Saturday, April 19, 2008

A very American end of the world

Escape, Carolyn Jessop's memoir of life with the FLDS, condensed. - Slate Magazine

Slate gives us a handy summary of some of the beliefs and practices of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (being the Texan group which recently had the kids removed.)

This part is particularly odd:
In a favorite children's game, called Apocalypse, kids act out the FLDS vision of the end of the world. According to FLDS lore, Native Americans who were mistreated and killed in pioneer days will be resurrected in the end times, when God will allow them to wreak vengeance on those who wronged them (the presumably also-resurrected settlers). In return for this indulgence, "resurrected Indians" will also be "required to take on the job of protecting God's chosen people"—FLDS members—by killing FLDS enemies with invisible tomahawks that can sever a person's heart in half. Very cowboys and Indians!

1 comment:

Caz said...

Hey, it's, umm, original.

The whole heaven and hell thing can get a bit predictable and doesn't seem to have much of a kicker after the first few thousand tellings.

But this invisible dead Indian idea, wrecking havoc on your enemies with invisible tomahawks, well, it must be like having your very own never-ending action Western movie whirling around in your head.

It has a certain childish appeal, I'm sure.