Iron bars do not a prison make, nor can they curb a communal yen and habit ingrained from long years in the austere and foreboding red cliffs of northern Arizona.

That is from the Salt Lake Telegram, March 9, 1944.

Now, 63 years later, it is fair to say those words are prophetic.

That was the lede of a story describing how ''fundamentalists'' incarcerated on federal and state charges were sharing duties while housed at the Salt Lake County Jail.

I was looking through this and other old newspaper clips as I worked on today's story about what the incarceration of Warren Jeffs might mean for his community. Based on the past, the answer is: Not much.

In 1944, 46 ''cultists'' entered not guilty pleas on charges related to their practice of polygamy. Vergel Y. Jessop, a ''curly-haired and sharp-chinned farmer from Short Creek, Ariz.,'' was quoted as saying: ''It may cost some of us a term (in jail) but our spirits are high.''

J. Marion Hammon, who was director of a cooperative farm at Short Creek –- now the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., said this as he was booked into jail: ''There is little doubt but that this will work our favorably for us.''

Some 40 years later, Hammon would led a defection from that community and set up Centennial Park, Ariz.

One of the most striking passages I read in the old clips had to do with comments made by women in defense of their lifestyle.

A reporter visited Rhea Kunz in her jail cell, which she shared with plural wife Mary Beth Barlow Cleveland. Kunz was described as a descendant of four generations of plural marriage practitioners.

Here is a bit of that interview, by Cristie Wicker:

Her life has been bound by its teachings and it is her belief that she comprehends to its fullest the core of her religion, which is to 'multiply and replenish the earth.'

Noting that in the particular group of which she is a member, the decision rests entirely with the wives as to whether they are desirous of bearing childen, she explained: ''You may think that plural marriage can be stamped out, but it cannot be, because it is right. Our purpose and fundamental belief in its practice is to have a clean and intellectual, as well as spiritual-minded progeny, and also to provide worthy husbands for good women since regardless of wars and pestilence there have always been a surplus of worthy women.''

I heard pretty much the same thing last week in St. George, when FLDS women testified in the Warren Jeffs' trial.

Labels: FLDS, Warren Jeffs trial

It's the next day and there is one question lingering in my mind.

It is Rulon Jeffs' question, really.

What the hell was Fred thinking?

That, according to Rebecca Musser, is what Rulon Jeffs wanted to know when he was told that 14-year-old Elissa Wall was set to marry Allen Steed.

Rebecca Musser is Elissa's older sister and a former wife of Rulon Jeffs. Rulon Jeffs was the prophet back in 2001 when the crime that would put his son Warren in prison, potentially for the rest of his life, took place. Warren Jeffs, as Rebecca put it, was the ''errand boy'' who performed the Wall-Steed marriage.

Warren was his father's ''mouthpiece," the first counselor in the FLDS faith. Despite that second tier status, according to many he was really the man behind the curtain, the one making the decisions.

But, what about Fred. Who was Fred?

He was many things -- Elissa's stepfather, for one, the man who decided she was ready for marriage and told the prophet.

Fred had many wives, but no children. He was sterile due to a ''childhood disease,'' according to Ben Bistline, author of ''The Polygamists: A history of Colorado City, Arizona.'' Bistline is a former -- and fair to say, bitter -- member of the faith. He was one of an earlier group of men who sued the church, demanding their homes, after they were kicked out in the 1980s.

So when a family had been left husband-less because of indiscretion -- say, the Wall family for instance -- they were often placed in the care of Fred.

What else was Fred? Bishop of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Second counselor to Rulon Jeffs, the prophet. And a big man around the twin towns.

The Jeffs -- Rulon and son Warren -- moved from Salt Lake City to Hildale/Colorado City in 1998-99. They were newcomers' in Fred's town.

Bistline says Fred ran everything. The Town Fair. The plays put on at Mohave Community College. The town councils. The Pioneer Celebration in Maxwell Canyon, where his stepdaughter Elissa may soon be a landowner.

He operated the Early Bird Cafe. One of his dozens of wives was postmistress for Colorado City.

In 1985, according to Bistline, a teenage girl living in Fred's home testified that the postmistress would bring home letters for Fred to steam open and read. She lost her job.

