Congratulations Texas for FINALLY enforcing the law. What took you so long! Polygamy is against the law yet you waited until you got a cry from a child for help to do anything. Finally!!!

Questions: 1. How did the girl make the call to authorities? and 2. What do you do with 400+ kids who have been raised in a cult their whole lives? 3. Can the mothers of these children be charged with anything? Are they criminals or victims?

How can someone like Warren Jeff take control of so many lives? Did not the young men born into the community see the many non christian things that were going on and try to put a stop to them?

Maggie,this is so disturbing that this goes on in our country, these Women and Children in my opinion have been Brain Washed. Sure wish I was the Judge who would convit all the Men responsible for this “Crime” I would make a Prison Farm out of the compound where the Men involed in this would spend the rest of thier lives growing crops for U.S. Citizens. I see no Religion in this type of Living. Sad but True!

“Community members who helped transport the children from the compound said they sang the whole way.”

Any idea what they were singing? It could have been a happy song celebrating leaving there, or a sad song mouring leaving there.

Going in and taking 401 children when your in posession of a warrant for 1 ….I find something very disturbing about that.

But I also find children marrying adults and having babies at 14, 15, 16 and even 17 disturbing as well.

There must be a better way to deal with this. The children are not the criminals…why are they treated as such and removed from the homes and sent away to state homes. Shouldn’t it be the men that are taken away?

What else is our government going to do to these kids….questioning them is one thing but I bet each girl and baby gets a vaginal exam forced on them. EACH ONE!

Once the state has posession of them…they can do what ever they want. And there is nothing anyone one of us can do about that.

I for one, agree with Mr. Jennings. This is extrememly disturbing and a sad reality. My heart goes out and always has to the many women and children who are brain-washed. This is not an oppinion, it is the truth. Read what you can from the many women who escaped from this. They are told they will go to hell if they don’t marry and bare many children. They are taught this from the time they are small girls. They are raped by their fathers, brothers and other men in the community. Many are married to men in old enough to be there grandfathers! I think it is great that Texas finally has stepped up to take action. The men and maybe some women need to be prosecutted to the fullest extent of the law for what is happening to these young girls/women. It is unfortunate that it took a 16 year old to finally make someone wake up! Unfortunately for her, she may not be alive or possibly has been moved to another area, such as Canada, or Colorado City. If I were these law enforcement people, I would be looking under every stone, bush, and building there is on that compound for underground tunnels. They are talking about reocrds, there probably aren’t any. Please pray for these children and their futures and that they won’t be handed back to these monsters. This is not a religion, it is a hell hole!

There is not 1 bit of evidence that the supposed abuse actually took place , This was nothing more than a non-violent WACO , If you attempt to avoid the melting pot and raise your children to respect your heritage , You will be dragged away and Re-Educated .
In the not so distant future i expect the Amish and Quakers will be targeted as well.

JODY, Who are the Brainwashed , You or them .
Think about it.

I agree pretty much with C Stone. With a phone call that can’t be verified a warrant is issued (apparently open ended) to do search of everyone’s housing, in their drawers and closets. Their Church. Simply the call could have been made up. Made by police that thought it was time to get in there?
BUT. There always is one. Have these people (little girls, young adult women) been abused? If so we have a better late than never situation. And case in point why have the females been removed? Why not send the men (not children) to the local Holiday Inn. Tell them to stay close. And talk to the women and children right there in there own housing? If the men have done the terrible things that are being kicked around they are in a handy place to round them up and take them off to jail. (for a long time)Someone is really going to have a problem if they have not found a crime. “That they can prove”. So we simply wait and see.

Yes, children should be protected from sexual abuse. However, using gestapo tactics to protect against unproven abuses is outrageous. And the media reports keep implying that keeping the children from the outside world in and of itself justifies these kinds of tactics. I am in the outside world, and I see children’s lives being destroyed by the outside world. But the implication that the outside world pushing kids into drugs, alcohol, sex slavery, childhood prostitution, homosexuality, gangs, etc. is better than being shut off from the outside world just shows to what evils we have lowered ourselves. But, we don’t hesitate to condemn and and use gestapo tactics against those on the other side trying to protect from the outside society’s conglomeration of evils.

Something tells me Gary is one of the guys that they are trying to keep these girls away from!

