http://www.religionnewsblog.com Religion news about religious cults, sects, world religions, and related issues Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:40:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23863/flds-sect-men-high-control http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23863/flds-sect-men-high-control#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:31:38 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23863 Women in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints polygamist sect were taught that their fathers or husbands and the sect's prophet had the right to direct every aspect of their lives, a former member testified Wednesday in the child sexual abuse trial of a current sect member.

Prosecutors asked Musser to talk about her experience in the FLDS and how church records are kept, as they are relying heavily on records and dictations by jailed FLDS leader Warren Jeffs that were seized from the ranch.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23863/flds-sect-men-high-control/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23862/cult-leader-warren-jeffs-appeals-conviction http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23862/cult-leader-warren-jeffs-appeals-conviction#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:52:43 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23862 Cult leader Warren Jeffs' attorney, Walter Bugden Jr., said the state could have charged Jeffs with performing an illegal marriage, but instead decided to charge an unpopular religious figure with a serious crime that didn't fit the facts of the case.

Note that Jeffs -- notorious for his ruthlessness -- told the girl in question she would lose her salvation if she did not obey. ]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23862/cult-leader-warren-jeffs-appeals-conviction/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23861/raymond-jessop-flds-trial http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23861/raymond-jessop-flds-trial#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:39:39 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23861 Defense attorney Mark Stevens argued that much of the content of the documents, mostly marriage records or dictations made by Warren S. Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, are extraneous, prejudicial and not relevant to the crime charged to Jessop because they refer to polygamy.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23861/raymond-jessop-flds-trial/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23858/flds-birthing-center http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23858/flds-birthing-center#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:50:25 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23858 A birthing center on the bottom floor of a log cabin-style building at a polygamist group's West Texas ranch was set up like a medical office with one distict difference: A portrait of jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs hung over the delivery bed.

The photo was introduced into evidence by prosecutors in the trial of FLDS sect member Raymond Jessop.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23858/flds-birthing-center/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23846/ray-merrill-jessop-trial http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23846/ray-merrill-jessop-trial#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:32:15 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23846 The child sexual assault trial of a polygamist sect member came to a screeching halt just before 3 p.m. today because a jurist’s child may have swine flu.

Raymond Merrill Jessop is the first of 12 men from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to face a criminal trial in Texas. The assault charge stems from his alleged marriage to a girl who was 16 when she became pregnant.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23846/ray-merrill-jessop-trial/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23838/raymond-jessop-2 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23838/raymond-jessop-2#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:35:42 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23838 Attorneys moved closer to seating a jury in the first criminal case resulting from the state's 2008 raid on a polygamist sect's ranch after narrowing a jury pool to 34 on Tuesday.

Raymond Jessop is the first of 12 FLDS men to be tried on a variety of sexual assault and bigamy charges as a result of the April, 2008 raid on the cult's Yearning for Zion Ranch.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23838/raymond-jessop-2/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23703/bountiful-polygamy-7 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23703/bountiful-polygamy-7#comments Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:30:31 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23703 Criminal polygamy charges against B.C., Canada religious leaders Winston Blackmore and Jim Oler were thrown out last Thursday -- which, Canada's National Post writes, means they can continue to practise what they preach: Accept multiple wives, including teenage girls.

But McGill University law professor Angela Campbell isn't too worried. While she does not endorse polygamy, her research into the religious groups suggests Bountiful is neither a community of horrors nor a utopia.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23703/bountiful-polygamy-7/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23687/polygamy-charges-dismissed-against-polygamous-cult-leaders http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23687/polygamy-charges-dismissed-against-polygamous-cult-leaders#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:07:46 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23687 Criminal polygamy charges against B.C. religious leaders Winston Blackmore and Jim Oler have been thrown out.

Former attorney-general Wally Oppal did not have authority to appoint a second special prosecutor to the decades-long case after the first one declined to proceed, Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein ruled.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23687/polygamy-charges-dismissed-against-polygamous-cult-leaders/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23676/flds-sect-member-sues-arizona-over-loss-of-police-job http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23676/flds-sect-member-sues-arizona-over-loss-of-police-job#comments Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:29:28 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23676 A former police officer from a polygamous community has filed a lawsuit against Arizona officials, claiming he was defamed and his civil rights violated when they revoked his police certification, AP reports.

Preston Barlow's certification was revoked in September 2007 after allegations of misconduct the previous year.

The lawsuit contends that Barlow, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was targeted for his faith and misled about the nature of the investigation that ended with his decertification and the loss of his job.

Barlow, 30, is one of at least six officers from the Colorado City Town Marshal's office to be decertified by authorities in Arizona or Utah since 2003, some for the practice of polygamy, a tenet of the FLDS faith. ]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23676/flds-sect-member-sues-arizona-over-loss-of-police-job/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23619/flds-appeals-united-effort-plan-ruling http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23619/flds-appeals-united-effort-plan-ruling#comments Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:39:17 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23619 An appeal filed with the Utah Supreme Court says a district judge went too far when she stripped a polygamous sect's charitable trust of its religious purpose and denied church members "an effective voice" in court proceedings.

In rulings in the United Effort Plan Trust case, 3rd District Judge Denise Lindberg has sanctioned "continued violations" of constitutional rights of thousands who belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the appeal claims. ]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23619/flds-appeals-united-effort-plan-ruling/feed 0