Posted on 04/06/2008 5:27:22 AM PDT by SkyPilot
Local and state officials entered the temple of a secretive polygamist sect late Saturday, said lawmen blockading the road to the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado.
The action comes hours after local prosecutors said officials were preparing for the worst because a group of FLDS members were resisting efforts to search the structure.
The Texas Department of Public Safety trooper and Schleicher County sheriff’s deputy confirmed that officials have entered the temple but said they had no word on whether anything occurred in the effort.
The incursion into the temple caps the three-day saga of the state’s Child Protective Services agency removing at least 183 women and children from the YFZ Ranch since Friday afternoon. Eighteen girls have been placed in state custody since a 16-year-old told authorities she was married to a 50-year-old man and had given birth to his child.
Saturday evening, ambulances were brought in, said Allison Palmer, who as first assistant 51st District attorney, would prosecute any felony crimes uncovered as part of the investigation inside the compound.
“In preparing for entry to the temple, law enforcement is preparing for the worst,” Palmer said Saturday evening. They want to have “medical personnel on hand in case this were to go in a way that no one wants.”
Apparently as a result of action Saturday night at the ranch, about 10:15 p.m. Saturday, a Schleicher County school bus unloaded another group of at least a dozen more women and children from the compound.
Although members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, have provided varying degrees of cooperation to the sheriff’s deputies and Texas Rangers searching the compound, all cooperation stopped once authorities tried to search the gleaming white temple that towers over the West Texas scrub, Palmer said.
“There may be those who would oppose (entry) by placing themselves between law enforcement and the place of worship,” Palmer said Saturday afternoon. “If an agreement cannot be reached … law enforcement will have to — as gently and peaceably as possible — make entry into that place.”
Sect members consider the temple, dedicated by then-leader of the sect Warren Jeffs in January 2005 and finished many months later, off-limits to those who are not FLDS members, said Palmer, who prosecutes felony cases in Schleicher County.
Palmer said she didn’t know the size or makeup of the group inside the temple.
The earlier refusal to provide access was even more disconcerting because CPS investigators have yet to identify the 16-year-old girl or her roughly 8-month-old baby among the dozens removed from the compound, Palmer said.
“Anytime someone says, ‘Don’t look here,’” she said, “it makes you concerned that’s exactly where you need to look.”
The girl told authorities in two separate phone calls a day apart that she was married to a 50-year-old man, Dale Barlow, who had fathered her child, Palmer said.
The joint raid included the Texas Rangers, CPS, Schleicher County and Tom Green County sheriff’s deputies and game wardens from the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife.
Although CPS and Department of Public Safety officials have described the compound’s residents as cooperative, Palmer disagreed.
“Things have been a little tense, a little volatile,” she said.
Authorities removed 52 children Friday afternoon and 131 women and children overnight Friday. About 40 of the children are boys, said CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner.
No further children have been taken into state custody since Friday, when 18 girls were judged to have been abused or be at imminent risk for abuse. CPS has found foster homes for the girls, Meisner said, and will place them after concluding its investigation.
Meisner declined to comment on the fate of the 119 other children and said authorities were still searching the ranch for others Saturday evening.
“They’re in the process of looking,” she said. “They’re literally about halfway through.”
That is happening TODAY in towns affected by the recent storms.
BOM and “Mormon History” are not relevant here. You are comparing FLDS with LDS, but LDS rejects the polygamy FLDS appears to be practicing here.
The title is a misleading smear, at best.
So you are close?
I agree with that legislative model. Very good.
It’s nothing they haven’t had to do before.
That said, I fully expect the Rangers to act in accordance with the law and their own best traditions.
________________________________________________________________________
DEFINITIONS OF A CULT
1. The specific Christian definition of a cult is a religious group that denies one or more of the fundamentals of Biblical truth. Or, in more simple terms, a cult is a group that teaches something that will cause a person to not be saved if they believe it. For example, teaching that Jesus was not God, or that salvation is not by faith alone – these two things are prime examples of a cult.
