services Committee to look into a federal contract awarded to a company linked to the polygamous sect raided earlier this month and under fire for alleged child abuse.

Rep. Kay Granger, a Republican from Fort Worth, wrote to committee chairman Ike Skelton and ranking GOP member Duncan Hunter asking for a hearing to look at the vetting process for Department of Defense contracts after news surfaced that one worth $1.2 million was awarded to New Era Manufacturing, a company formerly based in Hildale, Utah.

Granger says that according to news reports, the company is affiliated with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the "same church sect" raided by Texas authorities after allegations of physical abuse.

"As a Member of Congress, I am concerned that federal tax dollars may have been misused to fund this sect's illegal activities," Granger wrote in a letter earlier this month.

[Floh]

http://origin.sltrib.com/ci_9095956

WASHINGTON - A Texas congresswoman wants the House Armed Services Committee to look into a federal contract awarded to a company linked to the polygamous sect raided earlier this month and under fire for alleged child abuse.

Rep. Kay Granger, a Republican from Fort Worth, wrote to committee chairman Ike Skelton and ranking GOP member Duncan Hunter asking for a hearing to look at the vetting process for Department of Defense contracts after news surfaced that one worth $1.2 million was awarded to New Era Manufacturing, a company formerly based in Hildale, Utah.

Granger says that according to news reports, the company is affiliated with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the "same church sect" raided by Texas authorities after allegations of physical abuse.

"As a Member of Congress, I am concerned that federal tax dollars may have been misused to fund this sect's illegal activities," Granger wrote in a letter earlier this month.

:woohoo:

[Leila]

http://origin.sltrib.com/ci_9095956

WASHINGTON - A Texas congresswoman wants the House Armed Services Committee to look into a federal contract awarded to a company linked to the polygamous sect raided earlier this month and under fire for alleged child abuse.

Rep. Kay Granger, a Republican from Fort Worth, wrote to committee chairman Ike Skelton and ranking GOP member Duncan Hunter asking for a hearing to look at the vetting process for Department of Defense contracts after news surfaced that one worth $1.2 million was awarded to New Era Manufacturing, a company formerly based in Hildale, Utah.

Granger says that according to news reports, the company is affiliated with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the "same church sect" raided by Texas authorities after allegations of physical abuse.

"As a Member of Congress, I am concerned that federal tax dollars may have been misused to fund this sect's illegal activities," Granger wrote in a letter earlier this month.

This is great news! Let shine the light of day on the financial structure of the FLDS! :woohoo:

[mysteriew]

Another Colorado colony of the polygamy-practicing Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has taken root, this one at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, 50 miles west of Pueblo.
Custer County Assessor J.D. Henrich confirmed that a senior member of the sect, Lee Steed, bought a $350,000 house there in November 2006 and two more parcels in rural, largely vacant subdivisions last December.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9271713

[mollymalone]

Although the building codes there aren't stringent, the county's residents and the officials are very much into conservation of local resources. If the flds start bringing in hundreds of people onto a property that's going to put them into direct confrontation with the authorities and residents over local water, waste disposal and other resources.