FLDS: Media portrayals versus truth
The level of misinformation about the FLDS and their ways is astounding. I, myself, began with the same picture of these people as is commonly held–an extremist cult who practices a perverted form of the restorationist doctrine of celestial plural marriage wherein young girls are forced into early marriage and pregnancy, kept in poor conditions, mistreated–all to serve the lusts of the ruling body of old men, who oust young boys to keep them from stealing their would-be brides. Sensationally salcious to say the least, and those who spread such an image, such as Carolyn and Flora Jessop or Elissa Wall, undoubtedly sell many more books painting the FLDS that way than they would if the picture were a little truer to life.
Turning away from sensationalist accounts to the actual news media, though, one finds little more truth. The media seems to be a rumor mill of its own, passing off a few facts while couching them in the baseless accusations of an embittered few and endowing the whole report with a subtext of suspicion.
The raid on the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado Texas, even though it was initially driven by a phonecall for help that turned out to be a hoax, was supposedly retroactively justified by evidenece of widespread physical, emotional, and even sexual abuse of the children, and time and again, that purported evidence is refernced in the abstract as the reasoning, nevermind that such justifying evidence was never found.
Never found? How can you say that? The headlines have been full of the evidence that Texas CPS has uncovered!
- •How about all those kids with a history of broken bones that were reported? Clearly that indicates a pervasive pattern of abuse! As it turn out, there were no more than the average proportion for a rural, active community.
- •What about the claim that there were found 31 underage teens who are or have been pregnant? No, that simply was not accurate, and even though CPS has since redacted those numbers, they continue to be reported again and again. As it turns out, most of the 31 turned out to be adults–adults who had all the legal and proper documentation to prove their ages, but were deemed ‘underage’ by nothing more than visual inspection by CPS workers. One was 14, but was not and never had been pregnant. She had been included on the list punitively after refusing to take a pregnancy test. Once on the list, she relented and consented to be tested, and then test, retest, and retest again as they might, she never was found to be pregnant, although they kept her on the list.
- •What about that one teen girl, the one whose lawyer insisted that she was a victim of sexual abuse and had already had a baby that was secretly being claimed by another woman? Again, simply untrue. That girl’s name is Teresa, and Teresa is not the source of those claims, nor is she the source of the allegations of intimidation by FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop. Those claims come from her ad litem, the lawyer assigned to advocate for her best interests. Only her ad litem, Natalie Malonis, has not served the girl’s interests, and has even gone so far as to be incredibly unkind to Teresa, making untrue and disparaging remarks to her in regard to her faith and her family. Malonis has an agenda, and she is abusing her position as Teresa’s ad litem to pursue it. Teresa has petitioned the court to assign a new ad litem, though it is unlikely that it will be granted, as Malonis’s outrageous claims are exactly what judge Barbara Walther’s court wants to hear in the scramble to retroactively justify one of the worst violations of civil rights in American history–regardless of whether they are true or not. It should also be mentioned that, per Free the FLDS Children, Teresa has been to a gynecologist, to clear her own name from the untruths purported by her ad litem, and not only is she not pregnant, she never has been, as she is a virgin.
I refuse to believe that the media dissemination of such consistent misinformation is part of any kind of an overarching conspiracy. I can only assume that the individual journalists themselves must not be aware of the bias inherent in their reporting.
Up until now, the FLDS have kept to themselves, with little thought for public opinion, leaving their image to be painted by those with a vested interest in defaming them. This has led to the incredible bias prevalent in most reporting on them. The reporters assume that the sensationalist allegations made by the likes of disaffected ex-members who have books to sell and foundations to fund, were the facts, and they have worked from that skewed perspective. Cutting through the myths, though, and getting at the actual facts, one finds a dramatically different perspective.
