My friend Flora spoke yesterday at a meeting of the Lake Havasu Republican Women's group about Arizona House Bill 2648, and why it is so desperately needed, especially in its original form. I'm going to save that topic for another post and concentrate today on some other information that she has just shared about the children still trapped in the FLDS.
You can find a write up on her appearance here.
As most of the readers of this blog know by now, convicted child rapist Warren Steed Jeffs has had all the children of the FLDS faithful on a beans and water only diet for months now.
Many people keep asking me "why?" the best answer I have for anyone is that Warren Steed Jeffs is a sadistic sociopath with a deviant sexual attraction to children, who simply enjoys making them suffer. After all, this is a man who has made every concerted effort to model himself after the cartoon character from "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." He has banned the color red anywhere, forbidden the celebration of Christmas, closed the community zoo, ordered every pet dog and cat his community rounded up and slaughtered in a pit, forbidden the FLDS children from having any toy or bike, and ordered them all to quit going to school and concentrate on working for him, all day every day. They are ostensibly homeschooled. I think he also very much enjoys the idea that he can manipulate other men who follow him into his own perversions.
If the beans and water only diet, twice a day, weren't enough to make you concerned for the little ones of the FLDS, maybe you can give a hill of beans about what is happening to them, when you read this next bit of information from inside.
It seems when Warren ordered all the loyal members in good standing of the FLDS to stop having any marital relations, at the same time, he ordered all the fathers of the FLDS to start supervising their children's bath times, alone.
As sick as it may sound, last year when Warren ordered his members to stop all marital relations, and forbade men and their "wives" from any physical contact except for handshakes lasting no longer than 3 seconds, one of the first thoughts Flora and I both had was, 'Oh G-d, the children will now be the target of all those men's sexual urges, since boys and prepubescent girls do not get pregnant.' What more could Warren want than to do everything in his power to make sure the FLDS men follow his own perversions? What more validation could he want?
Before anyone says, 'I know plenty of normal daddies who bathe their children who aren't perverts...' Me too! But this is polygamy, and since this is FLDS polygamy, it's polygamy on steroids. Never mind all this talk of blended families here in the outside world, this is the FLDS world, where men are routinely kicked out of the FLDS, excommunicated and every woman they had called their "wife" is then reassigned to another man, along with all her children.
In the FLDS world, the bishop can knock on your door in the middle of the night, inform you that the prophet has had a revelation that you are unworthy and no longer hold the priesthood, and order you to leave everything you own and get out of town, immediately. The women are then told they will be 'given' to new husbands who are worthy and do still hold the priesthood. In the FLDS world, 5 women with 12-20 children could be moving into a new house, with a new "husband and father" overnight. These children are now told that G-d has changed their DNA to match their new father's. Now you have a "daddy" who is bathing 12-20 children every night that he is unrelated to. Tell me, would you be comfortable with this plan for your own children?
I had a message from a fellow activist in my inbox when I came home from dinner last night. It read:
"Please call the Salt Lake or St. George DFS and Arizona [Mohave County], and tell them you know from reliable sources. Ask them what is and can be done about the FLDS children that Warren has mandated to eat only beans and water for breakfast and dinner without any lunch. They'll ask you for names and addresses so they can investigate. Tell them in your own words, that even though you don't have those specifics, you are sure it has been and is still going on. I've had two women who have left tell us that it is true. The children are still being moved and re-located so often that it's near impossible to know who and where they are any more, but someone has to protect these kids from this abuse.
Warren has definitely dictated this daily diet and order, and many have said it is true, not just hear-say."
Can you make a couple of calls today? Can you ask child welfare authorities in Arizona and Utah what they are going to do about the nutritional deprivation of these FLDS children? Can you at least make them a little uncomfortable after 100 years of ignoring the suffering of these children? If they ask you who you are, you might try telling them, "I'm someone who gives a hill of beans!"
