God vs Gavel May 9, 2011
Isolationist Religious Communities and Liberty
When authorities cannot envision their obligations under the law as distinct from their obligations within their religion, oppression is not far behind.
The latest story on the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints ("FLDS") is, once again, disturbing. [see background articles below] According to
ABC4.com, of Salt Lake City, Utah's ABC4, a library of books gathered for the FLDS community in Colorado City, AZ, has been decimated. Some were burned and others sent away to other libraries or schools:
For two years [Stefanie] Colgrove [who was born into the community] gathered book donations and raised money to open the library. The books numbered in the thousands and included new editions from Barnes and Noble as well as beautifully bound volumes of the classics. She said the value of the books easily ran in the tens of thousands of dollars, although there were so many she had not yet catalogued them all.
The report indicates that local law enforcement authorities, who are FLDS members, assisted in the removal of the books from the library.
This story sounds more like Iran than the United States, doesn't it? We have a tendency to think that book-burning is a relic from the past that no modern community would embrace. Or at least that the government would be prevented from such library destruction by the First Amendment and the rule against censorship. Normally, it would be, but when a religious community has chosen isolation, the freedoms of speech and thought fall by the wayside.
This story is a reminder of why we have the Establishment Clause (which stands for the separation of church and state) and why it must be applied against all governments in the United States, not just the state and local governments. When there is no meaningful separation, and when the authorities cannot envision their obligations under the law as distinct from their obligations within their religion, oppression is not far behind.
When the government is part and parcel of a religion, and vice versa, government suppression of competing viewpoints and worldviews appears inevitable. Is there any other way to interpret the actions in Colorado City? The local authorities in Colorado City apparently assisted with the destruction of the library, and the removal of the books. Why would they do that except to censor competing viewpoints?
That is how patriarchal societies maintain control—they filter out competing viewpoints and information, and encourage obedience rather than independent thinking.
That is the pathway to danger for the vulnerable.
For those of us who love books, this is a particularly poignant story of repression. Books give us horizons we could not have seen without the story. The only way for those outside the FLDS community to sleep peacefully at night, despite the likelihood of statutory rape of girls and abandonment of boys, is to believe that individual members do have some means to escape. We tell ourselves that their members have "chosen" their fate, even if they were born into it.
Yet, this is a reminder that there are those who are situated in a religious community and have little capacity to see beyond the patriarch in front of them. Without books, their horizons begin and end with their religious leaders. That means liberty and equality are not simply threatened, but also foreclosed.
Marci A. Hamilton is the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University and author of Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children (Cambridge, 2008) and God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law (Cambridge, 2005, 2007).
This article was found at:
http://www.patheos.com//Resources/Additional-Resources/Isolationist-Religious-Communities-and-Liberty-Marci-Hamilton-05-10-2011.html
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Salt Lake Tribune - April 23, 2011
FLDS attorney speaks out, says books weren’t burned
BY LINDSAY WHITEHURST | The Salt Lake Tribune
An attorney for a polygamous sect says a bonfire set in Colorado City, Ariz., last weekend was part of an effort to clean up an old building, not to burn thousands of books.
“They thought they were performing a service by cleaning up this building,” said Rod Parker, who represents the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. “It’s been a party place for teens to do, as my clients would say, ‘immoral acts.’ ”
Last weekend, members of the FLDS took the books, worth $15,000, out of the old schoolhouse where they were being stored by a non-FLDS woman who planned to turn the building into a library, Parker said. The books were donated to the libraries in Cedar City and St. George, as well as the Deseret Industries thrift store in Cedar City, he said.
Workers set the fire to burn debris cleared out of the building, including some books that were damaged beyond repair, Parker said. The book remnants in the ashes, however, led some to conclude that all the books have been burned in the fire.
Like most of the buildings in Colorado City and Hildale, the schoolhouse is part of the FLDS’s property trust that was taken over by the state in 2005 amid allegations of mismanagement. The court-appointed administrator of the trust, Bruce Wisan, said Colgrove had permission to use the building. No one else had asked him for permission to use it, or move the items stored inside. The FLDS members entered after changing the locks, he said. The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona is investigating the incident, but a spokeswoman said Friday that no reports had been completed on it.
When the supposed book-burning became public last week, Utah Attorney General’s Office spokesman Paul Murphy, who personally donated thousands of volumes, called the incident a “hate crime.”
