|  |
 |
|
A Little Cult History |
Toni Thayer | 4/24/08
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Writer Patty Tillerson, in a recent letter to the Post editor, wondered how anyone could find a “way in this world” to “compare those Polygamist Colonies to our beloved Amish people.” I was able to do it with some concrete research.
Before I delve into this research, I want to state that I do not condone the practices of any of the world’s organized religious cults. If I did, I would be a part of their congregation.
Webster’s dictionary has numerous definitions for “cult” which was Tillerson's word to refer to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), an offshoot group from the original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). Presumably, she was referring to the definitions that relate to religions: 1) a community or system of religious worship and ritual, or 2) a religion or religious sect generally regarded as bogus or extremist. Amish, FLDS, and most organized religions fall within the meaning of these formal definitions.
Tillerson's statement that the Amish came to America early and “claimed their land the same as did others” is inaccurate. The first Amish immigration from Europe occurred from 1730-1770 in Pennsylvania, one hundred years after it was settled by Dutch and Swede pioneers in 1630-1684. A second wave of European Amish arrived in America in 1817-1860, and they chose other states – Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, New York, Ohio and Canada’s Ontario.
According to Amish genealogy records, they bought their land just as others were required to do during these later settlement dates, not as Patty states, “they claimed their land the same as did others.” Today, they still buy and sell land if they desire to do so, just as the LDS do.
The LDS, on the other hand, did claim their land in Utah. They developed the entire state virtually unaided by any outsider help or financial backing. LDS lands originally included 400 settlements in what are now the states of Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, and California. Congress gave them only what is today the State of Utah.
All three cults, the Amish, LDS and FLDS, have disengaged from the outside world to eliminate the influence of sinners. By doing so, they have all formulated their own “cultures”.
Current news reports on the FLDS mention the women’s corny dresses, but the Amish dress in their own corny style as well. Amish must conform to drab colors and can only use hooks and eyes for closures since they believe buttons and zippers are evil. Women wear bonnets and aprons.
The Amish also have strict standards for men’s facial hair. No Amish man can grow a moustache, and beards are mandatory for married men. The LDS have no similar beliefs.
Tillerson's statement that the Amish hand down their land from one generation to the next is fairly accurate; she omitted the part about them passing it only to their youngest sons and never to their daughters.
Traditionally, the LDS pass their lands to their eldest son and have done so since their migration to Utah in 1846. Today, this practice is beginning to change in many LDS families.
Both the Amish and LDS cults have been closed to the outside world for over a century. Both cults have in-breeding genetic mutations due to their lack of new gene pools. The Amish do not solicit new members from the outside world, relying only on new babies to be born into their cult, so their in-breeding problems are in greater proportions than the LDS who actively seek new members throughout the world.
Both cults rely upon themselves and sustain their families and extended familial communities by farming, ranching, and providing all other necessary businesses. Tillerson's assumption from a news report that “did not go into a great deal of detail” was that the FLDS land was purchased with Pentagon grants.
If she had bothered to look into the detail, she would have found that the Pentagon awarded contracts to two Utah-based companies for aircraft parts and military equipment, and in 2002, awarded their “Innovative Business Performer of the Year" to one of those companies. As I previously stated, the LDS follow a 10% tithing policy, and one of the companies’ corporate officers donated up to $100,000 a month to the FLDS.
Both cults have “real” families. Personally, from my seven years of living in Utah, I found the LDS family ties heartwarming since America’s families have dispersed throughout the nation and given up on the notion of taking care of each other. LDS family ties reminded me of my Midwestern roots, where I grew up next door to the Amish communities.
Amish only educate their children to grade 8, an act of child abuse by our current day standards, but one that was endorsed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s exemption to the cult of state educational requirements in 1971. The LDS believe very strongly in continuing education and developed internationally-known universities and colleges.
The Amish didn’t want any part of our Social Security and Medicare taxes, and in 1955 Congress exempted the cult from paying them. The LDS workers pay into the national tax funds.
The Amish don’t believe in wars, and in the past have been exempted from combat duties. Other private U.S. citizens also don’t believe in wars, but they have not been afforded the same preferential treatment as the Amish have been given. The LDS proudly serve and protect this nation which has granted them religious freedom (religious freedom, a novel concept of our Founding Fathers) by enlisting in the military departments.
The Amish allow 16-year-olds to venture into the outside world and test it. The LDS have no restrictions built into their religious dogma.
The FLDS and LDS practice plural marriages. LDS plural marriages are “underground” these days due to Federal intervention. My Utah neighbors were polygamists. The wives supported it and agreed to the marriages just as the men did.
The Amish do not practice plural marriages.
The recent Gestapo raid and tactics on the FLDS community was illegal in our former America, the land of the free and the brave. Undercover agents infiltrated the group four years ago, but they still have no evidence to convict. The caller who cried abuse has not been identified, but could possibly be a black woman from Colorado Springs. The man who she accused, Dale Barlow, has not been in Texas since 1977. Officials did not investigate the anonymous accusation, but instead, took possession of 416 children immediately and without due cause.
Pastor Martin Niemoller (1892-1984) summed up the current scenario very well in his poem which was written, according to Wikipedia, “about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.” It goes like this:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.
When they came for me,
There was no one left to speak out. |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|