The two most obvious example of cults are the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons believe many things that are in agreement with and/or similar to what the Bible teaches. However, they also believe numerous doctrines that are in clear contradiction to the Bible and the Biblical Gospel of salvation. 2. From an orthodox Christian perspective, a cult is a group of people who follow one man or the group’s spiritual teachings and practices that, when compared with orthodox Christian doctrine always contradict them, as well as exalt the group’s own unique religious perspective as the only way to truly serve God. From a purely Biblical perspective, 2 Corinthians 11:4 gives us the clearest and most concise description of how cults may be discerned. False teachings, the apostle Paul warned here, will introduce three major errors to the unsuspecting in the name of Christianity:
A. First they will preach their own determination of who Jesus Christ is, denying his Biblically revealed identity as God the Son and exchanging it with another. They’ll point to “another Jesus.”
B. Second, cult teachers will proclaim a “gospel message” that is ultimately is a message of works-centered salvation, in sharpest contrast to the Good News of saving grace through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). They’ll preach “another gospel.”
C. Third, the revealed spiritual nature of the work of the cult claims to be, but actually is not, inspired by God the Spirit. Instead, a chilling reference is made to spiritual entities who lend tremendous spiritual power to their natural human puppets to preach deceptive gospels. They’ll be empowered by “another spirit.” This is the work of demonic agents in allegiance with Satan, the opposer of God throughout history.
In short, a cult will energetically claim to follow the Bible and be the only group to be found anywhere who really are interpreting it correctly (hence the rationale for some counter-cult workers calling some groups “Bible based”). Ultimately, once examined, a questionable group’s doctrines will always deny orthodox Biblical truth in some manner.
CATEGORIES OF CULTS
1. Eastern Mystical: groups related to Hinduism, Buddhism and other pantheistic Eastern religions; examples in this category are Hare Krishnas and Self-Realization Fellowship.
2. Aberrant Christian: groups that claim to be Bible-based but which deviate in practice or belief, such as Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, The Way International, the Boston Church of Christ and the Shepherding Movement.
3. Psychospiritual or Self-Improvement: groups offering seminars or workshops providing self-improvement or personal transformation (a growing cultic trend), includes Transcendental Meditation, Lifespring and The Forum (formerly est).
4. Eclectic/Syncretistic: a combination of several religious traditions, includes the Unification Church (“Moonies”) and the Church Universal and Triumphant.
5. Psychic/Occult/Astral: these groups offer “secret wisdom” and “lost truths;” examples include UFO cults and Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment.
6. Extremist/Political/Social Movements: groups cultic in the psychological or social sense including the Black Muslims, Aryan Nation, White Aryan Resistance and the Ku Klux Klan.
TEN COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF ABERRANT CHRISTIAN CULTS
Note: Any of the below is indicative of cults. The more attributes that apply, the more serious the problem. 1. Founder who typically:
A. Is charismatic (at least in the eyes of cult members)
B. Has little or no formal or theological education
C. Has poor character (e.g. dishonest, sexually licentious)
D. Has noticeable personality disorders
E. Is revered by cult members
F. Claims special authority (e.g. prophet, apostle, divine messenger, etc.)
2. Divine Revelation claimed by the founder (or by cult leadership) which is:
A. Non-verifiable
B. Easily discredited (by science, archaeology, internal inconsistency, etc.)
C. Usually changes and/or evolves over time
D. Often similar (or identical) to earlier documented heresies, especially: Aryanism, Gnosticism and paganism
E. Intolerant – members cannot challenge (or even question) cult doctrine or decisions made by cult leadership
3. Overriding Authority (i.e. “correcting”, amending or even replacing the Bible) attributed to the special divine revelation
4. Non-Biblical Doctrine derived from the overriding authority, most commonly:
A. Denial of the authority and completeness of Scripture
B. Denial of the deity of Christ
C. Denial of the Holy Trinity
D. Salvation by works
5. Sin resulting from the non-Biblical doctrine, such as:
A. Poor treatment of women, disparagement of minorities and/or other forms of bigotry
B. Sexual immorality
C. Falsehood and deception
D. Theft
6. Secrecy particularly relating to:
A. Group finances
B. Membership (and frequently leadership) rosters
C. Doctrine – which may be only partially revealed (even to cult members) or may be revealed in a piecemeal fashion
D. Rites, rituals and/or initiations
E. Signs, signals or other means of identification and/or recognition
7. Seclusion, Isolation and/or Separation from society by:
A. Living in isolation (or at least in separate housing quarters)
B. Dressing differently, sometimes in special uniforms or costumes
C. Special group manners and/or mores
D. Unusual dietary requirements, or required abstinence from certain foods or other products (e.g. television, telephones, newspapers, etc.)