I strongly agree with Robert. I would be very uncomfortable defending the polygamous way of life and would never ever participate in such a thing; and I do believe many women and children probably suffer in that environment, however, what about women and children in the “outside” world…..as if there isn’t enough abuse of women and children in our sick sick world! I resent the “rush to judgment” that the media and most everyone else makes of these people when we had better look at what’s going on in our own culture, be it Hollywood, video games, pornography, drug addiction, on and on and on and on……..yeah, the wonderful outside world. Of course, I do not for one minute support incest, rape, or anything of the kind, and if laws have been broken there should be consequences. But at the same time being “weird” or living differently than the so-called average person isn’t illegal and who are we to condemn anyone for their beliefs. Rounding up a whole community is wrong and now we will come to a point where the “state” is going to make decisions and determine the future of these people and that in itself is just plain scary. As if I would trust the state to put my child in a foster home where there could just as easily be another kind of abuse! That is just plain wrong to separate these children from the only family they have ever known.

I personally think this whole thing about a 16 year old girl making a call was contrived so as to give “authorities” an excuse to invade the ranch. While I don’t agree with the way this group has chosen to live their lives in terms of the practice of polygamy (yes it is against the law), if they are harming no one and living peacefully, then they should be left alone. It is after all their religion and the last time I checked this country does purport to believe in freedom of religion. Frankly if gays and lesbians can marry, who is to say that people whose religion allows it can not marry more than one person, but I digress. I agree that if there are or have been cases of abuse they should be investigated and those who have committed those abuses should be punished, but it seems a little extreme to me to remove over 400 children along with their parents from their homes in order to conduct an investigation of one claim of abuse. Frighteningly, all of this, to me, is reminiscent of the removal of Jews to the death camps in Germany during WWII. Bear in mind too, it wasn’t all that long ago, that people in this country married at ages that today we find sick or appalling. These people have chosen a simpler life, as long as everyone is free to choose that is, we should respect that choice and leave them alone.

Does anyone have any contact info about how look into adopting these kids? They are in need of a good loving home. A secure environment apart from the fear that has been introduced to them. they truly need to experience Gods love not a distorted man created cult.

I agree with Gary. Just who are the brainwashed: their kids, who probably know the meaning of hard work, self-sacrifice, obediance to God, chastity, honoring parents, and all those other things the Bible teaches us but so few practice in their daily lives or your kids and mine, who spend all their time playing video games, listening to the trash they call music today, watching the evening news with all its violence and bloodshed, and getting pregnant at 13 or 14, or getting some STD from a classmate? I think many who are commenting on here, mainly the women, need to stop and think about what’s really going on here. These people would be no different from the Amish or the Quakers except for one thing, polygamy, and we all know how that strikes fear into the heart of any liberated woman…

Victoria, you completely floor me! Do you know for a fact that these kids are living in fear? I’ll bet you a dollar to a doughnut those kids were singing hymns on their way to the re-indoctrination center, er, I mean shelter. Who are you to determine whether or not their homes are loving or not? I wonder if you could pass anyone else’s test for love or compassion of their kids. And finally, I think you need to look up the definition of “cult,” I’m sure you will find that every “man made” religion, and they all are by the way, could fall under the definition of that word. I guess this has to fall under the “My God’s better than your God, my God’s better than yours….

This is what you call news? To simply repeat what the Government tells you?

Since when do independent news reporters trust what the Government tells them?

You’re not a news reporter, your a public relations hack for the Government!

There is no 16 year old girl, never was! She was made up, a ruse to invade these peoples homes and destroy their lives, all because they look and act different than the rest of us.

What ever happened to investigative journalism? Have you no curiosity, madam? Have you no shame?

Ifti: This not an innocent no one does any harm bunch. Live in salt Lake county a while and you’ll see. The men run all the sex stores along state street in SLC and use thier own daughters to sell in these stores,No not sex, the daughters. Boys considered a threat are killed or thrown out, or forced to work in the coal mines they own. . Men come from all over the world to trade these girls for thier own harums using church as a public scam and mind control..this is a co-culture among us. And taxpayers are footing the bill. You bet the phone call was a ruse to get im. More power to the police. These people live in a scam that is so deep you can’t imagine. The men collect welfare on these woman and kids and the more they produce the more they make. They treat women like cows. Herd the older mares (women) into to forced work so they don’t have to buy food and clothes for them. It is sick, and it is in the USA. There is no defense for these men. They need to be put away or put to death.

This is one of the many unfortunate circumstances I feel have evolved from the modern social taboo of criticizing religious faith.

We tend to have a “hands off” approach to this topic, which does ourselves and our neighbors a great injustice, regardless of our beliefs.

Not all religious doctrines are “bad”, nor would I imply that they are. However most of them have the potential to usurp human dignity in this way, so we should all be mindful of this reality. Stone age wisdom and 21st century rationality must come to terms with this dichotomy.

