Yet another religious cult raided

[kandrathe]

In regards to the Children that are Not Under aged things seem to get complicated in this Case. I'm no expert in these matters so I can Not offer anything but an Opinion. I will believe that any day we will learn the Boys in this case were also sexually abused, this is a perfect set-up for Pedophiles.

That may be, but then there needs to be evidence of a crime and suspects who are arrested. My opinion is that this is a splinter sect of the LDS that has existed in this form since the days of Brigham Young, and are as extreme in their rejection of the modern culture as are the Amish, Mennonites, and others.

This seems to be a case of mass presumed guilt, and a hunt for evidence post fact. There is supposed to be an inside informant here right? Wouldn't the State normally build the case first based upon the informants affidavit, sweep in to the compound and present a multi-count indictment against the guilty parties, arrest them, and then work with the women and children who would then require protection(and you might discover additional crimes at that point)? That would seem to be the normal progression if this were done in a normal respectful legal manner. The evidence here seems to be 31 (now I'm not sure about the 31 number) young girls between 14 and 17 who have been or are pregnant, and probably at least one case of physical abuse from the report of the girl who had broken ribs. This has justified Texas to seize all the children from this sect without filing any charges yet against any adult, although DNA testing to establish paternity will probably result in some facts regarding whose progeny belong to whom. There are also TWO sides to this story; Just found this article; FLDS attorney challenges Texas count of pregnant minors from polygamous sect.

In a related story, Colorado Springs woman investigated for false San Angelo FLDS abuse tip.

This is goes beyond the Religion of Polygamy, it is a Cult which means Members are Mind Controlled. in everything they do & think. For this reason ALL the Children NEED to be Protected till this is Sorted out, there is No way to Pick & Choose.

This is the Texas position on the matter as well, which is that it is an attack on the beliefs of the sect, and not a move to just protect children. It might also be that the smoke screen of protecting the children is being used to allow the majority to enforce its belief system upon this minority. As wacko as we may think their beliefs to be, I believe it to be wrong to deny them equal protection by attacking the sects religious beliefs by wielding child protection laws which by their nature are broad and meant to destroy abusive homes. What would be the repercussions of being straight up then, and coming out to say "We believe that FLDS beliefs are incompatible with a free state and for that reason we are disallowing this sect to continue."?

I was reflecting this week during my long commute times on the nature of our majority society where young girls are sexualized by the culture (tv, movies, magazines e.g Vanity Fair) as early as aged eleven, and teen pregnancy prevention is recommended as early as middle school (7th grade). We don't seem to care that fourteen year old girls and younger are getting pregnant at alarmingly high rates, as long as the girls are able to choose for themselves and copulate with other equally confused and sexualized young boys. The crime in our majority society is when an adult (usually over 21) copulates with what we determine to be still a child which is usually 17, but in some states is as old as 21. While unusual in that they are child celebrities I would point to the transitions of seemingly innocent Disney prodigies as more common examples of how sick our culture transitions young girls into young women. Is there anything to be proud of in our majority culture for how youth, male or female, are graduated into adulthood?

In this Texas case, young women are socialized by their religion to accept arranged marriage at fourteen and it is not considered unusual for a young women to be married off as soon as she is fertile and to produce offspring soon thereafter. I can only deduce then that what we in the common culture object to is not the fourteen year old pregnancy as we are wading in a culture of sexualized adolescents, it is that the young girl who we deem a child is given to an older man as his bound wife, which then becomes the lack of freedom that the young women and young men experience in the sect to choose their own mates. If it is the sects repression and lack of freedom we object to, then let's be honest about what this is all about, "liberation" to be like us.

LAW: Under Texas law, children under the age of 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult. A girl can get married with parental permission at 16, but none of these girls is believed to have a legal marriage under state law.

So, a clarifying point on this. When did this law go into effect? My understanding is that it was recently. Prior to that change in the law, the age was 14 with parental consent. So of the 31 young women who were pregnant, some may have been considered legal to marry by the State, even though no State sanctioned marriages occur in this sect at all. They don't apply for marriage licenses, even for their adults.

FACT: Of the 463 children, 250 are girls and 213 are boys. Children 13 and younger are about evenly split -- 197 girls and 196 boys -- but there are only 17 boys aged 14 to 17 compared with the 53 girls in that age range.

No argument here. It is just the article uses what I would call a "lie by statistics" to make 31/53 seem bad because its almost half, while 31/426 seems not as bad. Is a three year old boy or girl at risk? How? Is a 13-18 year old boy at risk? How? The answer I've heard is that they are "brain washed" or "mind controlled" which begs the question on which "beliefs" are deemed acceptable, and which ones not and by whom? Is this something you want your government enforcing? Step back to the days of McCarthy. What if the State deemed communist thoughts bad, and removed all children from the evil influence of suspected Marxists?