From the time they are children, girls in the Fundamentalist LDS Church are taught to prepare themselves for marriage.
Those marriages are often arranged, which is what has landed FLDS Church leader Warren Jeffs in trouble with the law, accused of forcing teenage girls into marriages with older men. Some of those marriages are polygamous.
These audio clips were recorded at the Alta Academy in 1997 and 1998, when Warren Jeffs was principal of the now-defunct FLDS school. In some of these clips, Jeffs speaks to a home economics class of seventh and eighth grade girls about preparing for marriage. In another, he speaks about "celestial" or plural marriage.
Clip 1 (0:50, 785k)
Recorded March 25, 1997. Jeffs recounts the history of polygamy beginning with Joseph Smith. He tells girls their marriages will be made by revelation from the prophet, but failure is not the prophet's fault.
Clip 2 (0:38, 599k)
Recorded January 30, 1998. Jeffs said that girls should ignore their feelings for men and trust in the prophet to choose their husband.
Clip 3 (0:52, 823k)
Recorded January 30, 1998. Jeffs tells FLDS girls not to date, but to pray to be ready to receive a husband.
"I hope you understand that very often a girl is given to a husband after her own likeness," Jeffs once said. "You should be praying that you will be prepared and that you will be given to a husband who will prove faithful to the end."
The Deseret Morning News has obtained a series of tape recorded lessons from Jeffs' time as principal of the Alta Academy, a now-defunct FLDS school at the base of Little Cottonwood Canyon.
The 50-year-old Jeffs is scheduled to appear in St. George's 5th District Court on Tuesday for a preliminary hearing on two charges of rape as an accomplice, a first-degree felony. Across the border in Mohave County, Ariz., Jeffs is charged with numerous counts of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor.
"Jane Doe IV," the prosecution's star witness in the Utah case, claims the FLDS leader forced her to marry an older man against her wishes.
"Jane told Jeffs that she had concerns about the marriage revelation and that she felt like she was too young to marry," Washington County sheriff's deputy Shauna Jones wrote in an affidavit filed with the criminal charges. "Jeffs told Jane that it was her spiritual duty to submit to the marriage and that the marriage arrangement was 'from God."'
In a January 1998 lecture, Jeffs spoke at length to a home economics class of seventh- and eighth-grade girls at the Alta Academy, urging them not to date.
"As our prophet says, the best thing is to leave it to the Lord. For a girl's emotions and feelings can be led by the wrong things if she's not careful," he said on the tape. "After all, who knows the spirit of revelation better — you or the prophet?"
Many of these same tapes are also in the hands of law enforcement, who have been listening to them. Washington County prosecutors have said they could use some of Jeffs' sermons as possible evidence in any upcoming trial.
Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith said he is also reviewing Jeffs' many writings and teachings.
"If any of them are relevant to any of our charges involving his setting up marriages between men already married and girls under the age of 18, where it shows he has a viewpoint that that's acceptable or OK, then we will use that information," he said in an e-mail to the Deseret Morning News.
In other tapes, Jeffs preaches about morality and the principle of "celestial" or plural marriage.
"You are the children of Zion today, and you are offered to live it no matter what the world thinks," Jeffs said in a March 1997 lesson on polygamy. "This law is the greatest and most holy law that will exalt men and women."
On the tape, Jeffs recounts the history of plural marriage, beginning with Joseph Smith, the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The FLDS Church is a breakaway religion, but Jeffs accuses the LDS Church of straying from the principle of plural marriage and lashed out at laws that have criminalized polygamy. He spoke of Smith's martyrdom and the raids on the polygamous community of Short Creek, which is now Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.
"The Lord has turned the key and made it so even the government has not persecuted us for 40 years. We're teaching you openly the grown-up things you must do, the laws you must live and prepare for," he said.
Jeffs told his students that they should "keep sweet" in thoughts and deeds and they would be blessed in polygamy. He reminded them that the unions would be arranged by the prophet.
"The prophet doesn't make mistakes as far as marriages are concerned. What he appoints, it can be eternal if the people who got married will live faithful," Jeffs said. "If ever a marriage fails, it's not the prophet's fault. It's the people who lived it wrong if their marriage failed."
Meanwhile, Washington County prosecutors have asked the Utah Attorney General's Office for assistance in prosecuting Jeffs.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff told the Deseret Morning News he has assigned Craig Barlow, the head of his children's justice division, to help in the Jeffs case. Shurtleff said that Barlow has successfully prosecuted a rape as an accomplice case in the past.
"He's got a lot of expertise in this area and these charges in particular," Shurtleff said Friday.
The Utah Attorney General's Office has been quietly conducting an organized crime investigation into Jeffs and the FLDS Church.
Jeffs remains in the Purgatory Jail. A law enforcement source has told the Deseret Morning News that Jeffs has been making phone calls to his faithful followers who gather in groups to hear the words of the man they call prophet.
"They sing songs to him," the source, who is familiar with the phone calls, said. "He goes into his perspective on things."
Federal prosecutors in Utah have threatened to indict Jeffs for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution should he ever be granted bail. The polygamist leader was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list until his capture in August during a traffic stop outside Las Vegas.
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com