Smart Crowds

Last night Elizabeth Smart spoke at the local high school. The parking lot was as packed as I have ever seen it; suggesting that the crowd gathered to hear her story rivaled or surpassed events like graduation. This was a big event; even the minor Osmonds do not draw such crowds when they come to town.

The Smart event relied on local, mostly word-of-mouth, promotion. The event was catered by Elizabeth Smart’s catering business. Tickets were not that expensive either. A winning combination for a small Utah city. Contrast that with today’s (11 April 2012) 7 PM screening of “The Day My God Died” at the Rose Wagner performing arts center in Salt Lake City. That event features a special post screening Q+A with Anuradha Koirala and Executive Producer Geralyn Dreyfous. That event is free (sponsored by Rio Tinto) highly publicized, and occurring in a famous event center rather than a high-school auditorium. I doubt it will match the draw even the least of the Osmonds could achieve in Tooele.

The movie “The Day My God Died” is about children being abducted from their homes to be used as sexual slaves. Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her home at age 14, and forced to become Brian David Mitchell’s plural wife.

To be somewhat more balanced I should point out that between Elizabeth’s abduction on June 5th 2002, and when she was recognized walking around the suburban city of Sandy in the company of her abductors on March 12th 2003 her photo was a constant staple of local newscasts. Elizabeth Smart was a pretty blond girl from an affluent family who’s knife-point abduction from her parent’s million-dollar home overlooking Salt Lake City was vividly witnessed by her younger sister. The media had caught Missing White Woman Syndrome, and they were hell-bent on infecting all of Utah. The victims highlighted in “The Day My God Died” are just a bit too brown-skinned and young to garner the same kind of attention that Elizabeth got.

Shortly after Elizabeth was abducted Brian Mitchell’s other wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, ritualistically washed her feat, dressed her in robes, and prepared her for her wedding to Brian Mitchell. This is similar to the ritual exploitation regularly forced on teenage women in polygamist communities all over Utah. Barzee’s complicity to child rape was arguably less than that of Warren Jeffs’s whose conviction would not stick in Utah’s courts. On November 17th 2009 Barzee was sentenced in Salt Lake City to 15 years for her part in Elizabeth’s ordeal. Barzee is currently serving the last four and a half years of her 15-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Texas. Jeffs is also serving time in Texas.

It is coming up on the 10th anniversary of Elizabeth's abduction. In the nine years since she was freed she has been a darling of the media. Just over 18 months after she was freed Elizabeth took to the stage to perform an opening harp solo of the US National Anthem for a sold out Toby Keith concert in Salt Lake City (November 6th 2004). Toby Keith is an ultra-patriotic country singer who penned super hits like “Angry American (courtesy of the Red White and Blue)” { And you'll be sorry that you messed with The U.S. of A. 'Cause we'll put a boot in your ass It's the American way} so performing the national anthem before one of his concerts is an honor, but I’d never heard of a harp soloist doing it before. People magazine has featured her on their cover at least twice. The latest time for her recent “Dream Wedding” in the Hawaii LDS temple. Now she is on a motivational speaker tour to sold out venues like Tooele High School.

During Elizabeth’s captivity she became convinced that she was indeed married to Mitchell. She wore wigs, dark glasses, and disguised her voice in public so that she would not be recognized and separated from her “husband”. For the nine months she was captive Elizabeth was often in the public company of Mitchell. Mitchell was a itinerant preacher who attracted attention. One photographer who snapped a picture of Mitchell quaffing a beer at a large party recalled the two women dressed in robes that accompanied him. Thought he did not bother to discover their identities he believed that they were Mitchell’s plural wives, one of them was Elizabeth Smart. Even after she was separated from Mitchell by police it took several minutes of intense direct questioning for Elizabeth to reveal her identity.

Mitchell called himself “Immanuel” and carried around a book revealed directly to him by god that was titled "Book of Immanuel David Isaiah". Three days after Elizabeth was freed the LDS-owned Deseret News published Immanuel’s revelations in full.

"I, the Lord brought forth out of obscurity and out of darkness through my servant Joseph Smith, Jr. And by the hand of my servant Joseph, I, the Lord God, Jehovah, brought forth out of the bowels of the earth the Book of Mormon, which book contains my true doctrine, and stands with the Bible to witness for my name unto all the earth, to show unto all people that I am the very Christ who suffered and died for their sins, and rose again the third day, that all men who will believe in me, and will repent, and be baptized in my name, shall have eternal life."

The revelations go on-and-on. They basically praise Mormonism with a few caveats and additions. Immanuel uses the word “verily” a whole lot. Immanuel made flesh as Brian Mitchell kept his revelations secret to prevent his possible excommunication from the Church he loved. They were discovered along with some pictures of naked children shortly before he abducted Elizabeth. Immanual went from active member to excommunicated in a mater of days. The Church kept the fact that they had discovered Immanuel’s pedophilic pictures quiet until after Immanuel was safely in Jail for Elizabeth’s abduction.