Fred was the president of the Twin City Waterworks. Editor of the Twin City Courier. United Effort Plan trustee. Majestic Security trustee. President of the Colorado City Improvement Association. Owner of the town's health center. Owner of Standard Supply, the twin towns' equivalent of Home Depot. General Election Judge for Hildale. Municipal Judge. Hildale town clerk (since 1962). Right-hand man to earlier prophet Leroy Johnson. The ''real mayor'' of Hildale, according to Lynn Cooke, who served in the post from 1965-1985.

Once Uncle Fred stated his opinion, no one on the town board would vote against him, Cooke said in a court document.

He was mediator between the UEP and the town council. Mediator between the priesthood council and the town council.

The guy who could get a man -- say J.R. Williams -- ousted as a justice of the peace because of a difference of opinion over priesthood authority.

At least, that is what Bistline says. ''Fred M. Jessop is acknowledged generally as running the affairs and being the power behind the scenes in Hildale,'' Bistline writes in his book.

Busy man.

Somehow, Fred had time for all his wives and stepchilden.

Washington County once refused to take up a bigamy prosecution against Fred, saying it wouldn't hold up against a religious defense, according to Bistline.

According to Bistline, Fred said in an affidavit that his ''whole interest is to carry out the expectations and hopes and inspirations of Brother (John Y.) Barlow and Brother Leroy Johnson and Brother Jeffs and all presidents of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.''

According to Bistline, Fred organized a ''Hands Across The Creek'' event in the mid-1980s to build a church meetinghouse in the community. People had to pay $2 to stand in the line that wound from then-prophet Leroy Johnson's home to the meetinghouse site. The building is known as the LSJ Meetinghouse today, though church meetings haven't been held there for a couple years or so.

In the towns, Fred was beloved and revered. But according to Bistline, he ''symbolizes all that is bad in the community.''

Well, Rulon is dead. So is Fred. But that is who Fred was.

Labels: Warren Jeffs trial

Well, here we go again.

We were outside the courthouse last night until 8 p.m., when the judge let us back in while he dismissed he jury for the night.

Outside the courthouse every reporter and photographer -- all six billion of them -- had a theory about what was going on inside the heads of the eight people in the jury room.

Maybe we'll find out today.

But some reporters already think they know. A photographer, whom I will not name, walked out of the courthouse after the 8 p.m. meeting and told another photographer that the jury had decided on one count and was deliberating on another. The verdict on the one count: guilty.

The photographer was wrong. We hadn't been told any thing about one count being decided. Here is exactly what we were told at the 3:45 meeting in the courtroom.''

''We have a hung jury regarding the second count. We do not believe further deliberation is needed. How do we go about it at this point?''

The judge sent them back into the jury room for more deliberation.

Outside the courthouse the media machine was in motion. Within an hour, the photographer's version was showing up on media sites in several states and Canada -- and Blackberries owned by the media corps.

I called my editor to warn her not to pick up the story or panic that someone else got it first.

It was amazing -- and frightening -- to see how quickly and how far the misinterpretation spread.

Labels: Warren Jeffs trial

I am in my hotel room, waiting. We're all waiting.

It's nerve-wracking. I can only imagine what this is like for Elissa Wall, Allen Steed, Warren Jeffs and the attorneys in the case.

I feel sick to my stomach. I am trying to pump myself up, to be ready but calm. For nearly two years, much of my work life has been moving toward this moment. It feels strange.

We are supposed to get an email and/or telephone call from court spokeswoman Nancy Volmer letting us know when there is a decision. We will have one hour to get to the courthouse, which is actually a lot of time.

Here's the plan: On the first page of my reporter's notebook I have written this:

Count One:

Guilty

Acquitted

Count Two:

Guilty

Acquitted.

I don't have to write. All I have to do is make a check mark next to the decision.

Once the jury decision is announced, I will make a rush for the door -- along with all the other media.

A colleague will be waiting outside the door, and start dialing my editor's number as soon as he sees the horde moving for the exit. He'll hand me the phone and I will tell her the result.

I am not going to use ''not guilty'' to avoid any mix up in communication.

Welcome to the hypercompetitive world of today's journalism.

Labels: Warren Jeffs trial

Glenna Bullock and Susan Stephens of Texas are huge fans of Court TV -- such huge fans they took a detour through St. George on their way to Idaho so they could pop in on the Warren Jeffs trial.

''Absolutely. For years,'' Bullock said when I asked her if she watched the show.

