Word: flds
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...modern computer equipment, he says the massive construction at the Red Cheek site sparked suspicions. When the paper checked Allred's Utah connections, it discovered that the men were in Eldorado to set up a large gated compound for the Fundamentalist Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a religious group that believes in "celestial marriage" - polygamy. The FLDS admitted to town leaders they had lied and townsfolk became wary...
...year after the FLDS arrived, Eldorado city officials held a town meeting. "The citizens got a little restless," Mayor John Nikolauk said. "We gave them a chance to talk and let them vent and then I said, 'Here's the deal. They are not going away, we have to do the best we can.'" One angry woman demanded the town leadership do something because the FLDS were practicing polygamy and living in sin. Nikolauk responded: "Two thousand years ago this young fella stood up in defense of a whore and said he who is without sin cast the first stone...
...Eldorado remained focused on the FLDS. The local paper, the Success, has been key to keeping it in the news. When Mankin and his wife Kathy (who is the office manager and reporter - their son covers sports) bought the paper in 1994 they were committed to covering hard news. The FLDS story became a steady feature on the paper's pages. "It's four miles from our front door and our job was to educate the readers," Mankin says. The paper did more, uncovering FLDS plans for compounds in Colorado and South Dakota long before other, bigger media, and offering...
...other experts, however, the concern is not the separation of church and state but deprogramming. The bottom line, according to Utah psychologist Dr. Larry Beall, who has worked work with women and children who have fled polygamists sects, is the FLDS is a "cult" involved in "plain ole brainwashing since birth." Says Beale, "They have been taught that anyone on the outside is untrustworthy. They are the enemy and they are going to hurt you." He adds, "My experiences with these kids is once they are out of the controlled environment they come to enjoy their freedom...
...themselves as an integral part of the culture will also pose complex challenges. The young mothers occupy a crucial place in their community, proud symbols of a central tenet of their faith that only "celestial marriage" [polygamy] gains believers admission to the highest level of Heaven. (Upon reaching puberty, FLDS girls are required to marry, usually into the existing families of older men.) Furthermore, says Beall, the young women may harbor feelings of guilt and shame as victims now that they left what they have been taught to believe are the safe and sacrosanct confines of the FLDS community...