FLDS leader Warren Jeffs was moved from his cell in an Arizona prison to a hospital in Las Vegas yesterday. He has a medical problem that has caused him to become “seriously ill,” according to a report from BBC News.

Apparently, since he was placed in prison several months ago, the leader has attempted suicide and has been placed in the infirmary as a result of his own fasting.

For more on Warren Jeffs, the polygamist controversies surrounding him, and the FLDS Church, click here.

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Fundamentalists have higher rates of mortality than Catholics and Mainline Protestants, according to a recent study by LSU Associate Professor Troy C. Blanchard and his colleagues.

The study, published in Social Forces and reported on ScienceDaily.com, showed that religious environment (the type of religious community a person lives within) can affect health and mortality (life/death) rates.

According to Blanchard, churches that focus on the present needs of communities on earth invest in the health of their followers – as with Catholics who organize programs for the sick and needy. On the other hand, religious groups that only focus on the afterlife do not put as much emphasis on helping each other. The focus is more individual – what do I need to do to have a good afterlife?

Blanchard, perhaps not meaning to do so, separated the two types of congregations neatly into evangelicals and fundamentalists (where evangelicals are those focused on both this life and the next; fundamentalists focus on the next life only). This begs for definitions.

When we say Evangelicals, what do we mean?

Typically, in Christianity, evangelicals place an emphasis on conversion (or on helping others or yourself to become a part of that religion and achieve an appropriate afterlife). In addition, they tend to believe in the following:

-The Bible has no errors.

-Morals come from the Bible.

-The Christian faith can help handle issues in the community.

When we say Fundamentalists, what do we mean?

Fundamentalists in every religion believe their religion is the true religion, the only correct religion, the only religion that can achieve the goal of life. In addition, fundamentalists

-Are certain of an Absolute Truth (God, Absolute Power, etc.);

-Believe there is an authority outside of themselves and place the utmost importance on that outside authority/power;

-Place importance on the traditional family;

-Believe there is punishment for sins;

-Reject modernism (or modern interpretations of beliefs and laws); and

-Believe in dualism (good/evil, heaven/hell, body/spirit, etc.).

Of course, there is always a middle ground. But for the sake of this study, these LSU professors believe they’ve found those who fit in this evangelical group will have lower risks of 

health issues than those that would fit into the fundamentalist group.

What do you think? Do their findings hold up in the real world?

For more on fundamentalism, check out Fundamentalism, Sectarianism, and Revolution by S.N. Einstadt.

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What is the House of Yahweh?

Despite a similar fallout, it is not the Eldorado FLDS ranch raided in Texas recently (see Polygamy and Warren Jeffs for more on that incident). But it is in Texas, and its leader may face up to 20 years in prison.

The House of Yahweh is a sect, and some are now calling it a cult. Its leaders claim this is propaganda and that the House of Yahweh is simply being persecuted by outsiders. They are not, as leader Yisrayl Hawkins says, planning to kill themselves, nor do they contain followers to keep them from leaving (again, according to Hawkins).

Beliefs and practices outsiders claim are true and insiders claim are not true:
1. The leaders have multiple wives (polygamy) and Hawkins himself preaches that members must practice polygamy.
2. They are illegally dodging child labor laws by forcing children to work 40 hours a week.

Things they do believe/practice:
1. They do believe in Jesus and follow their own translation of both the New and Old Testaments.
2. Women must wear a veil when menstruating.
3. Men and women are separated by a wooden wall when attending church.
4. Everyone wears rubber gloves to follow cleanliness guidelines set in the Old Testament.
5. Nuclear war will fulfill prophecies.

Here is the Dallas Morning News’ explanation of the nuclear baby:
“In 2006, Mr. Hawkins forecast that a “nuclear baby” would be unleashed on the world, bringing nuclear war to the Middle East on Sept. 12 of that year. After doomsday failed to materialize, the prophet said the 2006 date was the day of conception and that the metaphorical baby – depicted as a horror-movie-evil infant holding a baby bottle and missile – would be born in 2007. That too failed to come to pass.” Click here for their full article.

Whether he’s a criminal is yet to be determined; certainly, his practices and beliefs are out of the norm.

Before you make your judgment, check out this Web site which shows Hawkins’ many efforts toward peace, particularly internationally. Click here to see some of his UN visits and various awards, including the Palestinian Legislative Council award.

So…sect or cult? Religious leader or criminal? Visit the House of Yahweh’s Web site here and decide for yourself.

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Polygamy, the practice of men having multiple wives, was allowed throughout all denominations of Mormonism; even Joseph Smith practiced polygamy for some time. But in 1890, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (also called the LDS Church, the main denomination of Mormonism) outlawed polygamy in an edict from the president of the community at the time. Those who continued to practice it were (and are still) excommunicated from the LDS Church. (To learn more about the LDS Church and Joseph Smith, click here.)

Then in 1920, a man named Lorin C. Woolley began proclaiming that men who were not members of the LDS Church had the authority to justify polygamist marriages. In 1935, the Fundamentalist LDS Church formed, uniting those polygamists who had been excommunicated from the LDS Church and who followed Woolley’s thinking. Estimates from ReligiousTolerance.org and MormonFundamentalism.com place the numbers of FLDS polygamists at anywhere from 1/6 to 1/3 of Mormons in the United States today. The FLDS Church is currently under the leadership of Warren Jeffs, the third leader since the co-founding of the denomination (his father was the second). Most of the members of Jeffs’ church can be found in Utah and in Colorado City, AZ.

It’s important to note that just because polygamy is permissible by the FLDS Church, it is not legal by U.S. law. Jeffs himself (pictured above) is currently serving two consecutive prison term for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl (who he apparently forced to marry an older man, who just happened to be her cousin).

