The news comes on short notice, but mark your calendars for Wednesday, April 6, because that's when the world is going to come to an end - or at least so say members of the FLDS cult who are preparing for tomorrow's apocalypse.
This grim news about the end of days comes from Elissa Wall, an escapee from the FLDS, who says that remaining members of the group had been told by their imprisoned prophet, Warren Jeffs, that he will be freed from jail tomorrow when an earthquake destroys the walls of the prison where he currently resides.
In a similar vein, his brother Lyle Jeffs, who ran the community in Warren's absence but has since been jailed on fraud charges, will miraculously break free from the Salt Lake federal court house when he appears for a hearing.
The FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) community has seen quite a bit of change ever since 2011 when Warren Jeffs was sentenced to a life in prison after being convicted of child sex charges. He remains its spiritual leader, with many still following his word out of fear of not being able to go to heaven. Even before he was arrested, the community lived under strict rules: no internet, no television, no movies and children can't play on bikes.
It was more of the same since Lyle took over, with some reporting that there was a clear pecking order in the community. Whereas lower members of the community had to make do with rice and beans, higher members were privy to meals with an abundance of meat.
This testimony is indicative of the greatest change that the community has seen since Warren Jeffs' arrest: more people are leaving the community and disobeying their prophet's orders to avoid law enforcement and "answer them nothing." Speaking to the FBI, their words fill hundreds of pages of court documents that will be used against the Jeffs family.
Of course, there are still many who adhere to their prophet's words, and the timing of an apocalyptic prophecy comes at a time when Lyle and 10 others need money for a legal defense to defend themselves against charges of committing food stamp fraud.
The connection here is simple: Whenever Jeffs makes a prophecy about the end of days, he asks for money as well (because that's clearly what you need at the time of the apocalypse: more money). It stands to reason that he's simply doing here what he's done in the past.
The moment of truth comes comes tomorrow. When the end of the world was predicted in the past and never came, Jeffs would say that its because the followers weren't worthy. However, what's different this time around is the distinct absence of leaders running the community.
It is in this absence that Wall hopes remaining members will recognize that their leaders are not all they're cracked up to be and leave the community behind.
