[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
Religion See other Religion Articles Title: Lost to the Only Life They Knew (More than 400 teenage boys have fled or been driven from a polygamous sect) Lost to the Only Life They Knew Officials say more than 400 teenage boys have fled or been driven from a polygamous sect. By David Kelly Times Staff Writer June 13, 2005 ST. GEORGE, Utah — Abandoned by his family, faith and community, Gideon Barlow arrived here an orphan from another world. At first, he played the tough guy, aloof and hard. But when no one was watching, he would cry. The freckle-faced 17-year-old said he was left to fend for himself last year after being forced out of Colorado City, Ariz., a town about 40 miles east of here, just over the state line. "I couldn't see how my mom would let them do what they did to me," he said. When he tried to visit her on Mother's Day, he said, she told him to stay away. When he begged to give her a present, she said she wanted nothing. "I am dead to her now," he said. Gideon is one of the "Lost Boys," a group of more than 400 teenagers — some as young as 13 — who authorities in Utah and Arizona say have fled or been driven out of the polygamous enclaves of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City over the last four years. His stated offenses: wearing short-sleeved shirts, listening to CDs and having a girlfriend. Other boys say they were booted out for going to movies, watching television and staying out past curfew. Some say they were sometimes given as little as two hours' notice before being driven to St. George or nearby Hurricane, Utah, and left like unwanted pets along the road. Authorities say the teens aren't really being expelled for what they watch or wear, but rather to reduce competition for women in places where men can have dozens of wives. "It's a mathematical thing. If you are marrying all these girls to one man, what do you do with all the boys?" said Utah Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff, who has had boys in his office crying to see their mothers. "People have said to me: 'Why don't you prosecute the parents?' But the kids don't want their parents prosecuted; they want us to get the No. 1 bad guy — Warren Jeffs. He is chiefly responsible for kicking out these boys." The 49-year-old Jeffs is the prophet, or leader, of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The FLDS, as it is known, controls Hildale and Colorado City. The sect, which broke from the Mormon Church more than a century ago, has between 10,000 and 15,000 members. It believes in "plural marriage," that a man must have at least three wives to reach the highest levels of heaven. The Mormon Church forbids polygamy and excommunicates those who practice it. Polygamy is also illegal, and in recent weeks law enforcement has turned up the heat on the FLDS. On Friday, Jeffs was indicted in Arizona on charges that he had arranged a marriage between a 28-year-old man, who was already married, and a 16-year-old girl. He faces two years in prison if convicted, though he hasn't been arrested and is thought to be in Texas. A few days earlier, a Utah judge froze the assets of the United Effort Plan, an FLDS trust that owns most of the homes and land in the polygamous towns. And on May 24, the records of the financially troubled Colorado City Unified School District were seized to prevent any evidence of potential wrongdoing from being spirited away, according to the Arizona attorney general's office. At the same time, Jeffs is being sued by five of the Lost Boys, who claim he conspired to banish them so church elders would have less competition for wives. Jeffs has not responded to the lawsuit, filed in Utah's 3rd District Court, leaving him open to a default judgment from the bench. "There is a virtual Taliban down there. You tell people this stuff happens and they don't believe it," said Dan Fischer, a former FLDS member and dentist living outside Salt Lake City who helps educate and house the exiled teens. The exodus "has been far more dramatic in the last year." FLDS officials rarely speak to the media. But church lawyer Rodney Parker, who isn't a member of the faith, said some of the ousted boys were delinquents or proved unable to live up to the community's strict moral code. "I think many are minimizing their own behavior," he said. "These places are very different and very strange. But broad-stroke claims about what goes on down there are exaggerations — and often fiction." About half a dozen boys who spoke recently say it's all too real. Tom Sam Steed said he was put on "religious probation" at 15 for sneaking off to see the film "Charlie's Angels." Shortly after, he said he was ejected from the FLDS, living temporarily in a tool shed. When he begged to return to the church, he said he was refused. "I was really into the religion. I would have been the first to drink the poison Kool-Aid," said Steed, now 19. "I felt [the faith] was the only way to go to heaven." He said he made a personal plea to Jeffs, meeting him in a Colorado City print shop. "He told me I wasn't welcome," Steed said. "And on the way out he said: 'Just to let you know, when the final