This gives us some context for this week’s events. A 16-year-old girl from a ranch in Eldorado, TX, recently called the police claiming she was a member of an FLDS sect and had been forced to marry a man three times her age. She claimed that man sexually abused her and assaulted her, and that she had been forced to have sex with many other men on the ranch. Police began to investigate and eventually raided the compound. They took 416 children into custody, and arrested several of the adults. Some women have left voluntarily while others are standing by their husbands – and by Warren Jeffs.

Now a slew of negative imagery is coming out through the media – Warren Jeffs banning television, dancing, and fishing; Jeffs allowing the use of iPods but only to listen to his sermons; the FLDS Church excommunicating men and reassigning their wives and children to other men.

What do you think? Was Woolley correct that men have the authority to allow polygamist marriages? Did Jeffs go too far in his restrictions? Are estimates correct or is polygamy extreme and unique to just this sect? Do these actions reflect on the entire FLDS Church? What about the LDS Church?

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Celebrate or protest, it depends on who you are what you believe about him.

Today, Scientologists (yes, like Tom Cruise) are celebrating L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday. Born on March 13, 1911, in Nebraska, Hubbard grew up as an adopted child in Iowa and Montana. During his stay there, he met and befriended the Blackfoot Indians and eventually wrote a book about them. Hubbard’s adoptive father was in the Navy, so the family moved around a lot: California, D.C., and even some visits to Asia. His college years found him at The George Washington University, but he was put on academic probation and eventually left. But it is said that during his time at the university, he researched physics and civil engineering, attempting to find answers to his questions about life.

After that time, Hubbard joined the Navy and became a science fiction enthusiast, publishing several science fiction articles like Final Blackout and The Carnival of Death in the 1940s. It is at this point in the story that critics often bring up controversial claims about Hubbard’s life: Russell Miller’s biography Bare-Faced Messiah claims that Hubbard was living with a man named John Parsons at the time, who apparently was in cahoots with Aleister Crowley, the satanist. Miller claims Hubbard attempted to help Parsons create the antichrist child. He’s also been accused of abusing his first two wives and of marrying the second wife while still being legally married to the first wife. Scientologists generally don’t accept these stories and remember him, instead, as a great novelist and short story writer of the science fiction genre and as a charming, charismatic leader. He is also remembered for his work in developing educational methods to help children learn to read.

Hubbard went on to bring attention to his book about Dianetics, a self-improvement technique proposing that people could be cured of any ailment if they were first purged of their traumatic memories of the past. A bestseller, the book was clearly a success, and Hubbard developed a following. His expanded version of Dianetics became what we know today as Scientology.

Scientologists paid money for books and auditing sessions (sessions where they were purged of their past memories), and the IRS in the 1960s claimed Hubbard was filtering some of that money (ok, millions) for his own personal use. The church lost its tax-exempt status, and Hubbard fled to a fleet of Scientologist-owned ships, where he spent the next eight years sailing about. He returned to the States in the mid-70s, and allegedly set up a scheme to destroy government documents about Scientology. Eleven church members were sent to prison for the scheme, and Hubbard, though not indicted, was named a co-conspirator. As a result of the case, he hid out at a ranch in California for several years, where he returned to his writing. He died of a stroke there at the ranch in 1986.

Hubbard’s name most recently made the news when Andrew Morton’s biography of Tom Cruise claimed Cruise used Hubbard’s frozen sperm to father his baby, Suri Cruise.

Corrupt or genius? Misleading or the answer? While some groups are celebrating today, others (like the anti-Scientology group Anonymous) are protesting Scientology. Take a deeper look at Scientology to see what you believe about L. Ron Hubbard and the religion he founded.

Beliefnet’s overview and interviews

Transcripts from a great 20/20 newscast about the religion

Relate Mag’s summary, scroll down to the Scientology part

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Is this a case of mental illness or was it a genuine kidnapping plot? See what you think…

Don LaRose claims to have been born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1940. He claims to have been abducted by a Satanic cult in 1975, in Maine, New York, and that his captors erased his memory and let him off in Minneapolis. He became a Baptist pastor in 1978, overseeing a congregation in Hammond, Indiana.

According to the Northwest Indiana Times, “The day before he disappeared, he was speaking to a group in the church, and in the middle of his sermon he stopped talking and looked at the back of the room. No one who turned around saw anything, but LaRose later claimed he had seen one of the Satanists through a window.” The Satanists, LaRose says, are an “underworld crime group.” Threatening his family, the group apparently forced LaRose out of town, and he fled the area on a bicycle – without notifying his family or his church.

Who found him? It turns out LaRose has been under the guise of one Bruce Kent Williams, a man who was killed in 1958. He remarried, moved to the Bentonville, Arkansas, area, and won three elections – including that of the mayor. The Benton County Daily Record pieced together his story, and now the mayor is stepping down from his office. He says he now fears he and his family will again be in danger from the cult.

I have to ask – if you’re running from a Satanic cult, so much so that you are willing to change your name, why would you run for such a visible public office? And if you think the Satanic cult would threaten your first family, why remarry and place that burden on another family? One has to question whether the mayor is really a pastor threatened for blaspheming against Satan or whether this is just another case of schizophrenia. Seeing dark shadowy figures that tell you to do things – and no one else sees them? Feeling threatened and paranoid? Withdrawing from his family and friends? Sounds like schizophrenia. Look it up.

I guess how you judge this case depends on whether you believe in science, whether you believe in cult plots, and whether you think this man’s character is, well, sincere. But I think before we start spending tax dollars to protect this guy, we better get him checked out.

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