OUR LIPS AND EYES

Sister Wives fight for Polygamy

2011-07-15T03:18:00.000-07:00

The polygamous family featured on cable television's Sister Wives plans to challenge the bigamy law that makes their lifestyle illegal.

Lawyer Jonathan Turley is expected to file the lawsuit challenging the Utah law in Salt Lake City's US District Court on Wednesday.

Turley represents Kody Brown and his four wives - Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn. Kody Brown is only legally married to Meri Brown.
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The Browns belong to Mormon fundamentalist sect the Apostolic United Brethren church, which practices polygamy as part of its faith.

The Browns and their 16 kids moved to Nevada in January after Utah authorities launched a bigamy investigation. No charges were ever filed, but on Tuesday, Utah County Attorney Jeff Buhman said the investigation is ongoing.

Bigamy is a third-degree felony in Utah. Under the law, a person can be guilty of bigamy simply through cohabitation, not just by having multiple legal marriage licences.

Turley said the lawsuit doesn't aim to challenge Utah's right to refuse to recognise plural marriage.

"All we're saying is that the state cannot criminalise the private relations of consenting adults," Turley told The Associated Press. "This lawsuit is less of a polygamy challenge than it is a privacy challenge."

Turley said the Browns and other polygamous families in Utah and the US should be able to enjoy the same privacy rights as other families.

"In our view, Utah's law violates those rights, from due process to equal protection, from free exercise of religion and free speech," he said.

Utah Attorney General spokesman Paul Murphy on Tuesday said the state is prepared to defend its bigamy law.

Utah has not prosecuted a polygamist for bigamy since 2003, when former police officer Rodney Holm was convicted of entering a religious marriage with a teenager when he was already married to her sister.

Holm, a member of the southern-Utah based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, argued that a ban on polygamy violated his constitutional right to practice his religion.

The Utah Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 2006, although in a dissenting opinion, the state's chief justice said the state unfairly applied the law to polygamists and "oversteps the lines protecting the free exercise of religion and the privacy of intimate, personal relationships between consenting adults".

The US Supreme Court also denied an appeal from Holm in 2007. The high court banned the practice of polygamy, even in the context of religion in 1879.

Polygamy in Utah and across the Intermountain West is a legacy of the early teachings of Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormons abandoned the practice of plural marriage in the 1890s as a condition of Utah's statehood.

An estimated 38,000 self-described Mormon fundamentalists continue the practice, believing it brings exaltation in heaven. Most keep their way of life a secret out of fear of prosecution, although over the past 10 years an advocacy group made up mostly polygamous women has worked to educate the public and state agencies in Utah and Arizona about the culture.

"This is a good time for the lawsuit, we've tried to set that stage for this for 10 years," said Anne Wilde, co-founder of the polygamy advocacy group Principle Voices. "We've really tried to help people understand that this not a criminal lifestyle among consenting adults."

- SYDNEY MORNING HERALD - JULY 14 2011

2011-05-29T04:59:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

2011-05-29T04:53:00.001-07:00

Cult Insanity

2011-04-14T03:27:00.000-07:00

Some people like to read book series' in order. Some people, however make choices in life that goes against the grain.
I read this book recently.
I found it unsettling.
Safe do I feel, in the pages of a story where I see what they mean, where i can discern at least one method in thier madness.
it took me so long to find it in these words. In her stories.

So now I must follow this thickened plot, and read the first book in the series, pictured below.

Heart warming titles ...... watch this space.

2011-04-13T04:57:00.001-07:00

Children of ............

2011-04-13T04:52:00.000-07:00

David Brandt Berg (February 18, 1919 – October 1994) was the founder and leader of the Children of God, now called The Family International. The group believes he continues to lead them today from beyond the grave (see: prophecy). Pseudonyms Berg is commonly known by (in or outside the group) include Moses David, Mo, King David, Father David, Chairman Mo, David Fontaine, Dad, and Grandpa.

