Doris Hanson Director, Shield & Refuge Ministry

God never expects us to strive to get to heaven on a foundation of deceptions or blind faith. However, Mormonism itself expects blind faith by which they can more easily control members.  Blind faith, or faith based on feelings, is not God's way. Jesus said blind faith will result in disaster.

The Bible tells us that God's true Kingdom cannot and will not be shaken. God doesn't keep His Kingdom from being shaken because His people are using deception to protect it. The many polygamy groups rely on deception - and man-made doctrine to secure ‘their kingdoms.’ Although they all claim to follow Jesus, they don’t believe what He taught. 

Matthew 7:26-28
And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

Mormonism is like the foolish man who built his house on the sand. Someday it will fall, and great will be its fall.  When the prophets of Mormonism teach, their people listen believing they’re speaking for God. But when Jesus taught, it was with the authority of God himself. Our prayerful hope is that those in Mormonism will listen to Jesus - and then find one place where He taught polygamy.

We thank you for your support and prayers that enable us to bring Biblical truths to polygamists

KAREN'S CORNER

Karen Bradshaw is an ex-plural wife from the Allred polygamy group. We continue with her story of being born, raised and married as a plural wife.

For eight years my mother remained in an abusive polygamist marriage. I saw its many problems first-hand and wanted nothing to do with it. I prayed for deliverance from the life of constant hard work, and the abuse we children were subjected to. Beatings were a constant fear as well has daily rejection.  I yearned for a loving relationship with a father that I never had.  y mom finally decided enough was enough, she got a driver's license and escaped one night taking seven of her thirteen children with her and we drove to Utah.

When I was sixteen years old, I moved in with a relative in Vernal, Utah. To please her I took the Mormon missionary lessons and joined the LDS Church. After I was baptized into the LDS church, guilt and shame overwhelmed me. thought I had denied my Mormon Fundamentalist faith, that I was a traitor, a Judas.

A year later I fell in love, he was twenty-eight and convinced me to run away with him. I had wanted to remain sexually pure until marriage, but we lived together, then he began pressuring me to do things that I didn’t want to do, calming my fears with his promise to marry me, but it didn’t happen. A cousin helped me escape from him and as I look back, I can recognize God’s protection, delivering me from several predicaments that could have ended up disastrous.  I knew I needed to repent and ask Jesus to forgive me, so I went to my Mormon Bishop and confessed. He just dis-fellowshipped me from the LDS church, which only pushed me away further.

I got a job at in Salt Lake and one day saw a man whom I hadn't seen since I was fourteen years old. It was love at first sight. He was even more handsome than I remembered.  His blond hair, dark tanned skin next to his sea blue eyes caught my attention, my heart skipped a beat! I was older too and had changed my hair color, so he didn't recognize me. I called out his name and said hello. "How do you know my name!" he asked. I laughed and asked, “don't you remember me?” That was the beginning of the most wonderful summer.

We spent our spare time together falling madly in love. On Christmas Eve 1988, after a romantic and charming evening, he popped the question presenting me with a beautiful engagement ring. I knew we were going to spend a wonderful life together. We made plans to be married in the Spring at Eastertime. I was so happy, whatever could go wrong? It was a wonderful life!  But my dreams of “happily ever after’ were soon shattered! My trusting heart was broken into a million pieces!  He began flirting with other women – a typical behavior by a male from polygamy, but I had thought he was beyond doing that.

…continued next month!

DID THEY REALLY SAY THAT?

3rd Mormon church President, John Taylor:

MORMON POLYGAMY HISTORY

~~It all began with Joseph Smith~~

Quote by Rev. Walter Burrows as written in 1886 and published in “Women of Mormonism” By Jennie Anderson Froiseth—his observation of Mormon women in Utah.

“Even in Salt Lake City, where they adopt more of worldly fashions than they do in the remoter settlements, there is little possibility of mistaking them. Especially do the first wives seem to carry the signs of care and sorrow, a mark of Cain, as it were, which separates them from the rest of their kind. It is perceptible to even the most transient visitors, and those who tarry for any length of time can readily distinguish a Mormon woman from an outsider, though they have no personal acquaintance with either. We have studied the subject closely for years and believe that we understand it thoroughly. We have heard the stories of hundreds of the women themselves, both good Mormons and apostates, which is perhaps the truest criterion by which to judge. It is only a woman of marked courage and strength of character, that will acknowledge the real extent of a delusion under which she has been laboring, especially when that delusion has been accompanied by shame, and a despotism strong enough to intimidate and crush the bravest spirit. That despotism has, no doubt, deterred a great many from giving full expression to their feelings, but the testimony that has been given is strong, abundant, and conclusive. And by this testimony we purpose to prove that what the divine said was true, that polygamy is a damnable doctrine for women; that the philosopher understood the system well when he declared it a miserable failure socially; that its cornerstone is degradation to women and infamy to children; that its [26] annals are unequaled in shameless crimes, and that the non-Mormon women fully appreciated the civil influences that have made the Mormon women what they are when they wrote, "Polygamy has never taken such a debasing form in any nation or among any people above the condition of savages, as in Utah."

