Posted on 04/20/2008 7:01:51 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
It has been more than two weeks since Texas Rangers raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch, seizing more than 400 children on vague evidence of polygamy and child abuse.
To the credit of law enforcement authorities, no one was injured. Apparently, only two men were arrested, while another is being sought in another state for his role in alleged sexual abuse. Little resistance was offered by the sect's followers.
Now, I don't like polygamy.
And I don't like child abuse.
But, after carefully reading all the news reports covering activities of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I am left wondering if the action by the state was excessive.
An investigation of the compound had been under way for four years. A confidential informant, a former member of the sect, was providing authorities with details of activities.
The raid was prompted by an anonymous call from someone identifying herself as a 16-year-old girl who was being held against her will and claimed to have been raped and abused by a 50-year-old registered sex offender named Dale Barlow. He is on probation in Arizona for a 2007 conviction for marrying and impregnating another 16-year-old girl.
In other words, the chief suspect was known, in advance, not to be in the ranch compound.
Since the raid, the 16-year-old girl who allegedly made the complaint has not been found. In fact, she may never have existed in the first place. Authorities now suspect a woman in another state, known for making unfounded accusations, may have been responsible for the call.
So let's look at the criminal evidence that has been discovered since the raid:
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
Excellent question, which is likely to be answered by many on this thread with yet another lame attempt at a legal parallel which has nothing at all to do with the alleged crimes happening on the Bring'em Young Ranch.
I suspect that if it was a Wiccan or Satanist group that was doing EXACTLY what the pseudo-Christian FLDS is doing, there wouldn't be so many calls for Constitutional caution.
Your response brought something to mind that I hadn’t thought of in years.
When I was eighteen, a vicious family member leveled a claim of abuse against one of my parents, claiming I was the victim. The charge was that I had been physically beaten.
This family member is mentally ill, and we had all had years of experience dealing with him. So, when this false charge was aimed at my parent, we were not in the least bit surprised.
Because I was an adult, I bristled at the invasion of privacy when the child protective services people arrived. I had never been harmed by my parent, I knew who had made this false claim, and I was indignant when asked to partially disrobe and show my back, to prove that I had was not an abuse victim.
I looked at my parent, and the child protective services officer, and I stated that I didn’t want to expose my back, I was an adult! I was threatened with the knowledge that a judge could order that the investigation was completed, regardless of my age.
My parent told me: “You know who made this false claim. You know there is no evidence of abuse. PROVE it to the child protection officer, by showing your back... and we’ll be done with this.”
All of those on this forum who are complaining about the state’s role in this and privacy rights must keep one fact in mind. This investigation involves numerous children who cannot speak for themselves. If the investigation goes forth and proves nothing, then justice has been served. If the investigation goes forth and proves abuse, justice will be served.
It is the children who deserve justice in this case. The state owes them that.
“Take my child & I would fall apart too. But to get my child back I would do whatever was asked of me. DNA, blood test, you name it I would be first in line.”
Come for my kids...better bring the coroner...
“That part’s simple. If the parents want their kids back, they have to prove parentage through DNA testing. They’re the ones who shunned all the proper legal birth records”
Cool...now we can go after the teenage neighborhood sluts who refuse to name their baby daddy for welfare...
Simply take the kids.....tell em to bring us a daddy ...or no kids...
Using this as a precedent...cant we get DNA from a whole housing complex?
You know the reason for the DNA is for prosecution...not re-uniting...
For the best interests of the children...ofcorse...
I like it...I fully agree with you...
You must understand that I do not believe you. You lie so much about my church, how could you expect anyone to believe you. And I do not forgive you for it because you will not repent of your sins.
Mormonism provides you with inner peace? Well, I am so glad you have admitted it at last.
No, not *TO* offer it. You said middle school ARE handing out birth control. Which ones are CURRENTLY offering it?
I suspect you are right about that.
Knowing that it is the role of God to forgive sin, why do you foolishly emphasize those of another? You, too, are a sinner OMm. Easy to forget, isn’t it?
The arranged “marriages” have a strange twist. At times a girl is assigned to marry a half-brother or a step-brother who she has grown up with and considers as a brother. Girls are often assigned to uncles and cousins. That’s incest.
Not only are marriages arranged, but also they are dissolved at the whims of the leaders. Fathers who aren’t perceived to be loyal to Jeffs are cast out and told to leave. They aren’t even told why. Then, the family is given to another man.
The children suffer as their families are broken apart. One day they have a father, the next day they move and have a new father. Then it can happen again. The children are taught that they only have one father, the current father, the ‘priesthood father’. They aren’t even to mention the name of their real father. He is dead to them.
It’s horrid, the control Warren Jeffs held over everyone - he controlled their family, their housing, their jobs, the sheriff, the school, the town government, the available media, everything. People who complained were committed to mental hospitals, dropped off on the side of the road, or evicted from their housing. He cheated the taxpayers for years through welfare fraud and fraud in the school system.
Many of the adults lived in homes where their parents were together for their entire childhoods, but the rising generation will feel the pain like raw, open wounds. The parents may experience bliss and enjoy the variety, but the children will have a story to tell that isn’t so romantic.
These children are too young to know what is best for them. That is the reason why they are considered children. It is their parents job to raise them and they haven’t been doing that in a safe manner. They are programmed to say whatever they are told. Their lives will change for the better; ask anyone who has ever escaped the walls of the compound.
This sad drama will continue. It looks like the reign of terror Jeffs has ruled over for the past several years will finally stand accountable for ruining so many lives and tearing apart so many families. Sadly, so many innocents stand in the wake of his tyranny.
Excellent point.
They'd no doubt claim the religious protection of the First Amendment, and then there'd be a big debate about what qualifies as a religion and who gets to define it.
Does the group? Of course they'd say it was.
Does another religious group? We all know where that would lead.
Does a non-religious (atheistic) group? We know where that would lead, too.
Does the government? Ditto.
My main contention is that the First Amendment is, and was, not intended to protect illegal activity wrapped in a religious cloak. Looking at the Church of England situation at the time of the Founding Fathers, and the religious persecution that many of the immigrants were fleeing from, that's what it was addressing.
I doubt they'd even conceived of it being misused like it is.
Wasn’t Irene Spencer with the Ervil LeBaron group?
And how many have?
www.captivefldschildren.org
I guess we will see tomorrow. I wonder if some will use this to also find out who is really their child.
Surely if they had pictures of young males they’d put them up, right? I don’t see any who are over 12 in the pictures.
Don't believe me. Believe Jesus Christ only.
You lie so much about my church, how could you expect anyone to believe you.
Your church is founded by a liar. He was inspired by the "Father of Lies."
And I do not forgive you for it because you will not repent of your sins.
I forgive you Old Mountain Man - - seventy times seven times.
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