devastation comes, you will be destroyed.' I believed it completely. If you are told your whole life the Earth is flat, what else would you believe?" Many of the exiled boys express affection for their hometowns, but seldom for the FLDS. "It wasn't so bad until I got some knowledge of the world and saw how they treated us," said John Jessop, 16, who said he was thrown out two years ago. "I would definitely go live there again with my family. It's a great place, but I want no part of the religion." Once children are expelled, the FLDS forbids parents from visiting them, and violating the rule can result in eviction from their church-owned homes, say state authorities and former town residents. Many parents sever all ties to their sons. In some cases, families outside the communities have unofficially adopted the boys. That's what happened to Gideon. A Mormon couple, Stacha and Neil Glauser of St. George, took him in. "Taking Gideon was an impulsive thing," said Stacha Glauser, a 47-year-old hairdresser with two other teenagers. "I just couldn't stand seeing a kid kicked out into the streets." As a child, she heard strange stories about the polygamous towns, stories of men with dozens of wives, hundreds of children and homes the size of barns. According to Gideon, he is one of 71 children born to his father, 73-year-old Dan Barlow, and his father's eight wives. The Barlows were among Colorado City's first settlers and have served as political leaders and lawmen. Gideon's father was mayor. But last year Jeffs called a meeting. He announced that Dan Barlow and 20 other men were being expelled. His reasons were never fully explained. Then he "reassigned" their wives and children to other men, say local authorities and witnesses. "Warren said, 'All who agree with the decision stand up,' and I stood up," Gideon said. "I stood because I was scared. My dad left that day." Suddenly, Gideon had a new father — one who he said didn't like him listening to music, wearing short-sleeved shirts and mingling with girls. The pressure built. His mother made a pile of his CDs and shirts to toss out. Finally, he said, Jeffs gave the order for him to leave. When Gideon called his exiled father in St. George for help, he was rebuffed. "He told me we had two different goals," Gideon said. "He wanted to get back into the community and said he couldn't help me." Dan Barlow could not be reached for comment. Gideon was staying with friends in St. George when the Glausers heard of his plight from a woman sympathetic to the Lost Boys. "When Gideon came, he didn't know how to act around people," Stacha Glauser said. "This was like a foreign country for him." Like many kids from his hometown, Gideon's poor education left his vocabulary wanting. When he was hungry, for instance, he asked Glauser to "build" him something to eat. "I met his mother once; she was just a baby when she had him," Glauser said. "I told her she had a really wonderful son. She said she did the best she could, and that was it." Last summer, five of the boys who left Colorado City and Hildale filed their lawsuit, claiming they were excommunicated unfairly. Gideon is not part of the suit. Joanne Suder, a Baltimore lawyer and lead counsel in the case, said the expulsions had resulted in emotional and psychological damage to her clients. "They are clearly trying to get rid of the competition. Warren Jeffs himself is reputed to have 70 wives," Suder said. "These kids are kicked out and lose the only world they ever knew. They leave without an education and can have no further contact with their family. It's horrible." Despite the open practice of polygamy in these towns, authorities have been careful how they pursue offenders. In 1953, Arizona state police swarmed into Short Creek, now Colorado City. They arrested the men and transported crying women and children to detention camps. The result was a public outpouring of sympathy for the families — and scorn for state political leaders. The governor, Howard Pyle, lost the next election. Today, law enforcement officials are going after the FLDS by targeting child sexual abuse, welfare fraud and tax evasion rather than polygamy. The Arizona attorney general's office has opened a branch in Colorado City, where an investigator looks into alleged illegalities. In 2003, Rodney Holm, a Colorado City police officer, was sentenced to a year in prison and three years' probation on charges of bigamy and unlawful sex with two girls, 16 and 17. Another FLDS member, Orson William Black Jr., was charged with child sex crimes and is still at large. Meanwhile, authorities believe Jeffs has left Colorado City and may be staying with family at a 1,600-acre compound the FLDS is building near Eldorado, Texas. The spiritual heart of the church lies in Hildale and Colorado City, communities a mile apart with a combined population of about 10,000. The towns sit at the foot of the remote and majestic Vermillion Cliffs, a place of red rock isolation. Women walk the streets in bonnets and trousers under long dresses. Their hair is pinned high on their heads, often with a braided ponytail hanging in back. Many of the boys said children didn't attend school past the eighth