Bullock is from Beeville; Stephens is from Fort Worth. They had been following the Jeffs trial on Court TV and just had to come by to see the production for themselves.

They arrived in St. George last night.

This morning they stopped by Court TV's outdoor news desk, on the steps of the 5th District Courthouse, and watched Michael O'Brien do his morning show.

They got public passes and were waiting in the lobby when I got to the courthouse. I pointed out defense attorneys Walter Bugden and Tara Isaacson as they walked by.

''We knew all the characters when we got here,'' Stephens said.

They were not the only ones getting a taste of the courthouse drama. A woman, her husband and mother -- all from Phoenix -- also got public passes this morning. The couple's daughter attends SUU; they are spending a month in Utah to visit with her and thought, ''Why not?'' check out the courthouse action.

They all sat in the anteroom of the court as Shumate questioned the jury and then dismissed them to resume deliberations in the case. It took all of two minutes, but the Texas women said it was worth it.

Back outside, they asked me questions about polygamy and how the media was working the story. They wondered why we had identified ''Jane Doe'' and used her picture.

As we talked, Michael O'Brien walked by.

''He's one of our favorites,'' Stephens said.

He invited them to come see the channel's production truck, parked in the courthouse lot.

I think he made their day.

Labels: Warren Jeffs trial

For nearly two years, we've known her as ''Jane Doe'' or ''M.J.'' -- the young woman who sued polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs over her 2001 marriage to a cousin.

She was 14 at the time of the marriage, which took place in Caliente, Nev.

Of course, court papers in the criminal case began using her ''real name'' -- Elissa Wall -- early on. So did lawyers during the hearings leading up to the trial.

The media continued to follow two principles: A court decorum order barring use of the name or courtroom photos of her; and an ethic principle that protects the identities of alleged rape victims.

The second guiding principle got a little cloudy when it turned out that ''Jane Doe'' and ''M.J.'' were one and the same person. When someone files a multimillion dollar lawsuit against someone else, we name them.

But to reveal one would reveal the other, her attorneys said. So we continued along.

The interesting thing is probably everyone who mattered in the polygamous community she left knew the real identity of Jane Doe/M.J. Only the general public was being kept out of the loop.

During the trial, fixed cameras were placed around the courtroom so that videotape could be supplied to the television stations. Elissa was in the audience; she showed up in many of the audience scenes. And there was no way to avoid that, no way to reposition the camera. At least she was a nameless face in a crowd.

The same problem occurred when Allen Steed, Wall's former husband, decided to stand while testifying. Instead of capturing his head, the camera focused on his mid-section. That caused a lot of angst among the television crews.

Then, on the eve of the jury receiving the case, Wall and her attorneys released a photograph they said was taken seven months before her wedding. She is standing before a waterfall, clad in a flowery pink dress and half jacket. She is smiling. She looks very, very young.

They also said we were now free to use her name -- at least the name she had at the time of the marriage. Elissa Wall isn't really her name now; she was placed in the federal witness protection program shortly after filing her first lawsuit and has a new name.

I was very much in favor of using her name at that point, and we did.

I will be honest: I was against using the pink-dress photograph for a number of reasons.

The jury never saw this photograph as part of its evidence. I wondered why, especially because she clearly looks younger to me than she did in the wedding photos. She looks young there, too, but just not AS young.

So the date of the photo and why it wasn't used in the trial became questions for me.

I also questioned its release just as the jury got the case. The release was timed, as one of her attorneys said, to impact public perception -- and could inflame the public against the jury, which is relying on the wedding and honeymoon photos to help understand what happened in 2001.

And there is this: Wall still has a multimillion dollar lawsuit pending against Jeffs, the UEP trust and the FLDS church.

I argued against using that photo, at least until we had time to learn more about it. I lost the argument with my editors. ( We are still friends -- I think. It's hard to read body language and facial expressions over a telephone line.)

On Saturday, I received a copy of Wall being fitted in her wedding dress. We published that photo hours later.

The timing is still calculated, but I feel better about using the wedding photograph. This is what Wall looked like the night before her wedding. This is what the jury saw. This is what they are thinking about.

And now it is what the public is thinking about, too.

Labels: Warren Jeffs trial

We have heard lots of catchy phrases during the Warren Jeffs trial and listened while witnesses have offered their own interpretation of them:

Multiply and Replenish the Earth.