Through it all, I have found the reporting of Brooke Adams and her associates at the Salt Lake Tribune to have included a more balanced report as events have unfolded. I highly suggest a perusal of their coverage if you want to get through the media rumor relay circus to what really happened, because what really happened was terrifyingly wrong and it poses a sincere threat to the basic, fundamental Constitutionally-granted freedoms and liberties of every American citizen.
8 Comments
I think Brooke Adams deserves the Pulitzer Prize for her monumental work on this subject. No one else comes close.
Good article- small correction- they don’t have brittle bone disease, that was an error Rod Parker made and corrected within 24 hours. However, the 41 broken bones is not above the norm for a rural and active population.
Question- do you have a link for the assertion that Malonis’ client has been to gynecologist? Thanks
Leon, I heartily agree. Whatever award is appropriate, whatever recognition, she deserves it.
Dpt. HM, Thanks for the correction; edited. As for the source, that was Bill Medvecky over at flds.ws. I’ll add a link inline.
Let us ASSUME that the state can only prove 5 underage Marriages instead of 31. What is the Magic number in your opinion before they state should act?
[comment edited]
I don’t know. I think you’re missing some fundamentals of sociology and history here.
What the FLDS was or wasn’t doing isn’t what I’m going to argue here, because I wasn’t there and I don’t know until the court cases are finished and *all* evidence made public.
However, historically and socially, when a community, country or individual goes on lockdown, that usually means something less-than-kosher is happening. See Burma. Iraq. Waco. Zimbabwe. The USSR. The neighbor who puts up the big fence with the “Keep out” sign and the savage dog. In general, history has proven that lockdown means something is being kept secret, and I highly doubt, considering it’s the mormons, that it’s the glory of Jesus. Why is it that I can walk through any Amish community, any Mennonite community, any Muslim community in this country? No one in those communities will have issues with me being there, they won’t try to convert me, they’ll be happier if I dress more modestly according to their customs, but in general will be cool. However, I would never, in a million years, have been let near the FLDS compound.
In this country we have this assumption of privacy. We *do* have personal privacy and other privacies to a degree, but community privacy is an illusion. In general, no one will care if your community is out in the open. And frankly, I welcome a certain level of transparency because that is how we prevent or curtail crap like the KKK or genocides or other extremist shit from happening. At the same time I feel that the Patriot Act is ridiculous. Anyways. No one criticizes the Amish for their beliefs, old-style dresses or turn-of-the-century farming – most people respect them. But that’s because they don’t put their entire community on lockdown – there’s nothing to hide.
While I agree with you that the media has gone batshit crazy with this, I also have personal suspicions based on what I’ve said above. It is not normal in any family, community or country to be on lockdown like the FLDS were, unless there *is* something to hide. And, based on the conviction of Warren Jeffs (and all the info surrounding that) I think there was, just not to the degree that the media would have people believe. I suspect there is evidence not being released to the media or public at all, which is absolutely typical for legal cases.
Of course, it should be noted that things aren’t really being seen as such a big deal in real life – it only feels that way to you, the consumer, because the 24-hr news channel and websites are still in their infancy, and it seems like *more* in comparison to years ago, simply because of that.
Naiah,
Please either e mail me or log on the site,
I wish to link with you.
Great Job,
Bill Medvecky
Texan, My apologies for editing your comment, but I found the second half of it to be offensive and inflammatory. You do, however, pose a valid question in the first half. Whatever the crime–be it underage marriage or abuse or anything else, in the FLDS community or anywhere else should be reported to and dealt with through the proper authorities. Mass detainment of any group, though, even if there are 5 offenders among them is absolutely wrong. These people had their basic freedoms trampled in this situation, and nothing they have done comes anywhere near the after-the-fact justification that is being sought. The fact is, the authorities were ill-informed, anticipating the uncovering of great evils that simply were not there, as they had been fed lies by disaffected members with vested interest in making these people out to be much worse than they actually are. The very fact that you would write the kinds of things that I edited out, tells me that you do not know them–you only know the myths. It’s really not as it has been made out to be. Coming from another church that is often misrepresented by taking bits of truth and skewing them out of their context to seem awful, I know how easily something beautiful can be made to seem downright evil with the right spin. If you choose to remain among the informed-yet-ignorant, you may, but there is a whole other truth to be seen if you choose to look beyond the myths.