grade and that they were taught that blacks were inferior — the offspring of Cain and doomed to slavery. Such views have earned the FLDS a hate-group designation by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The children are told that dinosaurs came from another planet, and man never walked on the moon. More important, they learn the outside world is wicked and salvation comes through obedience to the prophet, who channels God's will. According to those inside and outside the community, this way of life has become even stricter since Jeffs took over in 2002. Competitive sports — said to promote pride — have been curtailed or eliminated. Swimming is frowned upon, and talking to a girl can earn a boy a visit from the local police. Ross Chatwin, who lives in Colorado City, said when Jeffs took charge, "rumors started going around that if you weren't obedient, you would be kicked out." Chatwin, 36, was ordered out last year for trying to marry a second wife without the prophet's permission. He refused to budge from his sparsely furnished home in the center of town, and now is in a legal battle with the city, which once moved another family into his house and briefly shut off his utilities. "The kids here are giving up hope," Chatwin said. "There is nothing for them anymore." Hildale Mayor David Zitting, an FLDS member, said the exiled boys were defiant. "The people in this community have certain standards and values," Zitting said. "If you have a son or daughter in your home, and their behavior got worse and worse and they defied you, wouldn't you want them to leave?" Girls are rarely banished for improper behavior; but there have been several high-profile cases of girls running away to avoid arranged marriages or escape sexual abuse. The first stop for many boys is Hurricane or St. George, where a network for exiles exists. They often share apartments or sleep on couches while trying to find work. Some end up in Las Vegas or Salt Lake City. Fischer, the former FLDS member who runs the Diversity Foundation in suburban Salt Lake City, wants to raise awareness about the boys as well as provide them with housing and further their education. "The sole purpose of this foundation is to maintain a relationship with the Lost Boys," said Dave Bills, managing director of the organization. "I keep tabs on them. I offer them programs to get educated. Education is the key to this whole thing." The boys working with the foundation are either in school or getting their GEDs. If they want to attend college, the Diversity Foundation will pay for it. Bills said that many of the Lost Boys had emotional problems and turned to drugs or alcohol. "Imagine being 16 years old and asked, 'If you had one wish, what would it be?' These kids say, 'I'd love to see my mom.' " Gideon has pretty much given up on that. He attends high school in St. George and is learning to navigate, even embrace, the world he was once warned against. He still favors wearing short sleeves — and flashy shell necklaces. His cellphone rings often. Regular sessions with a therapist have made it easier to talk about his past, and he doesn't flinch anymore when classmates call him "the polygamist." He is coming to grips with being abandoned, and no longer cries when talking about his family. "If you have 71 brothers and sisters in the house, how can you establish a relationship with your father?" he asked. As for his mother, Gideon is moving on. "This is my mom," he said, nodding toward Glauser. "She treats me the way a mother should treat a son. She wakes me in the morning. She always talks to me. I don't know if I could ever pay her back." As traumatic as the experience has been, Gideon said, it has taught him a crucial lesson about family and faith. "No loving God would tear a family apart," he said. "Because a family is meant to be together."
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: crack monkey (#0)
The women who belong to this vile cult are lower than any animal in lacking mothering instincts. They are weak, vile, self-serving creatins who prefer being taken care of and fitting in over growing up. It's all about sex with these mormans. Always has been and always will be. They deserve absolutly no respect beginning with joseph smith and brigham young.
Would you "build a burger?" he asked Glauser.
These women are made to be wives .. at an extremely young age..they have no choice in the matter and typically the men are MUCH MUCH older than they are.. they are just children. They are victims too.. really.. I of course cant imagine having to give up a child.. how could anyone do that? That is something I cannot understand..
The government sanctions which religions are ok, these guys are not sanctioned by the government. Government will fix them.
There moves a thread that has no end.
I say leave the mormons alone and let them have polygamy if they want it. as long as no one's forced to participate it is OK, IMHO. Because I know a Barlow (not Gideon) who lives in that town and has 3 wives. Could be this guy's dad. But I understand that in this part of Utah there's like 2 dominant families and almost everyone belongs to either the Barlow family or some other family.
