Warren Jeffs has apparently repudiated his role as prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A sentence from a note Jeffs has given to the court states: “I have not been a prophet and am not a prophet.”

As the reporter notes, the context of this line is uncertain; whether Jeffs is merely stepping down, announcing that he should never have held his position in the first place, or declaring that God has withdrawn from him is unclear. It’s possible that this is an act of contrition; that it is indicative of a crisis of Jeffs’ own faith; or merely that he is seeking to escape responsibility from a situation that he never really believed in. Or some combination of the above.

What I find most interesting is the hints this story gives about how Jeffs’ followers are coping with what must be a crisis of belief. They show how believers maintain what has been called the sacred canopy - the overarching collection of beliefs, symbols and narratives that make sense of the religious world, that imposes context and meaning on the jumble of life. One FLDS woman takes Jeffs’ words as a sign of his humility (shades of Brigham Young and Spencer Kimball); a man argues that the court is seeking to destroy him. In the context of history, we may be seeing the FLDS version of Liberty Jail. Jeffs is acting out a sacred story; among the ranks of his predecessors stands not only Joseph Smith, but also the Puritans, William Tyndale, and every other martyr to the faith - though if the second or third option above is true, it seems that Jeffs lacks the strength of religious sensitivity that carried Joseph Smith through his time in the pit.

It is clear, though, that his followers have not given up their faith. This is the way that martyrs are created, that religious narratives that sustain faith and impart it with worth are written. This, of course, depends on Jeffs’ own actions. If in the weeks to come he announces that he has merely fallen or sinned, that he has ordained his brother Nephi or another lieutenant to carry on the work, the FLDS worldview will be perpetuated and even strengthened. But he is also in a position to destroy it; to date his role, like that of our own leaders, has been to preserve the sacred in its most fundamental meanings, to be the most adamant in defense of its reality. He holds, then, the tools to puncture the sacred canopy. It remains to see if he will use them.