Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

[DeltAlum]

Originally Posted by jon1856

Well I do believe this is the first time I have ever seen Mods hi-jack a thread.

Wait.

I've been on the road and this is the first time I've posted.


Seriously, I've just watched a couple of days worth of coverage and my question is where are the men?

I've only seen wives interviewed, and some of the speech patterns and body language are nearly scary. Very robotic. Rehearsed? Staged?

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by DeltAlum

Wait.

I've been on the road and this is the first time I've posted.


Seriously, I've just watched a couple of days worth of coverage and my question is where are the men?

I've only seen wives interviewed, and some of the speech patterns and body language are nearly scary. Very robotic. Rehearsed? Staged?

The men have definitely taken the back seat and it seems to be both due to the gender norms in their sect and also about what appeals to the "court of public opinion."

They showed a few men at the court hearing the other day and interviewed a couple of them. However, it seems like the women (surprise, surprise) are taking a lot of the blame for this and are the ones who are very visible because they are appealing on behalf of motherhood/what's supposedly best for the kids.

[DeltAlum]

Originally Posted by DeltAlum

...and some of the speech patterns and body language are nearly scary. Very robotic. Rehearsed? Staged?

I forgot one word: brainwashed.

There's something not natural.

As for the timing and the way this was carried out, I strongly suspect that somewhere in the future, we will find out that there is a lot more beneath the surface of this story than we know right now.

What that might be, I wouldn't care to speculate -- and under the circumstances, neither should the media or the rest of us.

[PM_Mama00]

Brainwashed is exactly what I was thinking.

[RACooper]

Originally Posted by DeltAlum

As for the timing and the way this was carried out, I strongly suspect that somewhere in the future, we will find out that there is a lot more beneath the surface of this story than we know right now.

What that might be, I wouldn't care to speculate -- and under the circumstances, neither should the media or the rest of us.

I'll speculate though... in that I'm pretty sure that there'll be a Canadian connection to this whole thing.

There was a split in the FLDS of sorts up in Canada with the enclave in Bountiful being split between Jeffs and Bishop Winston Blackmore... a split that saw the airing of some "dirty laundry" in the political and theological snipping between the two. It was even suggested in the media two years ago that Winston was helping the RCMP and FBI by feeding them info about Jeffs activities.

Regardless, the RCMP, BC Attorney General, and CSIS have all had a long and healthy interest in the group, investigating allegations of abuse dating back to the 80s... allegations supported by some of those who "defected" from the cult. Of course the problem then, as now, is that these allegations of abuse can't be pursued legally without a victim or witness willing to testify... and if the authorities happened to have a victim or witness come forward they'd certainly act on that a swoop in, all while (I assume) issuing vague or misleading public statements to protect the identity of their source(s) from retaliation by the fanatics within the cult.