While an active member of the mainstream LDS church Immanuel eked out a living by milking his relationship to the religiosity of more affluent members of the LDS church. He was quoted as saying “The Lord Will Provide”. He made a rickety handcart replica for one patron. He did some odd jobs for the Smarts.

After her “marriage” to Immanuel was terminated by the state Elizabeth was not continually in the bright spotlight. She served a two-year mission in Paris for the LDS church. She was seen playing harp on Paris streets hoping to attract attention for the LDS church through her musical skills and story.

What would she tell potential converts? That there is this book of revelations directly from god to a convicted con-artist you should read? That this same man was tarred and feathered for plurally marrying very-very-young teenagers? That These revelations used the word "verily" a whole lot and described cataclysmic events? That you should believe like she does that these are divine scriptures because she knows in her pretty blond heart that they are true, and that knowledge provides emotional and spiritual comfort to her?

Verily, even the gum was blessed

In May of 1997 the LDS church razed the Deseret gym (161 N Main in SLC) to construct their new conference center. The conference center now dwarfs the temple situated in it’s high-walled compound just across north Temple street from it. The blocky white conference structure sports a multi-story waterfall, and roof-top-gardens; several people have mentioned it’s resemblance to a portion of what they imagine Babalonia’s ancient hanging gardens to have looked like.

The Deseret gymnasium which the conference center replaced was an impressive place to exercise. In addition to the basketball courts needed to hone up ones church-ball moves it had handball, racquetball and squash courts; a running track; two swimming pools; weight-training rooms; an aerobics room; and a golf practice range. When the LDS prophet Gordon Hinkley announced at the annual spring conference in April of 1997 that the Deseret Gym would be closing on May 1st it caused a minor reaction. Some complained that: “the Deseret Gym is truly a first-rate, first-class facility and has many, many productive years ahead of it to serve the Salt Lake area's exercise aficionados.”

The Deseret Gym had been dedicated on January 5th 1965. That is was still considered a 1st-rate facility after 30 years of continual use speaks to the loving maintenance it received. The most famous maintainer of the Deseret Gym was Appellee Mayson.

Appellee had not worked at the Deseret Gym for over 15 years when it was torn down. He had been fired, but not for any irregularities in his performance on the job; he was fired for failing to maintain his temple recommend.

The church readily conceded that Appelle’s job was in no way "even tangentially related to any conceivable religious belief or ritual of the Mormon Church or church administration". The Deseret Gym was open to the public, and non-Mormons often exercised there. However, the LDS church maintained that any facility or enterprise that it owned, or owned a substantial financial interest in, could require a temple recommend for employment if it chose to.

I’m sure that Janitorial work is not one of the LDS Church’s higher callings, and sometimes it is necessary to hire unrecommended janitorial staff. However, the Church maintained that it had the right to fire anyone on the basis of religious status regardless of any existing civil rights laws. In 1987 the US Supreme Court agreed [CORPORATION OF PRESIDING BISHOP v. AMOS, 483 U.S. 327 (1987)] .

I should point out that having a temple recommend is different from being a Mormon. There is no indication that a failure to believe wholeheartedly in all the tenets of the Mormon church was any part of the determination that Appellee was unfit to maintain the gymnasium. Of course I guess not believing in Mormon dogma would be a reason to lose a temple recommend, but it is not the only reason. One can lose a temple recommend for a variety of reasons while remaining - at heart - a true-believing Mormon. Losing a temple recommend means failing a -sometimes intense- background investigation.

Less than a decade before Appellee was terminated the temple recommend background investigation officially considered race; African American people were considered “cursed” and immediately failed.

There are few official guidances on the temple recommend procedure, and interpretation of the guidances differs widely from bishop to bishop. The temple recommend is sometimes called a “bishop’s recommend” because of this.

What did the Supreme Court decide when it upheld the LDS Church’s right to discriminate in its employment for its completely secular activities on the basis of an arbitrary “worthyness” investigation?

Family-Friendly Parks

“Attorney General Tom Horne says women are virtual slaves in the polygamist community of Colorado City.”

I believe AG Horne is being metaphorical in the above statement. I do not think he is literally referring to some sadomasochistic FaceBook game, nor do I think this is an advertisement for really interesting garage sales in Northern Arizona. I beleive Horne is talking about the actions of Arizona police officers who enforce the religiously-motivated mistreatment of women in a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) controlled community.

This is the community made famous when it’s leader (Warren Jeffs) tried to establish a compound in Texas, and was convicted of raping a 12 and a 15-year old girl. He was also convicted in the state of Utah where he undoubtedly performed and supervised many times the number of rapes conducted in Texas, but that conviction was overturned on appeal, and Utah’s AG has decided not to pursue it further. I pointed out in a previous essay how Jeffs has been under suspicion of raping both male and female children in the state of Utah for decades, but he moves to Texas and –BAM- he is knees-down on a concrete floor praying for soap-on-a-rope in less than a tenth that time.

