A polygamist group leader says unless his trial on sexual assault charges is halted, those involved will face "sickness and death."
Warren Jeffs has been representing himself against accusations he sexually assaulted two underage girls. He spoke for nearly an hour Thursday, while objecting to testimony about evidence FBI agents seized from his group's compound in Texas.
After District Judge Barbara Walther overruled his objection, he told her he had to read a statement from God.
Walther dismissed the jury, and the head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints read a statement saying God demanded the trial end or "sickness and death" would come to all involved.
The judge told Jeffs she would remove him from court if he made such a reference before jurors.
To me Warren Jeffs sounds more like Joseph Smith, Jr. (no surprise there) who, according to Richard Bushman in Rough Stone Rolling, would often "rain down curses on his opponents".
When his brother Samuel was fined twenty dollars for avoiding militia service, Joseph Smith got angry (as he apparently often did in such situations) and pronounced the following curse upon those who levied the fine: " I say in the name of Jesus Christ that the money they have thus unjustly taken shall be a testimony against them and canker & eat their flesh as fire." RSR, pg. 229
Great example of how one is to use the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood, is it not?
David Hume: "---Mistakes in philosophy are merely ridiculous, those in religion are dangerous."
DrW: "Mistakes in science are learning opportunities and are eventually corrected."
Jeffs is crazy just like Joseph Smith and William Schryver.
Warren Jeffs wrote: On Friday, however, Jeffs suddenly cried, "I object!" as FBI agent John Broadway testified about seizing eight desktop computers and 120 boxes and large folders of documents from the church's remote compound in Eldorado in 2008.
"There is sacred trust given to religious leadership not to be touched by government agencies," Jeffs said.
He then launched into a lengthy defense of polygamy, but Walther eventually overruled his objection. She said court rules prohibit him from testifying while objecting, but she let him go on at length because he hadn't offered an opening statement.
Jeffs then said he had no choice but to read a statement from God. Walther dismissed the jury and allowed him to read it.
"I, the Lord God of heaven," Jeffs read, "call upon the court to cease this open prosecution against my pure, holy way."
If the trial continues, he read, "I will send a scourge upon the counties of prosecutorial zeal to make humbled by sickness and death."
Walther told Jeffs he could not threaten jurors.
"If you call for their destruction," she said, "or in any way say that they will be injured or damaged because of their service, you will be removed from the courtroom."
In his testimony on Friday, Jeffs said there was no crime, explaining that he and both girls had a “spiritual” marriage bond. He went on to say that the FLDS must “follow the law set out for it by God.”
“If we do not live these laws we are damned here and hereafter. We believe in a marriage system of eternity called celestial marriage, wherein celestial means heavenly authorized, not to be intervened by government intervention,” Jeffs said.
I just hope everyone agrees that we must reserve judgment of Jeffs. He clearly believes God commanded him to act in the manner he did, and we have to leave open the possibility that God really did command him to marry and consummate his unions to two underage girls, which would mean there was no wrong here. Besides, we all know that God only does these things to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. If you're offended, or angered, or disgusted with Jeffs for doing what he did and therefore unable to accept his message, it just means you lack the faith to accept who God is and follow his commandments whatever they may be, and aren't meant to be part of his covenant people. God's ways are not man's ways and sometimes he does things like this to make that clear to us.
"It seems to me that these women were the head (κεφάλαιον) of the church which was at Philippi." ~ John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians 13
MsJack wrote:I just hope everyone agrees that we must reserve judgment of Jeffs. He clearly believes God commanded him to act in the manner he did, and we have to leave open the possibility that God really did command him to marry and consummate his unions to two underage girls, which would mean there was no wrong here. Besides, we all know that God only does these things to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. If you're offended, or angered, or disgusted with Jeffs for doing what he did and therefore unable to accept his message, it just means you lack the faith to accept who God is and follow his commandments whatever they may be, and aren't meant to be part of his covenant people. God's ways are not man's ways and sometimes he does things like this to make that clear to us.
All I can do is bow my head and say "yes." ;)
We hate to seem like we don’t trust every nut with a story, but there’s evidence we can point to, and dance while shouting taunting phrases.
Jack, what you wrote reminds me of this little bit of tripe from Blake Ostler.
Blake Ostler wrote:[P]olygamy was and is intended to be a test that stretched those who confronted the request to engage in it beyond anything they could imagine. It also stretches and challenges us. Indeed, even today it challenges us to give up the preconceived notion that we can pigeonhole God into our matrix of judgments. The practice of plural marriage obliterates the notion that God must fit into our categories of right and wrong and that we can know all about God without God revealing himself to us as he is, rather than as we think he must be.