Jeffs case isn't about religion
 
Opinion
Provo Daily Herald
 
It's ironic that Warren Jeffs, a man revered by some as a prophet of God, was arrested in Sin City.

Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was captured early last week during a traffic stop in Las Vegas. A Nevada highway trooper pulled over the red Cadillac Escalade Jeffs was riding in because its temporary license tag was illegible.

Thus ended a manhunt that saw federal and local police scrambling to check out sightings in Lehi, at Strawberry Reservoir, in grocery stores and a hundred other places. Jeffs even made the FBI's Most Wanted List alongside Osama bin Laden. His peaceful capture allayed fears that his bodyguards would make good on their promise to give their lives for him in a gun battle with police.

Now that Jeffs is in custody, Utah will prosecute him on statutory rape charges for forcing underage girls to marry older men. Arizona will be next with similar charges.

However, Jeffs is already playing the persecution card to defend himself, telling officers that he was charged solely because of his religious beliefs. It is likely that his supporters will build on that and compare Jeffs to 19th century LDS Church leaders who went into hiding rather than be arrested for practicing polygamy.

To them we say, don't waste your breath. We're not buying it, and neither will a jury.

Jeffs is not sitting in jail for his religious beliefs. While polygamy is illegal in Utah, the state does not prosecute the crime when the participants are all consenting adults who are not breaking any other laws through domestic violence, welfare fraud or child abuse.

Had Jeffs stuck to solemnizing marriages between adults who wanted to be in polygamist relationships, he would be a free man. But setting up girls for statutory rape was never protected by the First Amendment. In one incident, a girl repeatedly objected to the marriage and Jeffs reportedly told her she had to submit to whatever her new husband asked of her.

Unfortunately, there will be some who will continue to see this as a battle for religious liberty despite the mountain of evidence piled up against Jeffs. We hope their protests will not cause society to lose sight of the real victims.
 
heraldextra.com
Originally published Tuesday, September 5, 2006
 
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