We also purpose to prove that it is a curse to children, and destructive to the sacred relations of the family, and that those who practice it in the name and under the cloak of religion …  Pages 25-26
NOTE:  This no longer describes LDS women today, but DOES describe women who are trapped in Mormon polygamy groups today, all over the country.

FROM OUR MAILBOX:

“In today’s world Joseph Smith would be known as a 'Sugar Daddy'" --LB

“It was child molestation in the barn period. [Fanny Alger] was a little girl in his supposed care. The Mormon church hiding these facts is absolutely disgusting.”  --CR

“Thank you for this .... This information needs to come out to the general LDS population. LDS teachings smack of Christianity, but they are a facsimile and fall short of the true gospel of God." --HD

“What a crazy world. Polygamy is nothing more than lust in the flesh.   And those cults are so disciplined, yet they are so carnal in nature giving into their own desires. The males run with rules all to their own advantages.” --SA

“You know what blows me away?  Joseph Smith was wrong on at least 90 percent of his revelations.  See Duet. 13:1-3, Duet. 18:20.  He spent most of his time planning his next pubescent teen girls conquest, was wrong on the Greek psalter incident, was wrong on the Kinderhook plates, and the Egyptian papyri, yet millions of Mormons continue to worship him?” --GH

Praises & Prayer Requests:

• Please pray for a situation where a member of a Christian church decided he wanted to live polygamy and has coerced 2 sisters to be his plural wives.
  
  
• Pray for a woman who has left polygamy but continues to suffer flashbacks.
  
  
• Pray for a mother who has also left her polygamous husband and is experiencing negative pressure and threats to return.
  
  
• Pray for “A”, she wants to leave her polygamous husband, but he threatens to steal her house and take their kids away from her.
  
  
• PRAISE for a much-needed opportunity to share our ministry with Christians and polygamists in a Montana community.

KINGSTON POLYGAMY GROUP UPDATE:

The Kingston polygamy group, just like all Mormon fundamentalists, are racist. Kingston polygamists own and operate the Vanguard Academy, a Charter School in West Valley City, Utah. Millions of taxpayer dollars are given to them, yet they do not follow the Utah State standards of operation that every other Charter school is obligated to follow. Polygamy group children have priority in their admissions policy - and the integration of diverse ethnic students was next to nothing.  When this was made public, they lied about the reasons why diversity didn’t exist, and how taxpayer money allotted to them was spent.

Polygamy is illegal in the State of Utah, it is forbidden forever by the Utah State Constitution, but a polygamous wife oversees a tax-payer-funded, polygamy-group-operated education facility. Why? She's a lawbreaker, and she publicly lied about their operation on television news.

We've discussed many times in the past Mormonism's practice of "Lying for the Lord." From its very beginning, Joseph Smith's church practiced deceit, lying, violence, racism, various kinds of adulteries - all behind the scenes of their assumed holiness and sanctity. His polygamy groups do not and cannot behave differently.

The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 3:13 that evil men and deceivers will wax worse and worse. We see it happening with the ungodliness of Mormon polygamous communities.

UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN is an excellent book written by Jon Krakauer about Mormon Fundamentalism and murder by the Lafferty brothers in Utah.  The book has inspired a movie series that will begin broadcast on Hulu April 28th. The story follows the events that led to the 1984 murder of Brenda Lafferty and her baby daughter in a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah. The method of the murders followed the “blood atonement” oath Mormonism required in their temple rituals up until the early 1990’s.

“As Detective Jeb Pyre investigates events within the Lafferty family, he uncovers buried truths about the origins of the LDS religion and the violent consequences of unyielding faith. What Pyre a devout Mormon discovers, causes him to question his own faith.”

We are available to speak to your group, association, church or organization about the Mormon Fundamentalists of today.

Just call Doris:  801-649-3103, or Email: doris@shieldandrefuge.org