Our fellow men, and especially our women and children, deserve this much.

Ifti, consenting, informed adults are free to live however they wish. But that’s not what we’re seeing here.

The Amish have the right idea with Rumspringa - the young people are free to have a good look at other ways of life and then decide for themselves what to choose. It’s not perfect, since after all, someone raised in the Amish life would probably have a very difficult time adjusting to the outside world, but it appears to be as fair as possible. The people who live that lifestyle appear to truthfully want to be there.

It would surprise me greatly to hear that any 15 year old girls in this polygamist compound REALLY want to be married to 50 year old men. Disgusting what these men have done.

I’m not saying that what they are doing is right, but I don’t know that we have a right to remove all those people or break up whole families when it may be that only a few are actually causing the problems. To me, what is happening here is no different then if one black person committed a crime and the Federal Government rounded up all blacks to find the one who commited the crime. Hold on, I think they are doing that already, I think they call it racial profiling…scratch that!

Anyway, this just seems like a real invasion of their privacy to me and a total violation of their civil rights. I would not be surprised if the Federal Government or the state of Texas was not slapped with a huge lawsuit over this and who pays for that? We do, and not just in money, if we let this happen to them, then who will stop it when it happens to one of us?

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.

I am not saying what the state did was right but I do understand why they did what they did. I do think Texas officials were worried that they might have another WACO situation on their hands. Can you imagine the public outcry if these people ended up killing themselves and their children in a mass suicide?

Perhaps things could have been handled differently. Maybe they should have taken the men away and interviewed the women and children on the compound.

One thing IS for sure, there is a long history of sexual abuse in their culture. MANY young girls ARE forced to marry older men, often their own uncles or cousins. I am sorry but these actions are indefensible and can no way be justified. It is one thing to “be different” from mainstream culture and a whole other to sexually abuse young girls in the name of religion.

As for the comment about 15 year olds marrying 50 year olds, I really can’t say. I come from a culture where that is quite common, my aunt for instance was 17 when she married her husband who was 45 or more. She not only did not mind, she welcomed it. She understood that he was a wealthy man who could provide for her and knew how to respect her and would take care of her. She has a lovely family a stable family and home and is very happy.

I’m not saying it’s the optimal situation and yes it is not what many in this country are used to or think as normal, but it is normal for her and for them. This is just one more instance of society or western culture trying to dictate to the rest of the world what is acceptable and what is not.

What strikes me as ironic is the fact that a little more than 100 years ago, the practice of teens and I think even in some cases pre-teens marrying was just as common in this country. Now all of a sudden it’s sick. We have all suddenly become enlightened and therefore have the right to tell others how to live. Who suddenly made us judge and jury over others?

I grew up in one of “those” families in one of those ‘closed’ communities. The abuse that this person suffered and/or witnessed should be dealt with to the full extent of the LAW on a case-by-case basis.
But this type of thing NEVER occurred in my family or any family I know of. To judge an entire religion based on the terrible story of one woman (who thankfully did get away from it) is absurd. The hundreds of people I grew up with would never have tolerated this type of abuse.
Do NOT judge an entire community based on the bad apples.
I do not pretend to deny or justify the allegations of Ms. Jessop towards her (then)husband, but her experience is the exception, not the rule.
Happy families do not make headline news!

Oh! Stupid me, I didn’t get it.

My apologies Maggie. I see the light now.

I agree, we should take those girls away from those evil polygamists.

Let’s make them just like our girls!

Issue them sleazy Brittney Spears out fits to wear to our schools, like our girls wear. When our 17.5 year old boys give them an STD, let’s send them to our superior medical clinics for a quick fix, and send ‘em right back to school, like our other girls. If they get knocked up, hey, we can fix that too - either a pill will kill that baby, or a doctor, it’s all the same to us, our girls do it. And no need to inform Mom or Dad about this, after all, Mom and Dad probably don’t live together - because they’re divorced. After the girls have had their hearts broken by a string of our boys, and their lives are a wreck, we’ll advise the girls to live with one of our boys like our girls do. A few kids out of wed lock will fit right in to our superior system! When they finally do get married and things get rough, our superior culture can get them hooked on alcohol or those nifty little blue pills that make you numb, just like our girls use! Oh yes! And when these new girls hit bottom, as they will, we can give them a quick, cheap end to it all - a no fault divorce, just like our girls get. Best of all, after these new girls destroy the lives of THEIR kids by remarrying to one of our boys, who will most likely molest or beat them, this grand cycle will repeat itself!

And on and on it will go, as our superior society just gets better and better, which, of course, it is doing!

Oh Brave New World, that has such people in it!

