The Vital Point

You’ve hear of them, Jim Jones, Marshall Applewhite, David Koresch, and FBI most wanted and the most hated man in America; the one no one can stand to hardly mention because of the “atrocities” that he has committed on American soil, Warren Jeffs. To many that is a group of terrible men. To me that is a list of two demented suicidal Cult leaders, a strange man who the government tortured and killed children to get rid of, and the most humble man alive I have ever met. The first three taught that they themselves were the chosen one, while the last would teach the importance of purity, virtue, covenant keeping, and obedience to scripture and other still greater Christ-like men. The first three do not hold a religious candle to my best friend, and do not belong in the same planet, let alone the same conversation.

Most people cannot figure out how it is that a man such as I could love Warren Jeffs after what he “did” to me. That is only because they do not know what he did FOR me. And perhaps a few in the FLDS wonder if I love him at all. If I wrote the whole truth, it would be a sound bite and a quote on all of the anti-FLDS blogs and a central topic for them ad nauseam. What I already personally have said FLDS101 and others have quoted as at least three different men, all with an indignant, evil, spin. And then they wonder why the FLDS people “answer them nothing”?

Warren Jeffs changed absolutely nothing about the FLDS religion or life. He did not change the rules, the laws, or anything of the kind. No, he only did exactly what he believed was right. Few people know what that man has done to increase the peace and virtue of the FLDS Church as a whole. He did only what his father wanted done. I have known that man for a long time, and was acquainted with him personally every day for six years when I went to Alta Academy, and the year that I went back and volunteered to teach six years later. I have listened to him for more hours than most people hear their own father, and I have never once heard him speak about himself, except in introspection and a desire to do better. Not even once. In all of the Anti-FLDS quotes that have been lifted from his school teaching courses, the ones that mention prophet, obedience, submission, or revelation to one man, he was not speaking of himself; not one time.

I will tell you all, if you can breathe through your own fear and bigotry, that Warren Jeffs had absolutely no desire to be the Prophet leader, and because of that humility, and his daily, tireless, continuous, anxious obedience to his father and the gospel of Jesus Christ, he was most qualified for the position God, and the FLDS people put him in. They have not followed blindly, but they have sought to follow and obey because they are not blind. They each and all have perfect free will to change their minds and walk away at any time, but because they have their eyes wide open, most don’t. Many Anti-FLDS constantly repeat, “Just say “I hate Warren Jeffs” we will celebrate and leave you alone”
They can’t even see how ridiculous and absurd that sounds.

And even if the powers that be, and all the devils who desire his death, got their wish and killed him, it would change nothing about the FLDS Church. He had taken upon himself the responsibility of the virtue of the people as a group, and because of that, and the very real need for a people that can live as Zion (the holiest pure people) in Zion (the City of the Saviors return) here and now, have his actions been rushed and seemingly impatient with doe-heads and slow pokes like me. I know what he has been through because of me. I know that mans heart, and I know what my actions have done to hurt him and those we both love. I know he has suffered because of me. He cares, and perhaps like me he may have made mistakes, but his mistakes are not mine or my business, for it was not for any other reason except his desire to follow the Gospel of his father and bless those who seek and love to obey the gospel. God does not make mistakes, He gives us tests. At times those tests are from our mistakes, and at times those tests come from others. A curse is a test. This whole life is but a test.

If you would kneel before your God, a being who is your FATHER, and realize without a doubt that He does hear you, and knows you, and cares very deeply about you, and you pray with all the energy of your heart, and sacrifice to Him all your feelings, cares and worries for an hour. And then use your conscious mind throughout the rest of the day to speak to God about everything, having nothing else in mind; to literally think through prayer. No entertainment except revelation through the scriptures and what you can make yourself with children or uplifting friends in peace. No worldly drum filled music but music of prayer, no Television or video but real life, no associations except what is needed for your responsibilities, no idle time except in the peace of talking to God, and knowing you are doing His will to the best of your ability. Remove all selfishness, and pride, and the need to justify yourself. Complain to no one, except God. Remove all malice and forgive every single human being without exception. And do these things all the rest of your life; in essence do exactly what Warren Jeffs has done since I ever knew him, you will understand eventually.

In the early 1880’s our Church was being hounded severely by the government; men and women were disenfranchised for their beliefs, men were put in prison and there were none in government who would allow them to live the tenets of their faith, not even the Supreme Court. From those times very similar to today, I copy these words:

George Q Cannon
August 12, 1883 JD 24:276
“Now, this is the great point. I look upon it as one of the most vital points connected with our existence in these mountains. I look upon it as a test. It may be said that it will test the Latter-Day Saints as they never have been tested -- this vital doctrine of obedience to the Priesthood of the Son of God.

“There is no point today against which so many assaults are directed by the wicked. They make it the main object of their attacks. They would like to destroy confidence in your hearts in the Priesthood of the Son of God. If they could weaken your confidence; if they could undermine your faith; if they could by any power or means in their possession wean you from the Church, and sow the seeds of distrust and suspicion in your minds concerning the Priesthood, or those who bear it, they would obtain the object of their view.

“The man who holds the keys is always the object of assault. His life is the life that is most sought after. He is the man they would strike down if they had the power. They seek to weaken the confidence of the people in him, by all manner of slanders, and every sort of falsification. It is the main object of our enemies to sow the seeds of distrust and suspicion in the midst of the Latter-Day Saints, and to accomplish this they relate all manner of falsehoods concerning those who bear the Priesthood of the Son of God. They contort every act. They misrepresent every word and every council that is given. They endeavor to put everything in a false light. And those who read those things continually begin to believe by degrees, that there is foundation for them, that there is something wrong, that this man or the other man is not to be trusted, and that they are doing wrong in yielding obedience to the counsels of the Priesthood, and in submitting to its control. You are aware these attacks are constantly directed against the Priesthood, and it is, as I say, the vital point today.”