The "Lost Boys"
They are just young men (mostly young teenagers) who have become competition to the older men who want more (and usually much younger) wives. They are kicked out of their homes and run out of town. They often leave with just the shirts on their backs. Most have minimum education and few life-skills. But, the Prophet said that they must go away. So their parents cast them out like unwanted pets. Now, they are out on the street trying to fend for themselves. They are known as the "Lost Boys".
Read the tragic stories of their attempting to survive and to integrate into mainstream society. These articles are in chronological order. Group urges sponsorship of boys cast out of polygamist sectBy Patty Henetz
The Associated Press
KUTV.com
Originally published Saturday July 31, 2004
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Even though he was abandoned by his family after his church leader excommunicated him for wanting to go to public school, a former member of a polygamist sect on Saturday asked that people not condemn his father. "The fathers are not always the bad guys. They, too, are being persecuted by the prophet," said Richard Gilbert, who was in Salt Lake City to speak on behalf of some 400 boys and young men pushed out of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ. The prophet is Warren Jeffs, who reportedly has banished hundreds of men and boys from the twin border cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, in a struggle for control over the sect, whose estimated 6,000 to 12,000 members make it the largest polygamous group in the West. Gilbert and about 50 other boys appeared at a Capitol news briefing to help announce the efforts of the nonprofit group Diversity, a mentoring group seeking donations and sponsors the hundreds of youths abandoned by their families. Gilbert said he was excommunicated at age 16 after saying he wanted to attend public school. In July 2000, Jeffs, told followers to stop associating with apostates and outsiders and pull their children from public schools. "This is really happening in the United States," he said. "There's a lot that goes on that people need to see and help with." Read more Ex-communicated FLDS Boys are Asking for HelpBy Kimberly Houk
KSL TV Channel 5 News
Originally broadcast July 31, 2004
More than 400 teenage boys are wandering the streets of southern Utah ... with no where to go ... and no where to call home. They're called the "Lost Boys" ... Utah's Attorney General says they've been forced out of their polygamist homes in the community of Colorado City, Arizona ... and Hilldale, Utah. Kimberly Houk joins us from the State Capitol with more. More than 1 hundred of the "Lost Boys" filled the Capitol's steps earlier this afternoon. They were there asking for help ... and wanting to tell their story. And it's a sad story ... filled with intimate details of what it's like to be a young boy living in the polygamist colony controlled by FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs. "FISCHER: ON A MONTHLY BASIS MULTIPLE FAMILIES ARE BEING DESTROYED. CHILDREN WAKE UP FINDING THEY HAVE A NEW DADDY FINDING THAT THEY HAVE NEW BROTHERS AND SISTERS." Read more Group Discusses Plight of Boys from Fundamentalist ChurchKSL TV Channel 5 News
Originally published July 31, 2004
Hundreds of boys from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints are speaking out and turning to you for help after facing excommunication. The boys have been expelled from the church, their families, and their homes. "Diversity", a non-profit organization, held a media conference at the State Capitol to make the public aware of their situation. "Diversity" provides mentors, financial support, housing, schooling, and counseling to help the boys learn how to excel in American society. Most of the boys were evicted for what many would consider to be normal teen behavior -- watching movies, wearing short sleeved shirts, or even just talking to girls. Read more Sect's distress tugs at authorExtremism: He is involved in helping victims of the Short Creek polygamous group, such as the "lost boys"By Patty Henetz
The Associated Press
Originally published July 31, 2004
A year ago, Jon Krakauer told more than 800 people crammed into a downtown movie theater for a reading of his book, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, that he wasn't pursuing social reform when he wrote about religious extremism. Since then, he has so deeply immersed himself in the distressed lives of members and former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints he no longer will write about the polygamous sect that inhabits twin towns on the Utah-Arizona border. "I've been asked to help a lot of people who feel they've been victimized by this culture," Krakauer told The Associated Press on Friday in a rare interview. "I just keep getting drawn deeper and deeper into this." By "this", Krakauer means the religious politics of FLDS and its leader-prophet, Warren Jeffs, who reportedly has banished hundreds of men and boys from Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., in a struggle for control over the sect, whose estimated 6,000 to 12,000 members make it the largest polygamous group in the West. Krakauer's best-selling book on religious extremism focused on the 1984 cold-blooded murders of Brenda Lafferty and her 15-month-old daughter, Erica, in American Fork. He will be in Salt Lake City today to lend weight to an organization calling itself Diversity, founded by former polygamist Dan Fischer. Read more Aid sought for church's victimsBy Stephen Speckman
Deseret Morning News
Originally published Sunday, August 1, 2004
They are boys banished from their own families because polygamous FLDS Church leaders said it should be so. Now, the nonprofit group Diversity, founded by Dan Fischer, a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is asking for the public to help more than 400 of these boys, many of whom are forced to live out of cars and behind Dumpsters. Two of these so-called "lost boys" spoke out publicly for the first time on the state Capitol steps Saturday afternoon. Joining them were dozens of former FLDS teens and young adults — a few were females or girlfriends — along with Jon Krakauer, author of "Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith," and Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. "We just want everyone to become aware that this is really happening in the United States," said Richard Gilbert. "There's a lot that goes on that people need to see and help with." Gilbert, 19, was kicked out of the FLDS Church, which is not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, when he was 16, in part, because he wanted to attend public schools. Gilbert said his father was banished first, followed by the rest of the family after his mother refused to remarry at the direction of FLDS leadership. Read more
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are not the responsibility of the blog owner. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the blog owner. They will be moderated from time to time. Blog owner reserves the right to remove offensive or commercial posts.