My problem is with the forces marriages of girls who are no more than children..
I guess the article does make the whole thing (polygamy) sound pretty bad. Maybe we're just not meant to have that type of 'marriage'. But I do know the patriarch of that Barlow family. The company I work for does business with him.
Thats interesting.. I guess it's up to the individuals but I will say that its the forced marriages and the underage girls that are forced into those marriages that I really have a problem with..
I've never been to this town. But I am told everyone who lives there is from 1 of 2 very large families. These 2 families have squeezed everyone else out, and they compete with one another as well. and the company we hire is headed by a Barlow, and he's got lots of Barlows working for him, along with 3 wives.
I think there is a support group for women who leave these polygamous marriages.. and its been sometime since I read about it.. but many of the women have a very difficult time for they are not just leaving their husbands but their families...children.. extended families but also their religion.
ERrrr they got this a little backwards - that should be "Hell"! ;)>
ERrrr they got this a little backwards - that should be "Hell"! ;)> LOL.. well at least they're not 'modern' women :P
When children are "married" off to these older men they are victims. But, at some point they come of moral age and can choose to conform to the evil practices and continue the cycle of evil practices by teaching their children to accept them OR they can rebel. Rebellion against unjust, corrupt and evil systems/religions/family patterns is possible and necessary. We have free will to accept or reject and those who accept the morman teachings and pass them on to their children are partakers of the system that once victimized them. I only have compassion for the children and only have contempt for the adults who continue the cycle of evil.
Polygamy is inherently evil and should be opposed by government, churches, society in general. No good has ever come of polygamy.
I dont disagree .. but possibly they are like women who are in abusive relationships.. and 'can't' leave.. not that they can't physically... Could it be that they are held prisioner psychologically?
Any one can be deluded or benighted, but to live in an evil situation and to raise up your children to believe in the evil practices makes me think that these women have choosen to harden their hearts and stop up their ears and close their minds to Reality. I believe they are guilty because i believe God has designed us to yearn for Love and Freedom and Righteousness. We all know how not following the Golden Rule hurts. It comes down to choosing to stay in an evil web by hurting your own children---something even heathen mothers know is WRONG or risking all for LOVE. These stupid, silly, weak, evil women have choosen their own protection by throwing out their sons because their abusive "husbands" want them to. These morman women are dispicable and without excuse or defense, IMO.
you may be correct.. but if these women have known no other life.. and are totally cut off from any information about any other way of life.. or other information.. how could they totally be held responsible? I just know of women who've been in abusive relationships that are psychologically beaten down to the point of being uable to think rationally.
Uh... yeah. Polygamy is bad, m'kay?
You seem to believe that the morman women who sacrifice their children to fit into a polygamous life are held against their wills and have no choice in the matter, yet some of the young girls run away because, though they have lived and been taught no other life-style, know it is wicked. I have seen interviews of some of these morman women who defend their polygmas and often incestuous lifestyles to the hilt. They have embraced their bondage to evil and teach their chilren to do the same. I have no respect for them. Yes, there are some seriously abused women who are so beaten down they can't think straight and deeply believe they deserve their miserable lives, but i don't think this description applies to these cruel morman women who are no better than the women who placed their babies on Baal's red hot arms to be burned to death to appease another most cruel evil false god, related to the false god the mormans worship--another lecher. Just my opinion...
Too much competition. Warren Jeffs is afraid of 13 year olds. What a pathetic religion.
All I'm saying is.. that these women have lived this life since birth and are married without choice .. and there are psychological issues here that we probably cannot relate to.. you may be very well right. I just think sometimes we judge people by our own experiences.. I've done it so many times to later realize I should've seen things a bit differently.
I don't understand this.. From the way it's described, the guard fucked up and left the door open.. Why not escape? Is it not better than the alternative?
Maybe to them it's not.. in their minds. They've had fear of the outside world instilled in them since birth. They are very oppressed.. I dont condone their actions.. whatsoever but I think psychologically they are very screwed up..
.. and also the life they lead is 'safe'.. they are comfortable in it..they know
how to 'operate' within that system and although it's bad they may believe the
alternative is worse.. they know nothing else.
|
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
|
||