It hardly seems credible that this kind of thing could happen. We have unfortunately become used to, although I hope not inured to stories of men and women preying on the young and vulnerable to satisfy their own perverted sexual gratification. We call it paedophilia or pederasty and express our abhorrence at such things, regarding perpetrators as sick and dangerous members of society. Nothing provokes people’s ire as does this crime.
Yet in our 21st century society, there are men and women who staunchly defend such activities on religious grounds, subjecting girls as young as 14 and 15 to loveless “marriages” to middle-aged or even elderly men. Young men in the community are driven away as unwanted rivals, becoming waifs and orphans, victims themselves of this twisted systematic abuse. Young girls are threatened with eternal damnation if they do not abide by the commands of their elders and leaders. But our elders are supposed to be our betters and not our stalkers!
And who did this thing first? Why, Joseph Smith, the 19th Century pederast, cult leader and demagogue. If it hadn’t been for Joseph Smith these things would not be happening today. The Mormon Church denies any association or culpability; but the Mormon Church lies.
SAN ANGELO, Texas — Allan Keate raised his two cuffed hands Thursday, shortly after he heard the sentence of 33 years in prison for sexual assault of a child, and smiled briefly at the gallery, at more than a dozen fellow members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — men and women, adults young and old…
Outside the makeshift courthouse, lead prosecutor Eric Nichols stepped into the harsh light of television cameras at about 10 p.m. and read a prepared statement.
He said Keate’s victim, 15 years old at the time of the assault, which occurred around April 2006, had been in a “celestial marriage” twice.
Celestial marriages are unofficial religious betrothals that FLDS members use to practice polygamy.
Nichols said Keate had given away three of his daughters in marriage to older men. Two of those daughters were 15 and one was 14, and the last was given away to Warren Jeffs, then prophet of the FLDS who has been imprisoned for aiding in child rape by transporting a young girl across state lines.
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