At least seven women, including both his daughters, his daughter-in-law and two of his granddaughters, have publicly alleged that Berg sexually abused them when they were children.

Berg died of undisclosed causes in 1994 and was buried in Costa de Caparica, Portugal (his remains have since been cremated). His organization is currently led by Karen Zerby (known in the group as Mama Maria or Queen Maria) and Steven Douglas Kelly (an American commonly known as Peter Amsterdam or King Peter).

Our hands and feet

2011-04-13T04:45:00.000-07:00

The Family International, formerly known as the Children of God, is an international Christian community committed to sharing the message of God’s love with people around the globe. Founded in California during the late 1960s, the Family International has expanded into a worldwide organization with members in over 90 countries.

The Family International has undergone much change and progress throughout its 42-year history, in the process of establishing a global missionary work. Although our methods and our membership structure have evolved with the times, our core message remains unchanged: "God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16); "God is love ... [and] since God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" (1 John 4:8,11 NIV).

Our Family

2011-04-13T04:39:00.000-07:00

Eternitity was in our lips and eyes

2011-04-13T04:34:00.000-07:00

I wonder why they do it, I ponder their motivations and their tenacity.

Is it the sex that drives the leaders to stand strong in this peculiar insistence?
Or is it God.

oops.. I finished it

2010-06-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help it - this book was the most engrossing of the many that I have read on the subject. Elissa tells a fascinating, confronting and at times bewildering account of her life in the FLDS and her escape from the clutches of Warrren Jeffs.

I highly recommend this book. I am astounded how close she was and in many ways still is to the core of it all.

Check out her website below to see the wonderful projects she is working on now that she is...free.

http://themjfund.org/

The first few chapters...

2010-05-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

"The FLDS believes that women cannot gain entrance to the highest of the three levels of heaven on their own; they must be married to a man who holds the priesthood and has at least three wives, or they will go to a lower level of heaven or hell.
From birth, girls are prepared for this role. Their way of life is chosen for them by the preisthood. They are told who to marry, what to believe and how to live their lives."

Stolen Innocence

2010-05-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

I have happily discovered the book Stolen Innocence has magicially fallen into my hands in some sweet and fateful twist - as such I think I might try a little running commentary as I devour it. Feel free to read along with me. It was written by Elissa Wall with Lisa Pulitzer.
Await my update as I eagerly await my first few chapters.

Location, location location

2010-05-24T21:47:00.000-07:00

The FLDS Church is estimated to have 10,000 members residing in the sister cities of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona; Eldorado, Texas; Westcliffe, Colorado; Mancos, Colorado; Creston and Bountiful, British Columbia; and Pringle, South Dakota... and so I wonder, are these communities of people reaching beyond the stretches of the United States in any significant numbers?

So many questions have I, with very few answers.

Ring a ding ding

2010-05-20T23:39:00.000-07:00

Fundamentalism

2010-05-20T23:34:00.000-07:00

Fundamentalism refers to a belief in a strict adherence to a set of basic principles (often religious in nature), sometimes as a reaction to perceived doctrinal compromises with modern social and political life.The term has since been generalized to mean strong adherence to any set of beliefs in the face of criticism or unpopularity, but has by and large retained religious connotations.

One woman is simply not enough

2010-05-18T19:17:00.000-07:00

What is it that many single Christian men fear so greatly?

* They fear falling into temptation because they do not have a mate who can fulfill their desires.
* They fear being alone in the world because there is none who shares all the things that they hold most dear.

What is it some married Christian men fear so greatly?

* They fear falling into temptation because they do not have a mate who can fulfill their desires.
* They fear being alone in the world because there is none who shares all the things that they hold most dear.

What do they have in common?

* Both these men fear the same thing.

- Loneliness and unsatisfied desires.

* Both these men have the same lacking.

- A woman who can satisfy their desires and need for companionship.

* Both these men are at risk of falling into temptation.

- The temptation of extramarital relations.

