No matter what the "cult" members said about the confines of the house, or about the cold charisma of Moses, none of them lived in a vacuum. They were taught in public schools (there's been no testimony about home-schooling), they interacted with the rest of the community to buy groceries and even tend the house. While Lucas Moses lived at home, the wives worked. Their children (supposedly) went to school. The Moses family hotly denies being Black Hebrews.
Protecting people from a cult can seem like a thankless task since most of the members do not want to be protected nor do they want any form of intervention. Concern from family, friends, even churches goes up against walls too difficult to scale, too difficult to believe. But there are times when monitoring and intervention is absolutely necessary and human life hangs in the balance.
The surrounding community must have known something, but preferred not to "be involved." (Another cult-like family comes to mind when mentioning an uninvolved community: the Fred Phelps clan. Topeka gave up years ago.**) Moses' Black Hebrew contacts must have suspected something about his situation since he seemed bolstered in the illegal actions of polygamy.*** And the still-prevalent homophobia of the African American community fed into Moses' religious psyche.
Responsibility gets fainter as the sphere of family and social contacts gets wider: family, religious, social and community groups, and racial ties. Biases and prejudices fan out as much as they close in.
Seven people have been charged with the murder of Jadon Higgenbothan -- one directly responsible, the others accessories before or after the fact. But who else is responsible?
Maybe we all are.
*Many Right Wing Christians do not even give Mormonism any respect at all.
** Even after Fred was confronted with running a "Fagan" operation, his two sons were forced to sell church candy and light bulbs door-to-door. And when they couldn't make their day's "quota," they were forced to steal (Phelps would beat them mercilessly if they didn't meet the "quota")
*** Just where can you obtain a CD of "The Lord's Prayer" in Hebrew?
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