一夫多妻摩門教主罪名成立
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Spiritual Living : JGospel News)
美國新聞,
宗教新聞,
社會新聞,
2007年9月第四週,
美聯社9月25日電
猶他州一夫多妻摩門教首領51歲的沃倫.傑夫斯, 因他曾安排一名19歲男信徒與一名年齡只有14歲未成年的少女結婚, 被控協助強姦的罪行, 周二被判罪名成立, 可能被判處終身監禁。
傑夫斯在亞利桑納和猶他州交界地區有一萬名信徒, 這些信徒信一夫多妻教義並將傑夫斯奉為救世先知領袖。2002年傑夫斯繼承父位擔任 Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints (FLDS) 組織的主席位置。該組織前成員稱, 傑夫斯以鐵腕手段管理教會信眾(Religious tyrant), 要求信眾絕對服從。傑夫斯並行使權力安排信徒的婚姻, 隨意拆散已婚夫婦, 為他們重新安排配偶。
傑夫斯當天在法庭淡漠地聽取了判決。檢方稱傑夫斯強迫一名少女結婚, 現年21歲的受害女子表示, 2001年她在內華逹州的一間汽車旅館舉行的婚禮中, 她被傑夫斯逼婚, 哭著表示「我願意」, 並被哄騙親吻了當時只有19歲的新郎史迪德。
這女子稱婚後一個月, 與被丈夫迫著性交, 稱要履行妻子的責任, 完事後她溜進洗手間吞下兩瓶止痛藥, 「我當時就想去死」。
根據猶他州法律, 14歲少年可在某些自願情況下與人性, 交但18歲以下少年與比他年長3歲的另一方引誘下性,交便被視為非自願。
The trial of Warren Jeffs pits the state's interest in protecting children against his claim to religious freedom.
Warren Jeffs was being tried as an accomplice to rape for commanding Dos to agree to an arranged marriage despite her resistance and instructing her to submit to her husband "mind, body and soul" if she was to have any hope of salvation.
The trial was set in St. Georgo, about 40 miles(65km) from the twin towns, where many of the 126,000 residents are descended from early Mormon settlers: this was Brigham Young's winter home.
When Vegas police arrested Jeffs in August 2006 with $53,000 in cash, four lapyops and three wigs. who inherited many of his father's estimated 75 wives.
The FLDS was born more than a century ago when the Mormon church divided over the issue of plural marriage. Church founder Joseph Smith offered polygamy as one of the "eternal principles" of Mormonism, teaching that men would be exalted in heaven by marrying multiple wives on earth. In 1890, after years of penalties, persecution and seizure of church property, a new divine revelation inspired church leaders reject the practice--which, among other things, paved the way for Utah's statehood. But traditionalist Mormons thought the church was selling our and established their own fundamentalist sects, which continued the practice even as the larger church condemned it.
The largest communuity, with some 8,000 members, settled in the twin town s of Hildale, Utahm and Colorado City, Ariz., just south of Zion National Park, along the Utah-Arizona border. It is typical for men to have three wives and about 30 children, through some have many more. Women wear their hair long and braided, their clothes modest. They will carry their iPods with them all day so they can listen to Jeff's sermons. "Sister wives" share household chores and raise multitudes of children as their husbands rotate among bedrooms. It's virtually impossible for child-welfare officials to track levels of sexuall abuse. When girls are ready to marry, they "turn themselves in" for the FLDS prophet to arrange a "celestial marriage." The husband may already have other wives, but because these are religious rather than legal unions, they do not violate laws against bigamy.