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Stephen Singular Misrepresents the Character of Warren Jeffs

2008-09-16 15:47:52

By Donald Richter

 

On the back of the dust jacket of Stephen Singular’s recent book on the FLDS is the following chilling account of Warren Jeffs teaching a graphic lesson on female submission:
 
“Sometimes Jeffs demonstrated his teachings about female obedience and male leadership with cruelty. His first wife, Annette, had become Alta [Academy]’s home economics instructor, and one morning in front of boys and girls gathered in the meeting hall, Warren and his spouse were addressing the audience. He grabbed Annette’s long braided hair, twisting it slowly around his hand, tightening his grip until she dropped to the floor, her face turning crimson and contorting in pain. She didn’t make a sound or movement of protest. He let go and quietly left the room with no explanation to the students and no apology to his wife, who stood up, straightened her hair, and went back to teaching. She’d grasped well the concept of ‘keeping sweet.’”
 
In a telephone interview Annette Jeffs denied that anything of this nature ever occurred. I thought that perhaps some incident in a school play or skit had been lifted out of context and distorted, but she claimed that this was not the case and that there was no basis whatever for the story. Also, she said that she had never taught home economics at Alta Academy.
 
Instead of being a carefully researched account of FLDS history and culture, Singular’s book is a rehash of the stories of every bitter ex-FLDS member willing to talk to the author. (See “The Unreliability of Apostate Narratives”) This is the man that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid felt was such a credible authority on the FLDS people that he asked him to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in their hearing on July 24. In writing his book, Singular accepted what was told him at face value without bothering to verify his “facts.” A couple of other brief examples will show that the book is, at best, sloppy journalism.
 
On page 39 Singular refers to the book In Light and Truth, used as a text in Alta Academy’s home economics classes, as Enlightened Truth.
 
On page 83 Singular describes the meetinghouse in Colorado City as a large white building in the heart of Hildale. The meetinghouse actually is creamy yellow and is located on the east edge of Colorado City, quite a ways from the center of Hildale.
 
Such inaccuracies are minor, however, when compared to the totally unfounded distortions of the character of Warren Jeffs. On page 28 he is alleged to have disciplined students at Alta Academy with verbal humiliation or by striking them with a yardstick or whipping them with a belt. He supposedly would sneak up behind a girl, grab her neck, and ask, “Are you keeping sweet or do you need to be punished?” On page 100 he is said to have used a program of forcing students to be righteous through fear of being whipped so hard they could barely walk or of being expelled from school for small infractions of the rules.
 
For those of us who know the Prophet Warren Jeffs personally, it is painful to hear this type of characterization of a man who is good and kind and humble. President Jeffs’ own teachings encourage others to show the love that radiates from him. No one who can listen with both their mind and their heart can hear President Jeffs' teachings on kindness and love and believe that they come from a man who thrives on brutality himself. The following are excerpts from student Devotional trainings:
 
“There’s [sic] been some boys that have been mean to other children, and we’d like that to stop. Where you make fun of people and call them names—this shouldn’t be happening among us. I suppose you who are mean to others have had older brothers and sisters that have been mean to you, and I remind you, you didn’t like it. You don’t like people to be mean to you; you know how it feels. Others don’t like it when you’re mean. We want you to stop it and care more about others, even that little brother or sister that you’ve been mean to all your life. I want you to stop it.
 
“So let us love one another. I’ve seen brothers grow up who fought and persecuted the younger ones to where the younger ones don’t even like to be around their older brothers, even when they get old. I’ve seen girls just not want to be around a big sister because she was just mean, selfish, and didn’t care. By the time you get married and go out of your father’s home, you want everybody to miss you because you’re kind and good to them. You don’t want them to be glad you got married and that you’re gone now. You want everybody to miss you because you loved them.
 
“So let us be at peace and keep sweet in this school. Don’t try to be better than others; just be better than you were yourself.” (Warren S. Jeffs, Devotional training at Jeff's Academy, Nov. 19, 1999)
 
“When I have a little child come to me at home or here at school, where they go to their teacher or mother and say, ‘Nobody likes me,’ it just hurts inside to see everyone missing out on the good they could do. Everyone could exercise through their prayers this love of God by enduring the weakness and being longsuffering first and then returning kindness.
 
“I want you to examine your smart remarks you are making, all of you. Some of them are mean. Now with a little child, they can resist the meanness only so long; then they’ll join with you. If you can’t beat them then join them, is what they do. They want to please those they look up to. If you’re mean, they’ll join in the meanness to others so they’ll be accepted by you. 
 
“Now if you cannot greet every person in your family with a smile and a ‘Hello,’ ‘Good to see you,’ ‘Good morning,’ you are still unkind. Even if you’re absolutely quiet toward them, you are still an unkind person. Maybe you’re not doing something mean; you’re still unkind, lacking the love and Spirit of God you should be exercising, if you ignore them.
 
“I like to meet every family member, until now when I walk into the room, the little babies call out, ‘Hi!’ But did it just come from them? No, they had to learn it, that every time I see them they feel I’m happy with them. And if you want to help your young brothers and sisters, you step forth with the kindness first.
 
“If a little child in your home feels like nobody likes him or her, you are being most unkind in your ignoring them, when we should be living the gospel, living love, not just talking about it.” (Warren S. Jeffs, Devotional training at Alta Academy, Feb. 6, 1998)
 


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