The picture below is from a NYT Magazine article extolling "Purity Balls." (See Digby's comment here for why, in and of themselves, these things are so far from needing to be extolled!)So far as I know, none of the pictured persons are from the YFZ Ranch, or Short Creek, or are named Jessop or Jeffs. But the resemblance is unmistakable.
From the invaluable Digby, at the link above:
"It's that phony Village provincialism running amok again spreading patronizing, anti-intellectual drivel that allows these elites to wallow in salt of the earth moral superiority that they do not personally possess but take credit for by writing glowing paeans to primitivism and barbarity that nobody but a few fundamentalist weirdos actually believe in."
Digby, as usual, nails it. What disturbed me originally was the similarity of the photo to those of Warren Jeffs with his child brides, though. It wasn't until one of the commenters noted that the girls look half-dead that I realized there's something going on here the Village reporter deliberately covers up (no pun intended) as she gushes about the fathers "covering" their daughters' "purity".
It's not just a pedophilic image. It's a necrophilic one.
Look how young the girls are.
Look how the grown men pose, vampirically, above them.
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Pass the puke bucket
This is institutionalized incestuous pedophilia... but I guess as long as there is a religious sub-text, it's all fine and dandy.
Creepy
Funereal, too ... N/T
We can admit that we're killers ... but we're not going to kill today. That's all it takes! Knowing that we're not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
Creeped me out, too
Then again, any topic that lets you write a headline with "balls" in it can't be all bad, right?
Say, do you think we can get the White House to sponsor one, or several, as part of our outreach to evangelicals? Maybe in 2009?
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
Make it bipartisan!
In case you missed this.
Sarah, My Sweet, Couldn't Agree More, But Where's The Link?
Funny, but I was about to do a post recommending a post by Digby she put up today, about a sickeningly positive piece in TIME magazine on precisely this phenom.
Funny, too, in light of my comment in praise of PBS, this subject was explored on NOW two years ago, by Maria Hinojosa. Digby did an excellent post about it back then, and she revisits it again today, based on the TIME piece.
Well worth the time to read both.
Here's a sample from todays post:
Notice the false choice presented: "...is there anyone who thinks it's a good idea for 12 year olds to have sex? Or a bad idea for fathers to be engaged in the lives of their daughters and promise to practice what they preach?" "No," to the first question and "Yes" to the second has almost nothing to do with whether or not these purity balls are a healthy response to female sexuality, or to father-daughter relationships. And as Digby juxtaposes to all that seemingly common sense TIME-speak, here's the pledge of Daddy's allegiance these little girls are meant to thrive on:
Sarah, should we add an update to the post with a link to Digby's piece. Up to you, although I'll do it for you if you want.
Ack, you're right
I just saw the thing in the Times -- and had to go disinfect afterwards -- and it didn't even occur to me to look for a link...
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
Didn't cross my mind, leah -- I didn't see the Digby piece until
today, but it's sure worth an edit-in. So I'll do it.
The photo came up in a search I did, on a tangent from a "news" google on FLDS. Creeped me right the hell out, immediately.
Sarah: Time for a little Happy Dance
Remember that grand jury investigation?
FIVE felony indictments. :) N/T
We can admit that we're killers ... but we're not going to kill today. That's all it takes! Knowing that we're not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
Religion in the hands of the affluent but
...uneducated/stupid. Stories like these make me wish the Bible had never been translated. I'll make it short: not only is this secularly perverse for reasons that have already been cited but it is also religiously perverse. And what I mean by the latter is that (a) not only is there no biblical basis for such a ceremony but (b) most of those engaging in this behavior are affluent evangelicals who claim literalism and inerrancy as their hermeneutics and that within that restrictive frame they are placing both themselves and their daughters in spiritual peril by swearing oaths before God that they know they can't keep -- such an act is forbidden under the constraints of literalism and inerrancy.
IOW, bash away. These morons have no real religious protections to speak of and are exploiting religious symbol for their own ends.
PB 2.0 - Supplement the wonk!
One good thing -- the Jeffs daughters mostly didn't get their
looks from their dad, if the pictures the NYT put up are anything to go by.
Every time I see a photo of that rodent-faced stripling, I wonder how in the name of the seven bald steers he ever managed to convince anybody he was a prophet.
We can admit that we're killers ... but we're not going to kill today. That's all it takes! Knowing that we're not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
Rulon Jeffs annointed his son, Warren, as new Prophet and Seer
Uncle Rulon, and everyone called him that, was a real piece of work. Here's a brief summary but you have to have talked to these people to appreciate how completely controlled they are. What ever the Prophet says is in their minds the True Word of God, and Rulon as Prophet ruled as though he were God himself.
Uncle Rulon was an insistently manipulative, truly evil character, smooth as silk and quietly persuasive, charismatic but in an oily sort of way that really was frightening to be around. Warren was groomed by Rulon to be in charge as well as to obey without question, had obedience and belief literally beaten into him from birth. The monster that is Warren Jeffs today was created by the abuse and indoctrination of his own father.
Lots of stories but you'll like this one.
At the end of Rulon's life he had cardiac failure and was under a physician's care pretty much continuously. One of Rulon's wives mentioned that Rulon was having second thoughts about his succession, and an announcement - a revelation - about who he wanted to succeed him would be forthcoming.
