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John R. Llewellyn has appeared on
Larry King Live, ABC Primetime, The Today Show
with Matt Lauer
& Katie Couric; NBC Nightly News with Tom
Brokaw; Fox News Channel's "The Edge" with Paula Zahn; MSNBC; Inside Edition; Good Morning America,
& is contacted frequently by local and foreign press.
POLYGAMY'S RAPE of RACHAEL STRONG
– Protected
Environment for Predators
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By John R. Llewellyn
List Price $14.95 Soft Cover 160p 6 x 9
Agreka™ Books ISBN 0-9777072-1-0
Library of Congress 2006922703
Rachael Strong was raped:
By her polygamist prophet stepfather forty-five years her senior who claims he
was only living his religion.
By a published doctrine that warns: submit or be destroyed by God.
By a Utah movement to decriminalize polygamy.
By the new "political correctness."
Was it incest? Was it rape? Was it extortion? Was it
conspiracy to commit a felony? Some may call it simply a religious choice
Rachael made. But was it?
In 2006, the State of Utah is making purposeful
decisions that decriminalize polygamy, and Tapestry Against Polygamy has been
asked not to use politically incorrect words like "victim" or "escape" or
"brainwashed" or "cult."
When well-educated, fashionably dressed, articulate
pro-polygamy women living as independents come forward, explaining how civilized
polygamy really is, and they do this after years of public perception of
group-controlled polygamist women being downtrodden, poorly dressed, poorly
educated, and unquestioning of their husbands – people pay attention. They
become an entertaining media story – and they also provide Utahns someone to
point to and say "See, this is the real polygamy, not those others."
This book will document a recent case history of a Mormon
Fundamentalist polygamist, who is a ruthless sexual predator. And he is not
being prosecuted.
Foreword
Preface Introduction About The Author
Page 2 Read Excerpts
Foreword
 Plural marriage and its religious concepts are
an important part of Utah’s past and present history. From federal government
pressure to cease the practice in the late 1800s to present-day state government
efforts to be friendly to those who still practice it, a story rich with
controversy develops.
Double-click back cover for larger image
The issue involves those polygamists and their
wives who sincerely believe they are following God’s commandment to replenish
the earth, as opposed to predators who use the same commandment to justify
heinous acts of abuse.
Independent polygamists and their families live quietly
in mainstream society and group polygamists live either in society or within a
specified geographical area. Each polygamist group has a male leader considered
by its members to be the one true "prophet" on the earth and they believe he is
fully justified by God in setting the laws by which the group operates.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints focuses on helping its members build strong and secure families, and it
excommunicates members found to be practicing polygamy. But because it was the
federal government that forced the Church to stop the practice, and because the
Church scriptures still contain the commandment, and because members expect to
practice plural marriage in heaven, they still hold the belief of plural
marriage as holy. And many members have ancestors who practiced plural marriage.
All this creates mixed feelings among the populace about what the government
should do to those who practice polygamy today.
Many stories of abuse within polygamy are
reported in the news and have captured the world’s attention.
To add to the complexity, Freedom of Religion
legal issues are also at play, and a polygamy case presently at the 10th
Circuit Court of Appeals is headed for the Supreme Court, and will arrive about
the same time as one on same-sex marriage.
Many believe that the State of Utah is already
implementing practices that will in effect decriminalize polygamy. State
officials say it is to stem the abuse by opening the doors to polygamists so
they no longer need fear government and will seek help. It may also be that they
want to be prepared for whatever the Supreme Court will ultimately decide.
A new controversy has developed
as a result. Many escaping victims needing help from polygamy abuse feel
betrayed by the new actions of the state government, because their needs are
being downplayed so the still-practicing polygamists won’t be embarrassed or
offended. The new state Safety Net program presently has meetings where both
groups are expected to attend together – side by side – abuse victims and
pro-polygamists. It seems the government does not understand the intimidation,
powerlessness, and subserviency these victims battle against.
The only advocate devoted specifically to
helping physically and emotionally damaged women leaving polygamy is non-profit
Tapestry Against Polygamy.
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Preface
Utah is located in the western United States,
and Salt Lake City is the capital. The state’s population in 2005 was estimated
at 2,547,389, with most living along the Wasatch Front.