What is the solution? For both men the solution is to take sufficient wives to prevent loneliness and unsatisfied desires from leading them into temptation. Paul stated, "It is better to marry than to burn." Paul did not qualify this statement by saying that it applied only to single men. The fact that this wise saying, "It is better to marry than to burn" occurred in a paragraph written to the unmarried and widows does not change the truthfulness of the saying nor does it limit to whom it can be applied. Paul was a Jew and well aware of the teachings of the Bible (which at that time included only the Old Testament - Torah.) The Torah did not forbid a married man from marrying an available woman. Paul did not say, "It is better for a single person to marry than to burn." Moreover, Paul did not say "it is better to commit adultery than to burn" which is what would occur if a woman were to be taken by more than her one and only living husband according to the laws of the Torah which he knew so well. He wrote the letter in which this was found to the all the Christians at Corinth which included all of the men in Corinth, not just the single men. In most cases, there is nothing lacking in the first wives of men that have a need for additional wives. They have all the wondrous attributes that God has bestowed on them. It is simply that God did not create a super race of women and there are some men for whom one woman simply is not enough.

Girls just wanna have fun

2010-05-18T19:03:00.000-07:00

Ann Eliza Young

2010-05-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

Ann Eliza Young, known popularly as the 19th wife of Brigham Young, not only divorced the Mormon prophet but stumped the country campaigning against polygamy. In her acidic memoir and critique of plural marriage, "Wife No. 19, or the Story of a Life in Bondage" (1876), she wrote scathingly of Mormon founder Joseph Smith's "famous Revelation" endorsing the practice as the will of God, for "giving the most unbridled license to all the worst passions" of men's natures:

"Its existence was denied loudly, if in any way a whisper of it reached the outside world, and the missionaries were cautioned to keep utter silence upon the subject. Among the Saints it was received most reluctantly. The women, especially, felt that a cross was being laid upon them greater than they could bear, and many openly rebelled."

Mr ........ Jessop

2010-05-11T16:45:00.000-07:00

One of the largest congregations of the FLDS documented...One of My favourite images.
That's one Mr Jessop seen shaking hands at the front of the crowd. Can you guess which one?

My lips and Eyes

2010-05-11T16:34:00.001-07:00

I love you guys.

You know it.

2009-11-25T03:25:00.000-08:00

Polygamy in Islamic Law

2009-11-25T03:19:00.000-08:00

Polygamy in Islamic Law

Dr. Jamal Badawi examines polygamy in the Muslim, Jewish and Christian traditions.

Introduction

Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam does not provide an explicit prohibition of Polygamy. Unlike Judaism, Christianity and perhaps-other religions as well, Islam deals with the issue more clearly and provides certain legal requirements and restraints that amount to the discouragement of such a practice.

The reason for not prohibiting polygamy categorically is perhaps due to the fact that there are certain conditions which face individuals and societies in different places and at different times, which make the limited practice of polygamy a better solution than either divorce or the hypocritical pretence of morality.

Check out their website...

2009-11-23T00:07:00.000-08:00

http://www.TruthWillPrevail.org/

Raymond Jessop gets 10 years

2009-11-15T00:31:00.000-08:00

SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — Convicted sex offender Raymond Merril Jessop smiled Tuesday on the way to the Schleicher County Jail from a makeshift courtroom where he’d been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

“I am at peace. I’ll say that,” the 38-year-old polygamist sect member said in the early evening darkness.

Jurors took about six hours before handing down the sentence of 10 years in prison and an $8,000 fine. Jessop, who faced a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $10,000 fine, will have to serve at least five years before becoming eligible for parole.

Jessop’s conviction of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in November 2004 at the Yearning for Zion Ranch and the punishment determined by a seven-man, five-woman jury mark a victory for prosecutors in the first of what may be many trials springing from the April 2008 raid on the ranch.

“Today, justice was served,” prosecutor Eric Nichols of the Texas Attorney General’s Office said, flanked by Texas Rangers, 51st District Attorney Stephen Lupton and other law-enforcement officials.