Immediately Warren and his most loyal wife took over the care of his father and they cut Rulon off from the world, carrying messages in and out. Warren apparently got tired of waiting, so the story is told, and with his wife as witness delivered the news that Rulon had annointed Warren as successor. The next day, Old Rulon was dead; suspicion has always been that Warren settled things with the Old Man himself, with his own hands, before the title of Prophet was handed to another man. A bit of karmic justice there, in a very twisted way.
It is this multi-generational sickness that leads me to have some small sympathy for all those who were raised in the Principle. They must be stopped, they shouldn't be excused for their crimes, they should be convicted and jailed for a long, long time, but they are all of them bearing damaged psyches and all of them are victims too. The whole enterprise is a horrible, horrible thing.
Like Father, like Son. Uncle Rulon and two of his wives.
I'd like to know why
the press refers to Jeffs as a prophet, not "self-styled prophet" or "so-called prophet".
And I don't really want to know why the adulation for purity balls, they are smarmy in too many ways to count. Parents' involvement in their children's lives=good, fathers' involvement in their daughters' sex lives=sick.
The press is incredibly bad at reporting on religion
...seriously. They'll predictably run stories about "new discoveries" around every major religious holiday that are often decades out of date, disproven, completely false/fabricated, and/or filled with "new" theories that were discredited by scholars years ago. Even when they manage to quote an actual expert rather than a charlatan, they usually murder the actual statement/message said scholar is making. And the Discovery Channel shows are just as bad. I can't tell you how many times I've watched them get simple facts completely wrong.
Current events religious reporting, like Jeffs etc. is particularly bad because the public knows even less about NRMs (new religious movements) and cults than they do about mainstream religions. News outlets are very much prone to allowing self-proclaimed experts talk out of their asses because they give the most sensationalized points of view. Genuine scholastic experts on NRMs are few in number and rarely consulted by the media.
PB 2.0 - Supplement the wonk!
Experts like
Bill Donohue?? :-)
And let's not forget that the press always tiptoes around religious issues for fear of offending religious groups who are quick to protest and well-organized to do so.
Try finding anything remotely critical of religion in the MSM... The only critical thing you'll find will be WRT the religious left (remember when CBS would not run an ad from UCC because it showed the church welcoming a gay couple and that was too controversial).
He'd be one...
lol. The MSM pandering to the lunatic fringe is amazing and more amazing is how the lunatic fringe has been able to manipulate MSM fears to the point where they (the fringe) are portrayed as the mainstream arbiters of a given religious orthodoxy! I guess threatening to boycott a company with your invisible army is the best way to move the window.
PB 2.0 - Supplement the wonk!
Love your signature, BTW!
It has a lil' Metamucil-ish feel to it! :-)
Hmm...
You sayin' I'm old, full of it, or keeping it regular? :-) Cuz as I recall, you helped come up with it.
PB 2.0 - Supplement the wonk!
Well, if you are
so am I! All three (old, full of it and regular!!)
And I am always happy to be given credit for minimal effort on my part!
heehee
I don't think I'm old just yet (well unless we're talking the new hip college kids then I'm old) but I'm definitely full of it and regular! Oh and your effort was not minimal but essential. :-)
PB 2.0 - Supplement the wonk!
Same here
I'm afraid we're derailing the thread!
I prefer having Jeffs called "Prophet"
although the press now is careful to call him the former Prophet or past Prophet, since Jeffs publically renounced the title. He did that to try and deceive the law, claiming now that he has no authority over the FLDS at all and can't be held responsible for anything that happens. No replacement has been named; suspicion is that inside the church he's still Duh Man.
The more that the formal titles can be tied to the corruption and the evil, the better. Pope and Pedophilia should go together like Prophet and Pedophilia.
Hey, bringiton -- what do you know about Rulon Allred?
This suggests to me that the Jeffs/Jessop clans are not alone at the top of the FLDS heap. Is there still a power struggle?
Ah, Sarah, a whole new world opens up for you
These people, in the aggregate, are just so damn bizzare and they make the Old West family feuds look tame.
I was living about five miles away from Allred's office when he was gunned down by Rena Chynoweth, a member of the LeBaron fragment of polygamists. They'd been shooting people left and right all up and down the the country from Mexico to Canada for decades, nobody knows for sure how many but estimates are 50 or more and I wouldn't doubt it. The high walls around Rulon Jeff's homestead, the armed guards and movement in convoys in vehicles with darkened windows wasn't all paranoia. If the LeBarons could have killed him, they would have.
After the civil suit Chynoweth beat feet for Mexico, where a number of convicted and wanted LeBaron killers have been hiding for decades and where they are rumored to have hidden away millions of believer money and be deeply involved in a whole host of illicit cross-border activities - all in the name of God and eternal glory. The FLDS are by no means the worst of the bunch.
Do you suppose that Texas is really interested in arresting and prosecuting the FLDS, or just wants to drive them all out of the state and make them somebody else's problem?
Can't be sure, but based on recent history, Texas likely wants
the solution that costs Texas least.
Greg Abbott's showboating notwithstanding, the real reason the court sent those kids home was the ceaseless drumbeat of "news stories" about the cost of keeping those kids in the foster care system (which, like every other low-service Southern/Western "God helps those who help themselves" state, is broke financially as well as operationally).
What I'd like to see is ... lawmakers and lawmen (and women) with the same intestinal fortitude as that grand jury, and the state district judge, statewide.
We can admit that we're killers ... but we're not going to kill today. That's all it takes! Knowing that we're not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0