In large part due to the influence of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Utah is one of the most conservative and
Republican states in the nation, and about 90% of elected officials in the Utah
Legislature are members of the Church.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1878 that the
Constitution does not protect the practice of polygamy. In Reynolds v. United
States, the court ruled that beliefs may be protected but specific acts
were not. Justice Waite wrote: "Laws are made for the government of
actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and
opinions, they may with practices." (Italics added)
Congress passed the Edmunds Act in 1882, making
"bigamous cohabitation" a misdemeanor, although only males were prosecuted.
Scores of polygamous Mormons were arrested in the Utah territory while others
went into hiding. In 1887, the Edmunds-Tucker Act enabled the U.S. government to
seize LDS Church property, except places of worship.
Under this pressure from the Federal Government, and to
qualify for statehood, Utah passed a law in 1896 against the practice of
polygamy, making it a third degree felony. The LDS Church also added to their
Doctrine & Covenants (a sacred book containing the plural marriage commandment)
an "Official Declaration" called The Manifesto to make it official.
The 1896 Constitution of the State of Utah
states:
Article III, ORDINANCE:
"The following shall be irrevocable without the consent
of the United States and the people of this state:
[Religious toleration. Polygamy forbidden.]
"First – Perfect toleration of religious sentiment is guaranteed. No inhabitant
of this State shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or
her mode of religious worship; but polygamous or plural marriages are forever
prohibited."
Many church members did not agree with the
Church’s decision to discontinue polygamy, believing they caved in to federal
government pressure. A large number already had multiple wives and their
forebears did as well. When the Manifesto was issued, some accepted it, but
others decided to continue practicing it secretly, because the phrase, "thus
sayeth the Lord," was conspicuously absent. A number of these people began to
form groups and called themselves "Mormon Fundamentalists," meaning they held to
the early teachings of the Church.
In 2001 State Senator Ron Allen sponsored Bill
146 that resulted in making it a crime to Perform Unlawful Marriages. The Bill
also makes child (bigamous) marriages a felony, and bigamous marriages between
adults a first class misdemeanor. In 2005 the legislature passed a bill defining
marriage as a civil union between a man and a woman. To my knowledge there
have been no arrests made.
In 2006, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is
making purposeful decisions that decriminalize polygamy, and the public
relations man for his office has asked Tapestry Against Polygamy to no longer
use politically incorrect words like "victim" or "escape" or "brainwashed" or
"cult," because they might be offensive to polygamists.
Utah prosecutors no longer prosecute polygamy
between consenting adults, which the Attorney General has described as a
"religious tenet," but which in effect challenges the 1878 Supreme Court ruling.
As a result of the intense media exposure about polygamy, the Utah legislature
has raised the age from fourteen to sixteen that a minor girl can marry, with
parental consent. Marriage applicants who are sixteen or seventeen must have a
legal guardian with them to give written approval of the marriage. If fifteen,
they must have guardian and the court’s approval. If a polygamist prophet should
perform a plural marriage involving a minor, it is a felony. A man commits a
felony if he has sex with a minor and he is ten years older than the minor.
In Arizona the age of legal consent is
eighteen, not sixteen. If sixteen or seventeen, the consent of at least one
parent is required. And Arizona does not ban polygamy as such, but does have a
bigamy law.
This book will document a recent case history
of a Mormon Fundamentalist polygamist, who is a ruthless sexual predator. And he
is not being prosecuted. . .
Introduction Excerpt
Two women on parole for being accessories to sex crimes
against children assisted in a carefully crafted conspiracy by Mormon
Fundamentalist leader James D. Harmston – to coerce his beautiful
twenty-year-old stepdaughter Rachael to become his seventeenth wife. Her
stepfather since she was ten years old, this "prophet" had been attracted to
Rachael’s beauty even then, and began plotting to one day make her his wife.
An FBI report states: A high potential of abuse exists for
any children raised in a group isolated from the mainstream of society,
especially if the group has a charismatic leader whose orders are unquestioned
and blindly obeyed by the members. Sex, money, and power are often the main
motivations of the leaders of such cults. Kenneth V. Lanning, "Investigator's Guide to Allegations of 'Ritual'
Child Abuse," Behavioral Science Unit, National Center for the Analysis of
Violent Crime, Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI Academy, Quantico,
Virginia 22135 (1992).
