Crematorium oven allegedly ordered for polygamist temple by Warren Jeffs
 
By Brent Hunsaker
ABC 4 News
YFZ temple

Some former or expelled members of Warren Jeffs' FLDS sect recently told ABC 4 News about some disturbing projects ordered by their former leader. One of those projects called for the acquisition of a thermostat used for controlling a crematorium oven, a device so powerful and hot, it would be capable of destroying human DNA.

The knowlege of the crematorium thermostat is raising some concerns in the law enforcement community, especially when one considers a drastic and brutal doctrine within the polygamst sect.

It's called blood atonement. Warren Jeffs has been preaching it for years. Now some who have left his FLDS church say he may be ready to put into practice what he has preached.

Blood atonement as taught by Jeffs means that the atonement of Jesus Christ does not cover all sins in all circumstances. "He no longer believes in forgiveness and repentance. That's a thing of the past. It's over," said FLDS dissident Ross Chatwin.

Carolyn Jessop, another dissident, confirmed that when Warren Jeffs talks about the shedding of blood, he's not just talking about a couple drops. She said, "Your priesthood head or whoever is god to you -- for a woman that would be her husband ... your throat is slit from ear to ear."

Chatwin is worried. "There's a lot of people gone. I have no idea where they're at. Warren may be doing these blood atonements now."

Still, no one on the outside can say with any certainly what Jeffs may be doing. Not only has he scattered his faithful among several compounds, but he limits or even forbids communication. Talking to the wrong person could put a follower's eternal welfare in jeopardy.

Isaac Wyler, who has heard Jeffs preach on the subject says there are people who are willing. "I know men have asked Warren ... Men have come to him that have been kicked out and have asked for the privilege of blood atonement so they can be saved."

If and when Warren Jeffs puts his bloody teaching into practice, Carolyn Jessop knows where it will take place. Her ex-husband now runs the FLDS ranch near El Dorado, Texas. That ranch is the site of a temple -- a new concept for the polygamist sect.

"It's an actual ordinance," said Jessop of blood atonement. "It has to be performed in a temple." "There are certain crimes that are considered a 'sin unto death' that have to be paid for by blood atonement," Jessop explains. "For a woman it would be adultery or leaving your husband as I did. I've committed a 'sin unto death'. What I've done can only be paid for by blood atonement."

What's more, if she were still in the FLDS Church, Jessop says she wouldn't have a choice in the matter. She says according the FLDS doctrine, "...I belong to my husband. He has the right to make that choice for me. That's not necessarily something I can say I want or don't want. If my husband feels like that's an ordinance he wants me to have, I have no right to refuse that ordinance."

Jessop says she's staying far away from that FLDS temple in Texas.

brent@abc4.tv
 
ABC4.com
Originally broadcast May 24, 2006
 
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