Got Junk Mail from Jeffs?

By Joyce Edlefsen
Standard Journal
January 12, 2012

http://www.rexburgstandardjournal.com/news/got-junk-mail-from-jeffs/article_2a52cf2e-3cca-11e1-b728-0019bb2963f4.html#axzz1jFLiDn00

Mailings by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints filled with revelations by imprisoned Warren Jeffs are going unopened in Madison and Fremont counties.

The polygamist sect, led by Jeffs, has included officials in the two counties on its mailing list. Using scripture-like language, the letters and packets of information proclaim Jeffs' teachings and encourage recipients to buy books and other materials. Some of Jeffs’ revelations mentioned in the letters include messages that God will “send a full tidal wave of tsunami judgement,” and decries the sin of “outward abuse of women.” The letter also warns the President of the United States saying he “heedeth not the God over all.”

Fremont County Commission Chairman Skip Hurt says county officials have been receiving the documents, some via Priority Mail packaging, for several weeks.

Most of the packages have been thrown away without being opened, with the last batch arriving on the commissioners' desks Monday.

Hurt says he twice called a phone number listed in one of letters for Fundamentalist Patriarch Vaugh Taylor, but didn't get any response. Hurt says his intention in calling the number was to tell the organization to stop sending county officials "junk mail."

A call by the Standard Journal to the same number listed for Taylor also came up empty.

Madison County Clerk Kim Muir says the postmarks show the mail originated in Colorado City, Ariz.

In Madison and Fremont counties, the mail has arrived addressed to several county officials, including county commissioners and sheriffs.

Muir says Madison County officials, after receiving several letters and three Priority Mail packages, instructed her to just throw it all away rather than continue to distribute to individual offices.

"I can't imagine what that must be costing them," she says of the mail senders.

"It all says pretty much the same thing… listing publications you can buy," she says of the mail she read. "It's gibberish."

Apparently the counties are part of a widely spread series of mailings by the organization. The Associated Press reports a similar flurry of mail was sent to Butte County officials in South Dakota. Other news organizations say the information also was mailed to school districts.

Jeffs is serving a life term plus 20 years in a Texas prison for sexually assaulting two young girls he claimed as his wives.

The sect leader himself won't be talking to supporters by phone for the next 90 days, the AP also reported Monday.

His phone privileges were taken away for 90 days as punishment for making calls — at least two on Christmas Day — that were put on speakerphone — presumably so he could preach to his followers.