Anderson Cooper, from CNN, recently investigated a small town in Texas, which seems to be governed by an imprisoned "prophet". Jeff Warren, whom is the former President of the FLDS Church, considers himself to be a so-called "prophet". Ironically, in 2006, his words and acts of God found themselves beginning to receive international attention when he popped up on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List for sexually assaulting two young girls, this is not surprising, of course, being that he has a vast repertoire of seventy-eight wives! Thankfully, in 2011, a Texas jury put him behind bars. Despite being imprisoned though, Jeff seems to still have control on his local community through his cult. Sam, a resident of the town, whom does not belong to the FLDS Church, stated that the town was, "Ran by a mad man, sitting in a Texas prison". Sam fears that because Jeff won't be getting out of prison any time soon, that he will soon begin to encourage his followers to make rash and harsher acts of violence, even suggesting, that he might convince them to commit suicide.
-- To watch the video "Warren Jeffs' Hold on the community"see the attached link.
This is a really interesting video. It's amazing and scary to see how some people have such a powerful influence on others.
ReplyDeleteThis is a story that reminds me of the tragedy of Jonestown. This was a cult headed up by a man named Jim Jones. I won't explain all of the workings, but it was very similar to the Warren Jeffs cult in that the followers thought of Jones as a prophet as well. The story had a horrible ending when Jones ordered his cult to drink poisoned kool-aid. This was one of the worst mass-suicides in world history. I think that these stories highlight the fact that not all prophets are true prophets (obviously), but that some people will believe these people. To me, the only true "prophet" in human history was Jesus himself and no one else. In class we talked about Jesus having 4 main central themes that made him a prophet. They were him being a moral example, a confronter, a teacher, and an ally of the outcast and rejected. When you think about it, it's easy for anyone to follow these themes. We as humans must make decisions about what is right and what is wrong, and our beliefs are no different. Those who chose to follow Jeffs and Jones made religious decisions that they felt were correct, and may still feel are correct. These kinds of cases are incredibly scary and highlight the lengths some people will go for true power over others.
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