Rachael married a young man in the group when she was sixteen
and emotionally bonded with him, fully expecting to bear him children. To her
shock, she was specifically ordered by her stepfather prophet not to
become pregnant. When she accidentally became pregnant and bore a child, he was
furious, ordered the husband to throw her out, and implemented his plan, an
intensive mind control program:
The world was coming to a rapid and horrible end, she had been
the devil’s wife in a previous life, God had turned his back on her, and this
life was her very last chance to save herself and her baby from
soon-to-occur eternal damnation. Her only chance to be saved was to marry her
stepfather, the prophet, who held her imminent destruction in his hands.
Shattered, she married him and was subjected to such degrading and dehumanizing
sexual acts with this sixty-four year old predator stepfather that the day soon
came when she realized that damnation could not be worse and left.
Was it incest? Was it rape? Was it extortion? Was it
conspiracy to commit a felony? Was it domestic violence? Was it conspiracy to
defraud? Some may call it simply a religious choice Rachael made. But was it?
There is no question that "duress" was applied.
Duress: Unlawful pressure exerted
upon a person to coerce that person to perform an act that he or she
ordinarily would not perform. Duress also encompasses the same harm,
threats, or restraint exercised upon the affected individual's spouse,
child, or parent. Duress is distinguishable from undue influence, a
concept employed in the law of wills, in that the latter term (duress)
involves a wrongdoer who is a fiduciary, one who occupies a position of
trust and confidence. Duress also exists where a person is coerced by the
wrongful conduct or threat of another to enter into a contract under
circumstances that deprive the individual of his or her volition. (Italics
added) West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Copyright © 1998 by The
Gale Group, Inc.
Rachael has never been given an official response from the
Utah Attorney General about why he declines to prosecute. The case was submitted
to him in late 2004.
The Attorney General states that Utah now declines to
prosecute the crime of bigamy between consenting adults, but will
prosecute crimes against children; and he explained to polygamists in a St.
George Town Meeting that he would not prosecute "a religious tenet." He has
responded well to the wishes of a pro-polygamy group of women who live in
mainstream society. They call their group Principle Voices, and they want
polygamy decriminalized.
When highly-educated, well-dressed, and articulate
pro-polygamy women living as independents come forward, explaining how civilized
polygamy really is, and they do this after years of public perception of
group-controlled polygamist women being downtrodden, poorly dressed, poorly
educated, and unquestioning of their husbands – of course, people will pay
attention. They become an entertaining media story – and they also provide
Utahns someone to point to and say "See, this is the real polygamy, not those (ughhh)
others."
Utahns have been embarrassed for years by negative news about
polygamy. Depending on whose study you quote, of the estimated 30,000
polygamists in Utah, only approximately 1,000 are independents. But the
pro-polygamy group claims that more polygamists live independently than in
clans.
And now HBO’s new "Big Love," an entertaining show about a
Viagra-popping polygamist with three wives, is likely to begin to alter the
public’s perception of what is a "normal family."
But what about the estimated 29,000 people in closed
Fundamentalist Groups and the coercive brainwashing of boys and girls from the
time they are babies? When these day-by-day carefully programmed children, who
endure tactics that would cause any fair-minded person to shudder, finally reach
the age of legal maturity – are they then "acceptable" to be victimized?
And if this decriminalization continues, shall we pretend the
closed groups will suddenly decide to stop the mind control, extortion, and
sexual abuse, and that their "legal-age" girls will suddenly flock to the
government for help – an entity they’ve been taught to fear.
Polygamy victims have only one real advocate in Utah: Tapestry
Against Polygamy, a non-profit private group of former polygamist women
struggling, with limited financial resources, to assist other abused and
near-broken women, and to teach the intrinsically inherent dangers of polygamy
itself. Yet their voices are being ignored by Utah government. As the leaders of
Tapestry struggle to overcome the abuse they endured, trying to feel confident
so they can help other women, they can see that the Vogue magazine image of
Principle Voices is missing in their group. Yet they go forward, with limited
funds, feeling as isolated by the government as they did before they escaped
polygamy, but determined to fight the battle. It is David against Goliath. But
where will they find the right "stone?"