“They were not their books to give away to burn or donate to anyone else ... that’s theft,” Murphy said. “[The FLDS] seem to be doing whatever they want.”
But polygamy advocates say that language goes too far. Mary Batchelor, a co-founder of Principle Voices, said that while she doesn’t condone taking property without permission, tensions between FLDS members and nonmember residents are already high.
“It was very polarizing for accusations to be slung around when people really didn’t know the truth of what’s going on,” said Batchelor, who works with Murphy on Safety Net, a committee that brings government workers together with people from Utah’s polygamous communities. “Take a deep breath and wait for more information, assess the harm and the wrongdoing in a very calm and rational way.”
Parker said there was a rush to judgment after the supposed book burning became public.
“They jump to the most evil conclusions without bothering to find out the truth,” he said. “It’s unfair.”
The twin towns of Colorado City and Hildale used to have a library, but it was closed and its contents removed several years ago.
The new books had been collected by Stefanie Colgrove, a non-FLDS resident of the community, at least since 2008. They were being stored in an old schoolhouse that Colgrove planned to turn into a library. The building had been unused for at least six years, and was in poor condition during a 2006 visit from The Tribune.
Colgrove could not be reached for comment on whether she has tracked down all the books since recovering hundreds at a Cedar City Deseret Industries.
This article was found at:
Deseret News - Utah April 20, 2011
Boxes of books feared burned in FLDS town recovered in Cedar City
By Emiley Morgan, Deseret News
CEDAR CITY — A large number of books feared burned in a southern Utah polygamous town were recovered from a Deseret Industries in Cedar City Tuesday.
Elaine Tyler, who was one of the major gatherers of the books that were donated for a community library, said 10 pallets full of books were recovered.
"I don't know how much that accounts for," she said.
The books were being stored at an old schoolhouse in the polygamous twin border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. — both enclaves of the Fundamental LDS Church. Over the weekend, a bonfire was set and area residents said it was apparent that books were among the ashes. The schoolhouse had been locked and boarded, leading many to believe all the donated books had been burned.
Isaac Wyler
Photo taken Monday, April 18, 2011, shows burned books and debris outside an old schoolhouse, a building that was intended to be a community library. Officials fear thousands of books, many of them donated, may have been burned.
Isaac Wyler, a Colorado City resident, said a first-hand witness told him there "wasn't a book left in (the schoolhouse)," further leading Wyler and Tyler to believe thousands of books had been destroyed.
"I've seen the pile of ashes and there are books in there for sure," Wyler said. "One book was four inches thick and there were tons of books like that."
It is believed that some members of the community don't want a library and resent efforts being taken by a state-run management team to sell the schoolhouse for that purpose.
"They don't want any outside influence," Wyler said. "I personally don't think they looked at any of the books."
Tyler, who estimated that upwards of $15,000 in books were missing from the schoolhouse, said she had already called Barnes and Noble Booksellers to report that the books had been removed and was told they were committed to donating again.
Tyler said Stefanie Colgrove, the woman who had the idea for the library, was able to confirm those found at the Deseret Industries are the same books missing from the schoolhouse.
"It's good news just to save some of these books," Tyler said. "We know they burned some, but at least they didn't get all of them."
Chad Campbell, who manages the Deseret Industries in Cedar City, said a police detective came by and checked the books with a librarian, who verified that her name was on some of the boxes the books were found in. He said there are between eight and 10 pallets of books and that the pallets hold approximately four boxes stacked almost 4 feet high.
"It was a lot of books," he said. "It took us about a half hour to unload the big van trailer they came in. We've been told to let them sit, so we're letting them sit."
Bill Medvecky, a Florida resident who said he donated books for the community library, said he was at first surprised to hear books had been burned. When he called various FLDS friends to ask why, he said they told him the community was receiving unsolicited packages without a return address, causing them concern. He said a decision was made to destroy the books.
Medvecky said those in the FLDS faith he spoke with were also wary of any books being brought in from the "outside."
"It was not their property, but they didn't want it in the community," he said.
This article was found at:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705371046/Boxes-of-books-feared-burned-in-FLDS-town-recovered-in-Cedar-City.html
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Deseret News - Utah April 19, 2011
Despite book burning, organizers resolve to create library for FLDS communities
Arizona incident compared to Hitler, called a 'hate crime'
By Emiley Morgan, Deseret News
COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — Days after "tens of thousands" of books were reportedly burned in a polygamous border town, those who spent years gathering the books have voiced their resolve to carry on.
