Faith Central - Times Online - WBLG: Lost boys of Utah
I read the article. That really is appalling, even more so that the sect has so far gotten away with it, shirking their responsibilities towards the children in their care. To my mind, the whole practice of threatening 'banishment to hell' for disobeying a religious leader's commands opens up Pandora's box so far as abuse of power is concerned.
It also reminds me a little of the film 'The Beach'. Assuming people join the sect because they feel it will give them a sense of family and community that they can't find in the wider society. Perhaps, if they are Mormons, they also think the (presumably charismatic) prophet there speaks for God.
But in such a situation, what happens to the people who don't fit in, who choose to accept things from outside, or who just violate one rule or another that no longer means anything to them? It seems that they get 'banished' to a wider society that they have been told is terrifyingly immoral- with the irony being that this society is left with the bill of looking after such people and cleaning up the mess.
Something is very fishy about a 'prophet' who takes all the attractive women for himself or his closest followers and then finds himself with an 'excess' of males.
Religious freedom being so sacrosanct, the state but be loath to intervene. It sounds like, laws of the land having been broken. they have decided to do just that, so hopefully in time things will get better for these boys...
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