Rachael epitomizes every woman who has been sexually exploited
by men using religion as a source of coercion. In the dynamics behind religious
exploitation, Erich Fromm tells us that human behavior is often governed and
manipulated by elements of power and submission. The powerful
often receive the most sentiment. (Erich Fromm. Escape from Freedom)
James D. Harmston, the Attorney General, Principle Voices, and
"polygamy as a religious tenet" are the powerful. Rachael is the powerless. But
every once in awhile, when the timing is right, the powerless can humble the
powerful.
And what has propelled the "power" in polygamy? Excerpts of
Section 132 still published in the Doctrine & Covenants explain:
Read more in the book...
Top
Table of Contents
Dedication
Forward
Preface
Introduction
Rachael Strong’s Mother Tells the Story
Decriminalize Polygamy?
Trusting, Vibrant Rachael & Stepfather James D. Harmston
Tapestry Talks About Utah’s New Decriminalization
A Frustrated Attempt to Seek Justice
An Expendable Casualty
A Look at Doctrine & Covenants 132
Losing Your Husband to Polygamy
Is "Breaking Down Barriers" Working?
Conclusion
Tapestry Against Polygamy Profile
Stop Polygamy in Canada Profile
Principle Voices Profile
Attorney General and The Primer Profile
Bibliography & Other Books of Interest
About the Author
Our Books About Polygamy
John R. Llewellyn, retired Salt Lake
County Sheriff's Lieutenant has been asked to be an advisor to Tapestry Against
Polygamy. While in law enforcement, he specialized in sex crime investigation that
included polygamy complaints. He compiled an intelligence file on mass murderer Ervil LeBaron, who in 1977 ordered the death of Dr. Rulon C. Allred, leader of
Utah's second largest polygamist group. LeBaron, a self-imposed "One Mighty and
Strong," attempted to extort tithing from Utah's polygamist groups. John’s book
Murder of a Prophet is a paradigm of the Allred murder, and factual
expose´ of the dark side of Utah polygamist cults.
A Teenager’s Tears: When
Parents Convert to Polygamy is a tender, emotionally-charged and moving
story that pulls the reader into that world.
Polygamy Under Attack: From Tom Green to
Brian David Mitchell is his most recent book.
In order to best combat and understand the
polygamist, deputy Llewellyn studied Mormon doctrine and was converted to
Mormonism, and then Mormon Fundamentalism. Impressed with the integrity, virtue
and undaunted conviction of many of the polygamists, after his retirement
Llewellyn became a member of Apostolic United Brethren. However, when the
leadership of Apostolic United Brethren re-postured, claiming "all" the
priesthood keys and pretending they were the sole conduit to a celestial
exaltation, Llewellyn took a second look at the fundamentalist belief structure
and summarily disassociated himself.
Llewellyn, now a muckraker and freelance
writer, is recognized as an expert on Mormon Fundamentalism and polygamy. He is
also the lead investigator in a lawsuit against polygamist James D. Harmston and
his True and Living Church, headquartered at Manti, Utah, as well as a
consultant for the Attorney General's Office.
John Llewellyn is uniquely qualified as a
polygamy expert and can speak to the issues in a way no one else can. He is highly articulate and thoroughly knowledgeable about law enforcement polygamy
strategies, government attitudes, and the vast issues inside and outside of
polygamy. He knows all the leaders of polygamy groups, many of their members,
and a multitude of polygamists who live outside a group. He is available for
interviews by TV and the Press. Contact John: 1 801 259-5415 or call publisher:
1 800 360-5284.
John may be contacted via e-mail:
jrllewellyn@apcomp.com.
His web site:
http://www.polygamyversuscommonsense.com/
John R. Llewellyn has appeared on Primetime,
the Today Show; NBC Nightly News with Tom
Brokaw, on Fox News Channel's "The Edge" with Paula Zahn, on MSNBC, on Inside Edition, and on Good
Morning America.
Top
Books
on polygamy. Click to read more.
1)
A Teenager's Tears: When Parents Convert to Polygamy
2)
Murder
of a Prophet: Dark Side of Utah Polygamy
3) Polygamy Under
Attack: From Tom Green to Brian David Mitchell
4) The Polygamists:
A History
of Colorado City, Arizona
5) Colorado City Polygamists: An
Inside Look for the Outsider
6) Polygamy's Rape of Rachael Strong: Protected Environment for Predators
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