The turncoat: 'Thug Willie' spills secrets of FLDS and its 'prophet'

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

The turncoat: 'Thug Willie' spills secrets of FLDS and its 'prophet'

Story by Ann O'Neill, CNN
Video by Jason Kravarik, CNN

Updated 1626 GMT (0026 HKT) February 26, 2016

Phoenix, Arizona (CNN) - As "Thug Willie," he defended his prophet with pit-bull ferocity. But by the time we meet in a fourth-floor hallway at the Sandra Day O'Connor federal courthouse, Willie Jessop has changed sides. He's the star government witness, testifying on behalf of outsiders he once considered his enemies.

He carries himself like a man determined to unburden his conscience even if it means turning against everyone and everything he once believed in.

Burly and middle-aged with a mop of brown hair, Jessop spent more than a decade as security chief and spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a polygamous sect that split from the mainstream Mormon church at the turn of the last century. As head of the "God Squad," he was perhaps the highest profile FLDS member -- with the exception of its prophet, Warren Jeffs.

For a while Jeffs occupied the same row as Osama bin Laden and Whitey Bulger on the FBI's Most Wanted list. Jessop admits on the witness stand that he once helped the fugitive prophet run from authorities. He describes one scheme in which Jeffs dodged a raid on the FLDS meeting house: While others rode out on four-wheelers as decoys, Jeffs and Jessop rode out in another direction on Honda motorcycles packed with cash and fake IDs. They raced up a dry creek bed to the airport.

At the civil trial, expected to go to the jury next week, the government is alleging that the FLDS runs Jessop's hometown like a theocracy, controlling virtually every aspect of life in Hildale, Utah, and its neighbor, Colorado City, Arizona. The cities and their shared police force discriminate against anyone who isn't FLDS, attorneys from the Justice Department's civil rights division contend.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/25/us/jessop-flds-warren-jeffs-short-creek/index.html

[Major Nikon]

1. Defending child rapists has become a feature of "religious freedom"

[onager]

2. Since it's Oscar Time and all...

Here's a good movie about the Jeffs case. "Warren Jeffs: Outlaw Prophet." It was made by the Lifetime TV network.

Stop rolling your eyes, dammit. I know Lifetime is mostly famous for crappy rom-coms and cheating-spouse weepers. But this movie was based on Stephen Singular's excellent book "When Men Become Gods." And it has Martin Landau as the dying senior FLDS prophet, Rulon Jeffs.

Tony Goldwyn does a great job as Warren Jeffs. Especially in the days just before Jeffs went on the FBI Most Wanted list and fled. He was behaving more like a radical Muslim imam than a Mormon elder. Among many other things, he banned all music, dogs (he had them rounded up and shot), and the color red.

The ending is not happy but is realistic. Warren Jeffs sits in prison, still controlling his little theological empire. As he continues to do, to this very day. Complete with the practice they call "bleeding the beast" - scamming welfare money from the evil US govt. they hate so much. The Evil Empire recently struck back and indicted some of his disciples for massive welfare fraud. So we'll see how that works out.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3756722/?ref_=nv_sr_1

[Major Nikon]

3. Koresh actually claimed to BE god

So the question I have is how do Christians know that he wasn't? It seems to fit their prophesies reasonably well and the evidence of his divine nature seems to be about as strong as for Christ.

[Act_of_Reparation]

4. Empiricism?

David Koresh was surprisingly flammable, for a messiah.

[Major Nikon]

5. Not surprising if you think about it

Jesus was more susceptible to torture than you might otherwise think. On the cross, he kept asking why god had forsaken him. If you subscribe to the 3rd century theory of the trinity it makes you wonder why he couldn't have just miracled himself off, not to mention how strange it was to be talking to Himself.

[Act_of_Reparation]

6. Now that you mention it, Jesus did complain a lot.

It's almost as if he was, you know... human. And not a living god. Go figure.