8. Control of Persons and/or Property such as:
A. Forfeiture of individual identity
B. Denial of an individual’s decision-making
C. Imposed poverty often through forfeiture of possessions (sometimes waived for cult leadership)
D. Forced tithing
E. Assigned duties and responsibilities
F. Communal raising of children; shared parenting; forced attendance at cult schools
G. Group sex, sharing of partners, and/or other forms of promiscuity
H. Celibacy (sometimes waived for cult leadership)
I. Involvement with psychogenic or hallucinogenic drugs
9. Strict Discipline through:
A. Rigid enforcement of (often numerous and arcane) cult rules
B. Guaranteed blessings and/or punishment in the afterlife
C. Harsh punishment (often both physical and/or psychological) for disobedience
D. Various ranks or levels of membership (e.g. priesthood), often with increasing benefits
10. “Group Think” by members frequently shown by:
A. Blind obedience and/or unquestioning loyalty – members cannot (or will not) question or challenge cult doctrine or decisions made by cult leadership
B. Inability to reason with cult members without their prior “deprogramming”
C. Feelings of persecution
D. Mass hysteria
E. Personal or third party destruction (e.g. suicide, murder, etc.)
Are you kidding me? Look if you can't see the blatant contradictions between the ever changing BOM and the bible you are blind. And wilfully so.
Dallas. But this compound has been in the news since they started building it a few years ago.
“Yes - the Branch Davidians had different beliefs, but that raid was primarily about gun control.”
Short memory? Reno was also claiming child abuse to attacke the Branch Davidians.
News articles refer to “Westboro Baptist Church” too.
Where did you get that definition of a cult?
FYI, the Texas legislature only meets every other year for 140 days. They can be called for special sessions by the governor, but that is uncommon.
The Texas Constitution limits the duration of each special session to 30 days; lawmakers may consider only those issues designated by the Governor in his “call,” or proclamation convening the special session (though other issues may be added by the Governor during a session).
We don’t pay them the rest of the time - why should we? If they’re not working, we’re not paying. So they have to have other jobs, and they have to live in the community they represent. This tends to filter out a lot of stupidity.
I am thrilled to death that they are checking it out, and if the allegations are founded, I hope the leaders of the sect are busted to the maximum allowed by law.
But doing STUPID things, like involving any other religious denomination, however peripherally it may be, only helps the defense.
I don’t know about you, but I prefer authorities, when they bust someone, to do it in a manner which does not give the people they bust a good defense and let them get off.
Here is exactly the strategy the defense attorneys are going to use, if charges should be brought.
1. Citing the use of buses owned by a Baptist Church, the defense will contend that authorities are in collusion with the Baptist Church.
2. True or Not, this defense will provide the defense with grounds to exclude ALL Baptists from the jury pool.
3. If ONE person on that jury pool is anti-baptist, or atheist, or simpy gullible, the case will result in, at least, a hung jury, and the perps will walk free.
Making a bust which does not result in a CONVICTION is a waste of time and taxpayers money.
That is a fancy compound though. Has anyone mentioned how they paid for it? I would be most annoyed if I'm looking at my tax dollars. I heard rumors that the Waco wives were drawing checks but Texas cut of the cash benefits awhile back, I think.
No, that is incorrect. Please see earlier postings in this thread.
There were allegations of child abuse. The tactics were flawed. Not the reason for concern.
Exactly so. DuMoFo doesn’t understand just how the environment of Texas changes things, does he?
It’s odd what happens when the the flora, fauna and weather in a place are uniformly hostile to humans. :D
“If you aren’t a Baptist, all your friends are. If LE needs buses, and church’s are the best option, the 3 biggest churches in that town are, Baptist”
What, only churches have buses in Texas? You people do not have SCHOOLS?
Never mind, your responses already answer that question.
Where should they have gone for the buses?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.