Have you ever heard of Warren Jeffs and his cult?

[Maddy McCall]

He's "The Prophet" of a fundamentalist Latter Day Saints group. He had been located on the border of Arizona and Colorado, from what I gather, but last year bought 1600 acres near Eldorado, Texas, where his members have constructed their own quarry and concrete plant and built a huge log temple and a three-story dormitory. People in Eldorado are afraid that Jeffs and his cult will try to take over city and county politics, since the population of the town is only 2,000, and Jeffs' cult followers number 10,000. His group took over county office in the border Az/Co town and Jeffs appointed cult members to even the school board, where they mismanaged funds.

Anyway, it's a fascinating story. People in Eldorado are walking the razor's edge between Constitutional freedom of religion and soon being dominated by a very strange, polygamous cult, the leader of which has amassed a huge arsenal of assault weapons and who predicted that the world would end on April 6 of this year. When it didn't, he told his followers that they weren't holy enough.

Pundits say that the eventual showdown between Jeffs' cult and law enforcement will make Waco look like a cakewalk. :scared:

Edit: Great link to read about this at SPLCenter http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=878

[democracyindanger]

1. Read "Under The Banner Of Heaven"

by John Krakauer, the same guy who wrote "Into Thin Air" (Everest mountain climbing disaster).

Mainly it's a story about some Mormon fundamentalist brothers that killed their sister-in-law, and planned to kill numerous others because one of the brothers claimed that he was ordered to by god. Jeffs plays an important role in the story, and there's a lot in the book about him.

[Maddy McCall]

2. Definitely added to my reading list.

Krakauer has been sounding the alarm recently about what will happen in Texas. It's a scary situation.

Thanks for rec'ing the book. :D

[Nevernose]

3. They're also big into incest, rape, torture, etc.

I've been following these guys' stories for years.