Follow your heart. Your heart is in the wrong place.

Mind, body and soul.

Keep sweet (more on this one later).

But Defense Attorney Walter Bugden stumped FLDS witnesses when he asked them if they had heard the phrase ''body, boots and britches.''

None of them had. Neither had I. I have no idea whether the jury knew what Bugden was talking about.

But I did a little homework.

The phrase is the title of a 1939 book compiled by Harold W. Thompson. The book is a collection of folklore stories, songs, beliefs and practices in New York state.

OK, but what does it mean?

I finally found the answer on a Web page about writings of folklorist Rowena Peterson. The following is excerpted from that site:

Charles V. Fairbairn, a former North Country resident, now of MacPherson, Kansas, recalls that his father, Robert Fairbairn, blacksmith, used to say some times, ''.....body, boots, and britches'' to indicate ''the whole thing.''

The point? My guess is Bugden was trying to draw a parallel with ''mind, body and soul,'' which some of his FLDS witnesses described as being willing to dedicate themselves completely to their faith and a willingness to be directed by their priesthood leader -- for women, their fathers or husbands and the prophet; for men, the prophet.

Labels: Warren Jeffs trial

OK. I am way behind in blogging. This is exhausting. I am looking at a pile of reporter notebooks tossed on my bed. There are seven of them. I am filling one book a day. It's a frantic pace and after doing five Web updates a day and rewriting them all into a story for the newspaper, I'm pretty much braindead. So forgive the typos and bear with me while I catch up.

Attorneys for Warren Jeffs called nine faithful FLDS members as witnesses Wednesday to talk about their experiences with courtship, marriage and counsel they received from the polygamous sect leader. The testimony was extraordinary for several reasons, but primarily because the FLDS choose not to speak publicly about their lives -- and especially not about their marriages.

Most of the time, the polygamists I know in other groups -- AUB, Centennial Park, Kingston, the independents -- won't even tell me who they are married to or what their children's names are or if they are even in a plural marriage.

Until now, the stories about the FLDS and their culture have come only from apostates who've left the faith. The witnesses' accounts both disproved some "facts," cast a different light on others and lent credence to still other details. So let me share one story we heard in court, which I only made the briefest reference to in my story.

Merril and Christine Steed Shapley, shown above, both testified.

Christine, now 21, said she spoke to her parents about her desire to get married when she was 17. After getting their approval, she wrote a letter to Warren Jeffs and ''turned herself in.'' That seemed to be a typical process for these women. The teen would go to her mother or father, say she was ready to be married and asked that her name be turned into the prophet.

The FLDS believe the prophet receives a divine revelation from God about whom to place together as a couple.

Some women said their parents felt they were not ready and asked them to wait a while. One woman was put off about six months; another as put off three years. But eventually, the women said she and either both parents or her father would take her to meet with the prophet.

Former Prophet Rulon Jeffs liked to ask the young lady if she had received her own ''impression'' -- an inspired feeling -- about whom they are to marry. So apparently does his son Warren, at least according to some of these women. It seemed, based on their comments about this, that a higher value was placed on being willing to let the prophet make that decision for you.

Christine told Jeffs she had no one in mind.

Christine didn't hear anything for a month or two. And then the answer came. She was to marry Merril Shapley, who was four years older than her.

Christine said she did not know Merril -- which is often the case. The FLDS do not allow dating. But she was concerned.

''I personally hadn't heard a lot of good about the Shapleys,'' she said.

Christine is a Steed, one of the most elite families in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., the FLDS' historic base. Jeffs' mother was a Steed.

So Christine was a little nervous, she admitted.

Her marriage took place about 10 minutes after she learned the identity of her soon-to-be husband.

Yes, 10 minutes. That was the fastest wedding we heard durng the hearing. Other women said they were married anywhere from days to months later.

Christine said she was taught it was her decision when to being physical intimacy and that she was ''strongly taught there was no force.''

The extent of her sex education: "We had animals," she said. As I recall, she laughed a bit when she said that. Later, she said her father had talked to her a little bit about the ''birds and the bees.''

All of them said courting followed the marriage and some said it wasn't a smooth process. That was the case for Christine.

''I didn't really like him,'' she said of her new husband. ''I wasn't real impressed. He wasn't as cute as I thought he should have been.''

When Merril first asked Christine if she wanted to have a child, she gave a quick answer: ''No.''

