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Tue 29 Aug, 2006 09:53 am
I wish the Media would would identify him as he actually is, which is a Cult Leader. His followers are Cult members. The cult behaves and is structured like a classic cult.---BBB
Fugitive Polygamist Nabbed
Polygamist Mormon Sect Leader Warren Jeffs Was On FBI's Ten Most Wanted List
LAS VEGAS, Aug. 29, 2006
CBS/AP
The fugitive leader of a polygamist Mormon sect who was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List has been arrested in southern Nevada.
Warren Steed Jeffs, 50, was taken into custody after he and two other people were pulled over late Monday by a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper on Interstate 15 just north of Las Vegas, FBI spokesman David Staretz said.
Jeffs didn't have any identification during a routine traffic stop, and was taken to the a local detention center where his identity was confirmed, CBS News Los Vegas affiliate KLAS-TV reports.
The leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was wanted in Utah and Arizona on suspicion of sexual misconduct for allegedly arranging marriages between underage girls and older men.
In May of this year, the FBI placed the fugitive leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list with a $100,000 reward.
Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said that his office is also looking at Jeffs and his church for "double books, cooking books, offshore accounts and fraud."
"I believe Warren Jeffs ran the FLDS church and the UEP as an organized crime-type setup," Shurtleff said. "We just have to get the evidence to prove it."
The other two people in the vehicle were identified as one of Warren Jeffs' wives, Naomi Jeffs, and a brother, Isaac Steve Jeffs, both 32, Staretz said.
They were being interviewed by the FBI in Las Vegas but were not arrested.
Jeffs was in federal custody in Las Vegas pending a court hearing on a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, Staretz said. It was not immediately clear if Jeffs would face extradition to Arizona or Utah.
Jeffs was indicted in June on an Arizona charge of arranging a marriage between a 16-year-old girl and a married man, and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. He is charged in Utah with two felony counts of rape as an accomplice, for allegedly arranging the marriage of a teenage girl to an older man in Nevada.
The FLDS Church split from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when the mainstream Mormon Church disavowed plural marriage more than 100 years ago.
I don't believe the word "Cult" has any meaning. It is simply a derogatory word for a religion you don't like.
I am in principle against emotional labels that don't add any meaning (other than a subjective judgement). The article you present seems to give a good description of the story.
BBB
ebrown_p wrote:I don't believe the word "Cult" has any meaning. It is simply a derogatory word for a religion you don't like.
I am in principle against emotional labels that don't add any meaning (other than a subjective judgement). The article you present seems to give a good description of the story.
eBrown, take my word for it, I know about cults. A family member's life was nearly destroyed by a non-religious cult, Synanon. I recognize cults when I see one. ---BBB
CULT:
Pronunciation: 'k<
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: French & Latin; French culte, from Latin cultus care, adoration, from colere to cultivate.
1 : formal religious veneration : WORSHIP
2 : a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents
3 : a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents
4 : a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <health cults>
5 a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b : the object of such devotion c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion
How do you distinguish between a cult and a religion?
Any of those definitions could refer to most any religious group.
If you want to say that aspects of a group, or a belief system are harmful... just say it-- and it helps to be specific.
Any religious group has adherents who obviously find it compelling or helpful in some way (or else they wouldn't join). The word "Cult" is worse than a value judgement. It really has no power to distinguish between one group and another-- except for the fact that in your opinion it is "dangerous".
If a religious (or non-religious) group is "dangerous", just call it a dangerous religion. This will, of course, imply that you can explain why you find it dangerous. There are dangerous groups, and perhaps I even agree with you that this is one of them.
Cult is a meaningless slur that has been applied to many religious groups from the Catholic Church to the Mormons to Orthodox Jews.
Child molester is a more accurate term.
Paedophilia sex ring sounds even more accurate.
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