For Stefanie Colgrove, the woman who started gathering the books in an effort to open a library for the Fundamentalist LDS Church towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Washington County, there is no question of what will become of the planned library.
"I have one of those natures that if you ask me nicely, I'm more than willing to do anything, but you strong-arm me, you just sit back and see what happens," she said Tuesday. "I'm more determined than ever."
The books, which Colgrove and others had been collecting since 2007, were being housed in an old schoolhouse they were hoping to convert into a community library.
Elaine Tyler, a volunteer for The HOPE organization, said she had personally received over $15,000 worth of books, including $10,000 worth from Barnes and Noble Booksellers. Colgrove said books she had were worth at least another $6,000.
"There were tens of thousands of books," Tyler said. "Barnes and Noble donated … a lot of nursery rhymes and Nancy Drew, fun children's books so these kids can fantasize and have a little bit of a childhood," she said. "And it's gone now. Up in smoke."
She called the incident "evil" and "cruel" and said she couldn't believe those who burned the books did so just after a federal judge made efforts to return property from a state-run FLDS trust back to control of the FLDS Church.
"The only thing I can compare their actions to is Adolf Hitler's when he piled up books and burned them decades ago," she said.
Colgrove, an ex-FLDS member who moved back to the border town to raise her family, wanted a library for everyone who lives in the area. The rumor was that FLDS leader Warren Jeffs years earlier had ordered the old library closed and all of the books disappeared, she said.
Plans for the new library stalled when the ownership of the schoolhouse came into question.
The schoolhouse is on FLDS Church trust property. The trust was formed in 1942 on the concept of a "united order," allowing followers to share in its assets.
The trust holds most of the property and homes in the twin FLDS communities. It was taken over by the courts in 2005 over allegations it had been mismanaged by FLDS leaders. Members consider sharing their assets a religious principle and see state intervention in the trust as a violation of their religious rights.
The state managers of the trust offered to donate the building to be used as a library. But two FLDS members recently came to a meeting about the issue and said the ownership of the schoolhouse is already the subject of a lawsuit and threatened another suit if it were made into a library.
On Saturday, a bonfire was spotted near the schoolhouse. One witness said the flames were high enough to stretch above rooftops. Book fragments were found in the ash. The schoolhouse was locked and its windows boarded, making it difficult to know how many books were destroyed.
"I know it sounds corny, but when something you have been passionate about and strived for is taken away from you, the air just goes out of you," Colgrove said, recounting how she felt when her mother told her the news. "If it wouldn't have been my mother telling me, I would have thought it was someone doing a stupid practical joke on me."
She said her brain went numb simply trying to understand how someone could think to burn books.
"In the day we live in, destroying literature of any kind is unfathomable," she said. "Especially in America, this stuff doesn't happen."
Tyler said she feels she owes it to those who have donated to pursue action to bring whoever burned the books to justice, including filing a complaint with the Mohave County Sheriff's Office.
"We're probably barking up a tree, but I don't care; I'm going to bark," she said. "People need to know what they've done. To burn books is inexcusable."
Paul Murphy, a spokesman for the Utah Attorney General's Office, personally took part in collecting books for the effort and making others aware of plans for the library.
"People from all walks of life came forward and said, 'I've got books,' " he said. "A lot of people really gave of themselves, and some fool decided to burn them. ... It was heartwarming to be part of the process of gathering and donating books, and to see it to go up in flames is just heartbreaking."
Murphy said he would characterize the incident as a "hate crime."
"By burning these books, it represents hatred toward anybody who introduces new ideas into Colorado City," he said.
Murphy is hopeful the library will still be created and he will "absolutely" aid in any future efforts. "I hope this incident will help the library rise like a phoenix out of the ash."
In the meantime, Colgrove is holding out hope that most of the books weren't burnt, but simply taken away.
"I've been talking to an officer in Colorado City, and he thinks there may be a lead as to where some of the books went," she said. "If that's true, you'll see the happiest person ever. Go put them somewhere, just don't destroy them."
Requests for comment from Colorado City marshals and an FLDS spokesman were not returned.
This article was found at:
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