She explained: ''If you don't want a child it's not bad to say no.'' There is no rule on how soon that should happen, she said, or on how many children you should have.

''I was taught you have as many as you wanted to take care,'' Christine said.

The FLDS believe sexual intimacy is for procreation only -- some thing strict Catholics also believe, or at least used to.

It took about four months for them to get comfortable, to fall in love, to "let down the bars,'' as the FLDS might say.

She was the one who made the overture at last. ''I just said I wanted a baby. He said he wanted one, too,'' Christine said.

When the state cross-examined Christine, it basically went like this:

''No one told you out of the blue one day you were going to get married, right?''

''No.''

''You turned yourself in, right?''

''Yes.''

And so on.

And then it was Merril's turn. He grew up in the twin towns and works in construction.

When he turned 20 he wrote a letter to Jeffs bringing up marriage in a roundabout way, apparently. ''I didn't state plainly, but I did desire to,'' he said.

Next thing he knew, he got a phone call and was told to come meet with Jeffs. He got married minutes later.

''Was that OK with you?'' one of Jeffs' attorneys asked him

''Yes,'' Merril said.

The couple lived at his father's home for a while and then received a home of their own from the bishop.

Now, there's an interesting problem. Since the UEP has been taken over by a Utah court, new couples have no one to turn to for a home. The FLDS deal as little as possible with Bruce Wisan, the fiduciary running the communal property trust that holds virtually all homes in the twin towns.

Anyway. So what did Merril think of Christine?

''Did you like her?''

''Yes.''

''Did you think she was pretty?''

''Yes.''

And what did she think of you? the attorney wanted to know.

''She didn't like me that well.''

''Did she tell you that?''

''No, but I could tell.'' She was staying remote, Merril said. Or, at least I think that is what he said. He was speaking very very softly.

So he courted her with letters. ''I told her how she was, I thought she was a neat person,'' he said. He took his time, so ''she weren't so scared'' and tried to ''be nice to her, like you should. I was taught that my whole life.''

And finally, after four months, Christine came around.

The state had only a couple questions for Merril.

''You didn't try to initiate or start any initimate advances with your wife?''

That was right, Merril said.

'What would have happened if you had forced her? the prosecutor asked.

''I honestly don't know,'' he said, ''but possibly, I'm sure she would have went and lived with her mother.''

Labels: Warren Jeffs trial

A bit of comic relief.

Yesterday morning, a baliff started off the Jeffs' court hearing by giving the audience a little lecture.

No smiling, she said. No smirking, grimacing, nodding, winking, hand signals or other behavior that could be seen by the jury. I don't think she mentioned sneezing, which someone did later in the day.

So we were all on our best behavior.

A bit later, the baliff approached Brent Hunsaker of KTVX , who is seated on the first row behind the defense table. She quietly learned over and whispered something in his ear and return to her position.

Uh oh. The baliff had already jailed two cell phones after they went off in court -- one belonging to attorney Greg Hoole and the other to lead prosecutor Ryan Shaum.

One reporter had been told to put a sweater on over her skimpy top. Another had been told she couldn't wear knee-length dress shorts to court.

They run a strict courtroom in Washington County.

Was a member of the media corps now about to get booted? I held my breath.

Hunsaker remained seated.

A minute or so passed.

A little moth whizzed by, emerging from somewhere on my right. From Hunsaker's spot to be exact.

The baliff had noticed the moth in Hunsaker's hair (yeah, from 15 feet away. She's got eagle eyes.) She suggested he wait a minute and then brush the side of his head.

So now we know. Moth-removal moves are OK.

Labels: Warren Jeffs trial

The hotel that I am staying in for the trial of polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs is just a block from the courthouse -- and almost directly across the street from the Washington County Attorney's Office.

That's how I know that the prosecutors were working all day Saturday, getting ready for a new round this week. I am sure the defense was doing the same.

We're been hearing a lot about ''In Light and Truth,'' a book that Jeffs gave Jane Doe, the state's star witness, after she came to him asking for a release from her marriage.

The full name of the book is: ''In Light and Truth: Raising Children in the Family Order of Heaven. The Word of the Lord Through is Servants, the Prophets.''

It is the FLDS equivalent of Dr. Benjamin Spock's ''Baby and Child Care'' and ''Fascinating Womanhood'' by Helen B. Andelin all rolled into one.

