How do you respond to an old friend that called you evil and said you needed to be ran out of your country because you don’t share their belief system? By email? Who never bothered to respond to your outrage? And whom you’ve never heard from since?
Josie and I met in Germany when we were teenagers and became fast friends. We spent so much time together that a rumour or two circled around about us being lesbians. Years went by, we both married and moved to seperate sides of the planet, but kept in touch as much as possible all things considered.
Somewhere in her travels, she found a god. I did not. Nothing changed. We didn’t avoid religious talk, but it wasn’t something either of us saught out. Then that email arrived. Cruel and vicious in its rage. I was evil. I was the cause of everything that is allegedly wrong with the world. I didn’t deserve to live in such a great country. I needed to be ran out or shipped out.
Why? For being an atheist. Nothing more. It’s one thing to get something like that from a stranger, an acquaintance or even someone you didn’t like to begin with. It’s another to get something like that from someone you’ve known for over a decade and considered a close friend. The shock and rage was extreme. I must have written a dozen or more responses just to throw them away. I finally settled on one that wasn’t too hostile and angry about a week later.
No response. I never heard from Josie again. Until a few days ago. A short little email saying she was here and would love to catch up with me.
I think I should acknowledge her missive, but honestly - I’ve got nothing. Well, I do but it’s only anger at her chutzpah and what good will that do? The bridge was burned. Firebombing it seems a bit overboard, eh?
Ted Bundy was arrested after being pulled over for a traffic violation. Timothy McVeigh was arrested after being pulled over for having a busted tail light. Now Warren Jeffs, defacto tyrant of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), is in custody after being pulled over for not having visible registration tags on his car.
Say what you will about polygamy itself, but I’m sure the women of the FLDS and the men who consider them more than cattle have to be breathing a bit easier today. Under Jeffs rule which began in 2002, the sect saw the number of arranged marriages involving underaged girls increase into the hundreds.
Jeffs also arranged for the banishment of younger men to cut down on the competition for wives in addition to banishment of older married men and fathers who dissented with him and his inner circle. The wives and children of these men were routinely ‘assigned’ to other men as though they were pets, not humans.
In addition to this Jeff also severely curtailed the freedom of members to such a degree that laughing became a crime. He also had groups of men referred to as “God Squadss” who inspected households to make sure Jeff’s various and often absurd edicts were being followed.
There is also some suspicion that Jeff used his fathers deteriorating health to remove a more senior leader from power thus ensuring his own rise to power in addition to issueing edicts in his father’s name that helped cut off the members access to the outside world such as the 2000 edict that they had to remove their children from public schools.
And though he is in custody it remains to be seen how much power he will continue to exert over the sect through those who continue to remain loyal to him. His uneventful arrest has surely shaken the beliefs of some members as the group has been taught to believe the Prophet is appointed by the Christian god and is essentially that god’s representative on Earth. However, faith is a funny thing where the stronger the evidence to the contrary the stronger the faith becomes.
Hopefully these people will be able to shake off the mental chains Jeff and his loyalists ensnared them with and eventually become whole again. For now, the wicked bastard is in jail and that seems like a good start.
Ted Bundy was arrested after being pulled over for a traffic violation. Timothy McVeigh was arrested after being pulled over for having a busted tail light. Now Warren Jeffs, defacto tyrant of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), is in custody after being pulled over for not having [...]
Ted Bundy was arrested after being pulled over for a traffic violation. Timothy McVeigh was arrested after being pulled over for having a busted tail light. Now Warren Jeffs, defacto tyrant of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), is in custody after being pulled over for not having [...]
Suppose you’re a devout religious believer and an athlete. Would you put on a religious show during a match with full knowledge that such a display could quite possibly lead to a violent clash up in the stands? Especially if both your teams had been involved in a summit to try and turn [...]
Suppose you’re a devout religious believer and an athlete. Would you put on a religious show during a match with full knowledge that such a display could quite possibly lead to a violent clash up in the stands? Especially if both your teams had been involved in a summit to try and turn [...]
Suppose you’re a devout religious believer and an athlete. Would you put on a religious show during a match with full knowledge that such a display could quite possibly lead to a violent clash up in the stands? Especially if both your teams had been involved in a summit to try and turn [...]
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Know what happens when you install a Microsoft beta under “what could happen” thinking? I’ll tell you. Your computer won’t reboot properly after a crash, forcing you to reinstall the OS just to find out you can’t activate it and the support folks don’t know what the f’ went wrong. So, you [...]
