Just saw this too. Comments talked about Colorado City, the one founded by FDLS' Warren Jeffs -- but I found a city founded by a group that splintered off from Jeffs' group in the 1980s: Centennial City, Arizona.
The Centennial Park group was profiled on the ABC television program Primetime in a story entitled "The Outsiders", and also on The Oprah Winfrey Network's Our America with Lisa Ling.
mormons have been sex traffickers from the very beginning. Their founder was known for taking very young brides (14) by coercion and in secrecy. Even today the mormon fundamentalists are being convicted of it as we speak. They used to keep a wife in each country, mexico, US, and Canada, in order to flout the laws.
If you are interested in Centennial Park there are significant polygamist outposts in alberta canada, montana, texas, and many other places.
I was born into mormonism and my family went with the mainstream church- even still more than 1/3 of my direct female mormon ancestors meet the definition of sex trafficking. Even multiple cases of international sex trafficking. We're only barely making inroads into these communities, and only because it has gotten really really bad there.
I was reading comments on a site yesterday (don't remember where in my wanderings now) -- but a very educated and informed Mormon person with the handle "John Galt" was disputing the fact that Jos. Smith had sexual relations with his younger brides. One of the brides wrote in at least one book, and her personal journal, that she had been sealed to Smith for "eternity" but not "time and eternity." Apparently (and perhaps you can help me understand this?) families are sometimes sealed "for eternity" through marriages that are not consummated? Whereas marriages "for time and eternity" are understood to exist for the creation of families (i.e. include sexual relations).
"John Galt" insisted there was no historical evidence for Smith having relations with his younger brides, and no one in that forum could come up with such evidence. Understand, I am no defender of Mormonism -- I believe it to be a reworking of Masonism within a pseudo-Christian framework.
We're only barely making inroads into these communities, and only because it has gotten really really bad there
Who is "we?" Is there working being done on this front? And are "these communities" the outposts in alberta, montana and texas that you mention? Might you have links to stories on any of this?
view the rest of the comments →
chabon ago
Just saw this too. Comments talked about Colorado City, the one founded by FDLS' Warren Jeffs -- but I found a city founded by a group that splintered off from Jeffs' group in the 1980s: Centennial City, Arizona.
Apparently Lisa Ling did a documentary on the city for Oprah's channel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Park_group:
Here's the wiki on the City itself, citing a median age of 15!: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Park,_Arizona
Back to digging... Here's a creepy photo page from their blog: http://centennialparkaz.com/people/
O, yeah, and there's this: The initials of the city are CP.
(Edited to clarify Warren Jeffs' as founder of Colorado City -- and add note about CP)
notdivided ago
mormons have been sex traffickers from the very beginning. Their founder was known for taking very young brides (14) by coercion and in secrecy. Even today the mormon fundamentalists are being convicted of it as we speak. They used to keep a wife in each country, mexico, US, and Canada, in order to flout the laws.
If you are interested in Centennial Park there are significant polygamist outposts in alberta canada, montana, texas, and many other places.
I was born into mormonism and my family went with the mainstream church- even still more than 1/3 of my direct female mormon ancestors meet the definition of sex trafficking. Even multiple cases of international sex trafficking. We're only barely making inroads into these communities, and only because it has gotten really really bad there.
chabon ago
Thank you for this.
I was reading comments on a site yesterday (don't remember where in my wanderings now) -- but a very educated and informed Mormon person with the handle "John Galt" was disputing the fact that Jos. Smith had sexual relations with his younger brides. One of the brides wrote in at least one book, and her personal journal, that she had been sealed to Smith for "eternity" but not "time and eternity." Apparently (and perhaps you can help me understand this?) families are sometimes sealed "for eternity" through marriages that are not consummated? Whereas marriages "for time and eternity" are understood to exist for the creation of families (i.e. include sexual relations).
"John Galt" insisted there was no historical evidence for Smith having relations with his younger brides, and no one in that forum could come up with such evidence. Understand, I am no defender of Mormonism -- I believe it to be a reworking of Masonism within a pseudo-Christian framework.
Who is "we?" Is there working being done on this front? And are "these communities" the outposts in alberta, montana and texas that you mention? Might you have links to stories on any of this?
Thank you in advance.