''Celestial love is a term used in Fascinating Womanhood to represent the highest kind of tender love a man feels for a woman.''

That's actually a blurb for Andelin's book on Amazon.com. She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a graduate of Brigham Young University. She wrote her book in 1963, some say as a response to the growing feminist movement.

Warren Jeffs compiled ''In Truth and Light'' and it was published in 1994 by then President Rulon T. Jeffs.

The introduction quotes a sermon Rulon Jeffs gave on July 17, 1988, about the Lord's search for 500 families to build a community in Zion. ''We are not going to please God until we have united families, brethren. Your families.''

Those were marching orders for Jeffs, and the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, was the result. There are about 200 famillies there now, according the last estimate I received from Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran.

Three hundred to go.

''In Light and Truth'' collects talks by such early leaders of the mainstream LDS Church as Brigham Young and John Taylor. It also includes talks by FLDS leaders, particularly Leroy S. Johnson and, of course, Rulon Jeffs.

Topics include:

Priesthood Marriage
Nature of Children and How to Work with Them
Counsel to the Young People
Counsels to Guide the Parents
General Counsel to Parents
Wrongs Parents Do in Raising Children
Ten Rules of Brigham Young
United Families

And: Sermons on the Family Order of Heaven

The book was the basis for many of the lessons Warren Jeffs gave in morning devotionals, home economics and priesthood history classes. Those lessons were recorded and distributed to parents, who listened to them over and over -- and still do.

More later. Time for court.

Labels: Warren Jeffs trial

Jane Doe gave riveting testimony in court today about her marriage and first ''man-wife'' encounter with her husband.

The state's star witness in the case against Waren Jeffs cried through much of testimony, recalling the ''shock'' of being told she was to marry her 19-year-old cousin and how ''horrible'' she felt after their first sexual encounter.

Prosecutors then had the courtroom listen to an hour's worth of Jeffs' recorded lessons on marriage duties and the proper relationship between husbands and wives.

We listened as Jeffs, speaking to a home economics class in 1998, said such things as ''The only realy way to be a woman and fulfill your calling as a woman is to be in oneness with the Priesthood bearer [husband] you will become part of'' and ''For the woman, her desires shall be to her husband and he shall rule over her'' and that women were to ''willingly submit'' to their husbands.

The good news? The plan was to play two hours of Jeffs sermonizing on various topics. The defense suggested the court call it a day after listening to two half-hour lessons, and everyone agreed.

All that talk of husbands and wives, obedience and submission and the role of God in one's life got me thinking. The FLDS aren't the only ones who adhere to proscribed gender roles, patriarchal authority and biblical views of procreation.

Remember when the Southern Baptist Convention came to Salt Lake City in 1998? That's when they adopted Article 18, which describes the faith's view of the family and is based on more than 40 scriptural references. The SBC created a national stir by incorporating the view that wives should submit to their husbands.

It applies to a lot of people. The Southern Baptist Convention was founded in 1845 and has over 16 million members worldwide.

I am sure that Southern Baptists teach their children principles based on Article 18. However, they do not believe in underage or arranged marriages, like the FLDS do.

Here is Article 18, plucked from the www.sbc.org Web site:

XVIII. The Family

God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.

Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God's unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.

The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people.

A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family.

A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.

Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.

Parents are to demonstrate to their children God's pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.

And here are some excerpts from the 1995 ''proclamation'' on the family given by Gordon B. Hinckley, president of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God's commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.

By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.

We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.

Labels: Warren Jeffs trial

This morning, after attorneys picked a jury to hear the case against Warren Jeffs, they argued a couple motions.

Judge James L. Shumate granted the defense's request to quash the revelation statement Jeffs made about secret combinations working against the FLDS. By the way, it turns out Jeffs made the statement in August 2005. The judge also sealed an audio recording of something Jeffs said in 2006 -- which not even prosecutors have heard, apparently.

The defense also attempted to resurrect their argument that Jeffs can't be held as an accomplice to rape if the state doesn't have to prove that Jane Doe's husband actually committed a rape.

Last Friday, Shumate sided with the state on that debate and today he said his decision stands. Assistant Attorney General Craig Barlow, who is assisting Washington County, started to argue his side but Shumate cut him off.

And then Shumate said this: amen.mp3

Labels: Warren Jeffs trial