Anne,
The FLDS are not in ‘lockdown’ as you put it. Many of them have jobs, and they shop in the community and such as needed. I have made a friend down there, and she and I email and talk on our cell phones; that hardly qualifies as locked-down if you ask me. Also, not all of them live at YFZ, behind the ranch fence, you know. The FLDS also do not actively proselytize, and, therefore, should you meet some, it is likely they would not try to convert you, either. As far as living in a closed community, sometimes it’s not for the sake of keeping the world from seeing what’s going on inside, it’s for the sake of keeping the world’s unwanted influences out. The FLDS live an admirably devotedly rigorous type of Christianity, and they seek to be pure through and through, beyond actions, down to motives and feelings. Those invited to live at YFZ represent those who live that the most fully. In a sense they are the FLDS ‘best of the best,’ from what I understand, and so, I have little doubt that it is, indeed, their best attempt at living the most Christlike lives possible that is all that is contained within those walls. Abuse and the like is not ‘hidden’ in there; in fact, it is not tolerated. I have another friend who is currently disfellowshipped from the FLDS for having mistreated his wife and family. Anne, you are really good at getting to the heart of an issue and seeing it in cultural contexts of history and the social sciences, but, in this case, by buying into the misinformed media portrayals, you are running with bad information. I’d love to see you make a documentary that gets the actual truth out there. This is like the worst, most protracted slander/libel case in history. Decades have gone by as these people just minded their own business and let their critics say what they will; only now, that gross mischaracterization of them has cost them their freedom. Texas went in there with ideas like Flora Jessop’s claims of teen captivity and hidden dead bodies in their mind, only to find a peaceful people who some CPS workers said should write a parenting manual for the rest of us. That’s not to say that everyone in this faith is perfect–hardly. Though, I feel that these people are more likely to be aware of their own faults and shortcomings than most. There are occasionally offenders among them, as there are in society in general, and they are dealt with appropriately. As far as this feeling like a big deal, it was court-sanctioned kidnapping of over 400 children. That *is* a much bigger deal to each individual citizen than the media is pointing it out to be. Luckily it was overturned by higher courts, but even though the children have been returned, it is not over, and these families’ freedoms are still being curtailed, because of being part of a group. Anytime we let that happen to any group, we endanger every group. You bring up the KKK and the holocaust; allowing the mass-mistreatment of any group, religious, racial, social, or otherwise neutralizes the Constitution for everyone by making its application subjective.
Bill, Thanks. I’m just trying to help. I don’t know if it was a great job, but I just want to do something…It is so hard to read article after article from people who just don’t get it–intelligent people who report what they know without knowing that what they ‘know’ is wrong.
I’ve been thinking about this post ever since I wrote it. I’m not this kind of blogger. I just can’t stand contentious discourse; it just shreds my soul. So, being the sabbath, I guess, it seemed even more wrong today, and so I am closing the comments here. Please just know that all I want to say is that of all the information out there, so much of it is wrong–even that from reliable journalistic sources. I would advise everyone to get to know the FLDS for themselves, but all of them in Texas are really quite busy right now, and so that’s not possible. In lieu of that, I’d highly suggest you give their websites a read. Most highly, I would recommend Truth Will Prevail, and after that, I’d recommend FLDS Trith for some understanding of their history, beliefs and biographical sketches of some of their leaders. Finally, if you are willing to look for yourself, you can see photos, videos, and an interactive timeline of the raid on Captive FLDS Children. All three of those sites are official FLDS church sites. For another point of view, I also recommend FLDS View; this one is not put out by the church itself, but is written independently by man of their faith.