Besides Jessop, 11 other members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints face charges ranging from aggravated sexual assault to failure to report child abuse. Another trial is set to start in about three weeks.

Asked if he thinks the conviction sent a message to the FLDS church about underage marriage, Nichols said, “We try one case at a time.”

-Article from gosanangelo.com

http://www.gosanangelo.com/photos/2009/nov/10/24490/

Fundamentalist groups- outed

2009-11-02T03:54:00.000-08:00

More to follow..

1. The Johnston Group

"Those damn Johnston Men and their lies, they'll say anything to manipulate their women"
- A Teenager's tears, John R. Llewellyn

2. The Kingston Group

"The Latter Day Church of Christ is a Mormon fundamentalist denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement, and is also known as the Kingston Clan, the Kingston Group, The Order, the Davis County Cooperative, and The Co-op Society. There are approximately 2000 members of this group."
-Wikipedia

3.Gordon B Hinkley

" He warned that we are "forsaking God in this country" and lamented and said he feared that God is forsaking us."
-Awake and arise.org

Quote of the 'latter' day

2009-11-02T03:46:00.000-08:00

" You never know for sure that you have a home in heaven. There is never a day that you know"

-Former member of the FLDS, under the leader, Warren Jeffs

Warren Jeffs renounces!

2009-11-02T01:54:00.001-08:00

Halloween is Nigh my FLDS following friends....

2009-10-28T00:51:00.001-07:00

Tours now available!!!!! Cannot WAIT!!!

2009-09-19T02:42:00.001-07:00

Colorado City

is a city in Arizona just south of the Utah state line. Colarado City is the largest and best known polygamist community in the United States. The city has no facilities for travelers and many residents are distrustful of or even hostile toward outsiders.

Mormon pioneers first settled in Utah and neighboring states in 1848 to avoid persecution and to live their faith, which included a belief in polygamy. In 1890, amidst heavy pressure from the United States Government, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints renounced polygamy and to this day continues to forswear the practice.

FLDS entrepreneurs make things other than babies!!

2009-09-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

Roxanne Johnson began crafting handmade soaps for family and friends last year, and when they proved wildly popular, she realized a business had surfaced in all those suds.

It wasn't a huge step from personal to professional soapmaker, after all.

"Family and friends around here kind of turns into a big thing," laughs Johnson, who lives in the fundamentalist Mormon community of Hildale.

Today, Johnson has teamed up with Dianna Peine to launch Naturally Young Essentials -- and, yes, they admit the company's name plays on the youthful look ascribed to many women in the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Johnson and Peine are part of an entrepreneurial push in the twin towns of Hildale and Colorado City, Ariz., where a handful of new or expanded ventures have taken root in the midst of a bad economy. In addition to Naturally Young Essentials, that boom includes Most Wanted Jeans, an Eddie Craft "Set-N-Up" furniture showroom and Finney Farm Home Dairy's artisan cheeses.

A soap smorgasbord - For Johnson and Peine, the hunt for skin-friendly soaps was an extension of their commitment to healthy eating.

"We wanted to do the natural thing," Johnson said.

The two learned about soap-making by reading books, searching the Internet and trying other products, including a fine soap they ordered from Australia.

Click here to view original article

Fundamentalism

2009-08-29T02:01:00.000-07:00

Fundamentalism refers to a belief in a strict adherence to a set of basic principles (often religious in nature), sometimes as a reaction to perceived doctrinal compromises with modern social and political life.

- Wikipedia.com

2009-08-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

This Blog is... almost as good as mine.

2009-08-20T00:12:00.001-07:00

Check out the 'situations wanted' section...

..you may find your dream couple.

Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints Church 16-year-old daughter marries 39 year old

2009-08-18T01:58:00.000-07:00

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- Lenore Holm objected when her Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints Church leaders determined that her 16-year-old daughter should marry a 39-year-old Utah polygamist. But her daughter was then taken to British Columbia to an FLDS commune there without Holm's permission. Holm, who has been excommunicated by the FLDS Church, is now fighting back, filing complaints with Canada's Royal Canadian Mounted Police and with Utah's special investigator of "closed societies," Ron Barton.

Definition?

2009-08-18T01:32:00.000-07:00

Polygamy:-

A Greek word meaning "the practice of multiple marriage".

Introducing the 'Auntie Apron'

2009-08-17T22:57:00.000-07:00

'Escape'

2009-08-16T22:22:00.000-07:00

One of the best books I have read.

'Escape' by Carolyn Jessop, a former FLDS follower details her life in the community from birth to her eventual escape at the age of 35.

It's hard to get inside the minds and day to day of the secretive polygamists..but this great book offers stunning insight.

Highly recommended...

.. check it here

"F*&# you.. I won't do what ya tell me!"

2009-08-14T05:59:00.000-07:00

All you need is love

2009-08-13T16:44:00.000-07:00

FLDS Threads available online!

2009-08-13T16:29:00.000-07:00

That's right ladies. Your intrigue need last no longer.

You can stop asking yourself "Would it suit me?" and "Could I be a polygamist too?"

With these affordable threads you too can be on your way to eternal salvation.

Browse here.

Why polygamous sex has its benefit

2009-08-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

Three recent studies on sex reveal that polygamy holds biological benefits and dominated human history so much that it is imprinted in our genes.

But asexuality seems to be a relatively new evolutionary phenomenon that natural selection could, in the future, favour.

-Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News.

For full article, click here

Is a polygamist ranch a good place for a family vacation?

2009-08-10T23:43:00.000-07:00

"I keep hearing about some very popular polygamist ranch in Texas, and it sounds like it would be a fun place to take the family for a vacation. Is it anything like a dude ranch, where family members can help with ranching activities like herding and milking cows? What activities are there for the kids?

In the few pictures I've seen, the people there look very relaxed and serene. Do they offer a luxury spa services? How can I contact them for a reservation?"

- Mr Lizard c/- Travel world Guides 'Travel Forum'

yes friends... he is serious..

but it's not a bad idea... is it??

"The goal is to become like God, on Earth"

2009-08-10T02:31:00.000-07:00

- FLDS Primary School teacher in this amazing insight into the YFZ (yearning for Zion) Ranch in Texas.. the one that got raided last year and the angry Texans took all the kiddies away.

Oprah does it again with her brazen behavior.

Tom jumps on couches for her, Other people do other stuff for her.. and here on the Ranch they do heaps of stuff for her.

I am so stoked.

Thanks Oprah.. Great work lady!!

click away

Watch Oprah tackle the big (hair) issues. I would have loved to have been there.

2009-08-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

Oprah likes Polygamists. Me too.

Styling Polygamists

2009-08-09T19:28:00.000-07:00

Pastel colors evoke femininity and don't come across as bold or strong, just the ticket for a Polygamist babe. The clothing is also stitched with special markings "to protect the body and to remind you of your commitment". Sexy pastel dresses with special stitching is their haute couture. Loves it!

Then there's the question of the elaborate hairdos.

The women never cut their hair because they believe they will use it to wash Christ's feet during the Second Coming. A Biblical quote says a woman's hair should be her crowning glory. I second that sisters!! Let those tresses grow wild!

Their fringes are grown out and rolled (but usually not using a curling iron, because that would be too modern). There are sausage curls on the sides and often braids down the back.

I dare someone to do a SS10 range of Polygamist inspired threads and accesories.. I reckon it could be HUGE.

2009-08-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

the low down.

2009-08-09T05:29:00.000-07:00

I like these guys, I think they are interesting. They think that if the men have lots of wives and they all have lots of babies then they will live happily in every eternity.

Heaps of wives+heaps of sex+heaps of babies= eternal salvation.

genius guys. high fives all round.

keep it up.