Jeffs has not been spiritually idle while he has been a guest of the state of Texas. Using the prison phone he has been delivering sermons that are piped into a loudspeaker system back in Utah. The number of male excommunications (always quite high) has also increased; over a hundred in the last year or so. Jeffs also published a 149-page book of revelations from prison, with at least 20 ALL-NEW-NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN revelations straight from god.

Male excommunication is actually one of the practices that contributes to the metaphorical slavery of women in the FLDS communities. Men who are excommunicated are severed from contact with their wives, and since they have no legally-recognized marriage to them there is no legal recourse. Women who are severed from their husband are then re-assigned to new husbands. I do not know the specifics of the bidding process for determining the re-assignment, but outsiders are not permitted to bid.

Many male children are simply driven out of the FLDS towns before they are given the Malkesedak Priesthood. They are collectively known as Utah’s “Lost Boys”, and have been an endemic for many years. Female children are assigned to husbands; usually before the age of 13.

The local police (the self named “Marshal’s Office") are not only complicent in these matters they can be called upon to forcibly remove excommunicated men from their homes. There is a steady stream of teary stories of families torn-apart by male excommunication.

Lorin Holm (age 54) was excommunicated on January 9th of 2011. He tells how he was called to a meetinghouse, surrounded by 25 men, and told he was unworthy. In the newspaper article Holms tearfully describes trips to Zion’s National park with his family that he would miss. In an instant he was torn away from his three wives and 25 children.

You know…Lorin’s is a heart wrenching story…until you get to the “three wives and 25 children” part. There is no mention as to how many wives had been re-assigned to him after he had declared another male unworthy. There is no mention as to how old the wives actually were when they were first married. There is no mention as to how many of his 25 children had already been assigned to marriage to one of the other FLDS members. Lorin was a sustaining member of the community he now says victimized him. The only true victims are the three wives and 25 children, and they have been silent.

In January of this year a group of FLDS men occupied a structure (an old schoolhouse) owned by an excommunicated FLDS member who was apparently planning on using it to have a meeting of other excommunicated FLDS members. The police were called, and (those that were on duty and not inside the occupied structure) refused to do anything about it. The Sheriff from dozens of miles away had to be called in for the excommunicated man to reclaim his property. I know of no disciplinary actions filed as a result of this targeted inaction.

I wrote a couple of pieces about local police (probably because some were involved) refusing to investigate the theft and partial burning of over $10,000.00 worth of books. I wrote of how a woman “escaped” her household only to be surrounded in the house she escaped to (I actually think it may have been the same fellow who owned the occupied schoolhouse) by an angry mob that the local police refused to disband. There are probably dozens of other violent activities engaged in by the local police; all of which have gone undisciplined.

That is not to say that the local police have gone completely undisciplined. Half a dozen of them in Utah alone (over half the Utah-side police force) have been decertified as law enforcement officers over the past years. Most for proclaiming their “allegiance to the FLDS prophet [Jeffs] above the law” when he was on the run to avoid prosecution. Others for “misconduct with minors” uncovered in that same investigation.

The community of ShortCreek spans the Arizona-Utah border; it is Colorado City in Arizona, and Hilldale in Utah. The police decertifications apparently occurred at about the same rate on either side of the border. The resulting stain on public decency was dealt with in very different ways.

In Arizona SB 1433 (2012) was quickly passed, and designated as an emergency measure to speed its incorporation into the law. It would completely disband any police force where over half the force had been decertified as long as:

“THE REASONS FOR THE REVOCATIONS ARE BASED ON SYSTEMIC ISSUES AND NOT SOLELY ON INDIVIDUAL POLICE OFFICER MISCONDUCT.” –Arizona SB 1433 (2012) {they apparently have a broken caps-lock key}

The bill goes on to require that corrective action be identified which would be required before, after five years, they could apply for re-instatement. It was in support of this bill that Arizona AG Horne made the banner statement on this entry.

Utah began a bill similar to the Arizona bill, but Utah has a different population than Arizona. Utah has tens of thousands of FLDS-like polygamist Mormons. Many main-stream Mormons have strong ties to the polygamists. Mitt Romney’s grandfather was a member of a polygamist sect that abandoned the US and escaped to Mexico (where his father was born). Before the Utah bill got voted on it was clear it was dead. It was argued that the bill might affect too many small communities in Utah.

As a side note I should write something about those Mexican polygamists. Their story makes that of Warren Jeffs appear mild. It is complete with designated hit squads and at least one group of brainwashed female assassins shooting up a chiropractor’s office.

I’ve actually had people seriously argue that what the police department in Hilldale does is not all bad, and that they should be granted amnesty because of that. What kind of moral code is that? If you take your family to the park you should be able to keep them as slaves?