The Mormons

Some background information

Surely this is more your parents’ job? Although idyllically when you come to be a little older, and you have the capacity to reason for yourself, you should be able to structure your own set of morals. That’s why religion, the dinosaur it is, is becoming extinct -- it refuses to adapt, to evolve, to think. It’s a brainless dictator.

Oops sorry I misread it!

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.

Article continues at that link above...

Inbreeding among polygamists along the Arizona-Utah border is producing a caste of severely retarded and deformed children

a plastic waterfall

at the end...it seriously made me cry. Touching.

Someone tell me how Big Love is if they watch it. FLDS folx are fucked-up. I have a hard time believing real polyamory/polgamy/polyandry exists, but if it's among consenting adults, that's one thing. All these scary-ass go-nowhere towns out in BFE that are basically incest mills are creepy and evil as anything. That's FLDS polygamy. Growing up Mormon is scary enough, and sexually awkward enough, without your uncle claiming to be prophet of the whole town so all the little daughters can marry their dad's brothers at 14.

Although I must admit to thinking of Harry Reid while watching it.

MORMONS ARE JERKS

thats a stereotype

We get a lot of American Mormons on my street doing missionary work. This must be their version of being sent to the Russian Front.

apparently they send them everywhere

i mean, if you've heard that origin story about the Joseph Smith, the golden plates, and martin and lucy harris and you still think they have a valid point...

(i feel this way about all religions, but with mormons and scientology, its just a whole new lever of stupid)

If I had a big enough lever of stupid I could lift the whole Earth.

swin burning for you? wtf does that mean?

damn! level*

wtf @ u

i mean, if you've heard that origin story about the Joseph Smith, the golden plates, and martin and lucy harris and you still think they have a valid point...

waaahhhht? That is like one of the more clearly dubious parts!

do you believe Adam and Eve were from the midwest, chaki?

I don't know what the hell yr on about...are you mormon?

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??
xpst

lol

He has discovered that some religions might not be very plausible.

And now we're all living in the aftermath of that discovery, minds blown, jaws agape.

bcz they are "jerks" hahahaha

chaki Mormons believe the Garden of Eden was in Missouri...I think he is thinking you share that belief because you said 'wtf' at him as he is clearly making almost no sense

honestly, im just looking for a fight...

and i think im making tons of sense. mormons are jerks.

well this is one fucking retarded attempt @ a flamewar bcz I don't think you'll find any mormons here, for real

swinburning is basing his theories on a couple of South Park episodes, conveniently forgetting that the Mormons are actually portrayed fairly positively in their twenty minutes of parker/stone treatment.

The ones I meet are polite, well turned-out young men. Or hotties.

have you met mormons new harranguey duder?

oh, i forgot, south park wrote the book of mormon...thanks for reminding me.

abbott, i was pretty sure i wouldn't find any mormons, but i was willing to give it a shot...

and there are plenty of attractive jerks of all religions

I rly think the only way you could say they are "jerks" is if you've been in the system like 10+ years and seen all the behind the scenes shit but yes they are often quite kind people

go to a fucking mormon board then, jesus

im a handsome jew

Trying to start a fight with some imaginary people you don't know because they are "jerks": C/D?

And btw flaming them won't change their mind one bit, they'll just think "poor misguided soul" and bare their testimonies over and over. V funny dude!

ARE THERE ANY ZOROASTRIANS ON HERE? WANKERS

HEY BAHA'I FUCKERS YOU ARE DISLIKED BY ME

Boy all the Snake Handlers on here sure are dumb.

lol Baha'i always seems like such a peaceful religion.

no, i know thats how they will react. one of my best friends became a born again mormon last year.

im a kind of ugly jerk agnostic who is bored

I can't stand that offshoot board, "I Love My Ecumenical Pastor."

We should start a thread about Racist Mithraists.