Gimme a break! Yeah, yeah, our way of life is so much better than theirs…

The way I see it is if the girls old enough to legally marry in Texas (16) want to stay they should be able to stay however each one and even the older women of legal age should have an evaluation to determine if they are psychologically competent enough to make that decision. That evaluation should then be ruled on by a judge. Its not perfect but its the closest we will get to a perfect solution to balance religious freedom with human rights.

Lori is right about Rumspringa its not perfect but at least the option is there and nothing is forced. These girls have no choice they are taught only one way from birth of course they believe what they are told. They believe in it the same way the rest of America believes in freedom of religion and free speech. Or if you want to be more drastic how about someone raised in Al Queda believes that killing innocent people will bring them glory in God’s eyes? It may not be brain washing but its hard to not believe something when its all you have ever known.

Thats why the evaluation is needed to determine if they are really returning because they want to or if they believe they have to. If given an outright open choice all of them would go back just like a woman who is beaten and abused over and over again goes back to the abuser.

As far as morality of the people living on the ranch goes they absolutely have higher morals than the rest of the country and in that sense we should be taking lessons from them. They believe in a good Christian message with some pretty significant previsions. Don’t believe Christianity can be corrupted? Look at the Crusades, the Spanish inquisition, or how about modern day televangelists that turn out to be frauds or child molesters?

Last thing for all of you who think there was no 16 year old girl and that it is a police conspiracy. What is easier to believe that a 16 year old girl who has been abused all her life forced into what is essentially slavery found the courage to cry for help or that the police and a judge that signed the order who took oaths to uphold the law all decided to ignore them to violate the religious freedom of a few hundred people because they don’t agree with them?

My point exactly Jay!!! Here here!!! I’m outta here folks it’s been real, I just hope that we all realize what is going on here and what is really at stake in all of this. Yes I’m sure some bad things happened, are happening, and will happen and we need to work to stop those and prosecute the ones who do bad things, but perhaps if we were more accepting of these people and of their right to believe what they believe, perhaps they would not have to live in a compound and hide their attrocities from us. Maybe if we left them alone so they did not feel they had to hide, there would not be this issue of a closeted (sp?) society. I’m not saying their way is better, but perhaps we as a society made them what they are today…outcasts.

Um…it wasn’t “common” for young teens to marry less then 100 years ago. Actually, that is a common misconception. Most young women married by the time they were 18, 19, 20…but they seldom married as young as 14, 15, 16…well maybe that happened in SOME places but it is far from commonplace at anytime in US history and in US culture.

http://www.rickross.com/groups/polygamy.html or http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy789.html For all you judgemental and skeptical people out there, here is a website that you can access in re-gards to the Polys. Read, read, read!!! Read the stories from Carolyn Jessop, Ms. Erickson, Mr. Llewellyn - a former polygamist and so on. Here are some facts:

Following are some facts on modern polygamists and the FLDS, the largest-known U.S. polygamist sect:

The FLDS is a break-away sect from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon faith is formally known. The Mormon faith officially banned polygamy in 1890 when the federal government threatened to deny statehood to Utah.
The founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, took at least two dozen wives, historians say. His successor, Brigham Young, had about 20. Today, the Mormon church distances itself from about 40,000 breakaway Mormons in Utah and Arizona who practice polygamy illegally.
In Utah, polygamy is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison, but the law is rarely enforced because local authorities say prosecuting “plural” marriages is impractical. Instead, authorities in Utah and Arizona have been targeting sex crimes, welfare and tax fraud and domestic violence within polygamous communities.
Members of the FLDS are estimated to number about 7,500 and live in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona, an isolated community along the Utah-Arizona border. FLDS members believe the highest stages of heaven can be attained only after a man takes three wives, while women are brought up to be subservient. Those who disagree with the prophet are labeled “apostates” and exiled.

ALL the women who are with the children are with them on their own accord. THE CHOSE to leave the ranch. Some of you people are forgetting the facts.

Penny,

Please site your sources on that. All of my knowledge on the subject links mortality to age at marriage. Since life expectancy was lower than, and mortality higher, it makes no sense for anyone to wait longer to marry, which is one of the main reasons we as a society have waited longer and longer to marry and why we encourage our children to wait to marry. And you misquote me, I said a little more than 100 years ago.

If anyone took my child and gave me the option of going with them I would go with them. Sorry Penny that is a no brainer!!!

And some people are twisting the facts to suit their own believes or positions

i feel so sorry for these girls they have never known that there is a different world out here. they have been breed for the sole purpose of marring an older family member to build an army for the sect they were born in, like the guy in calf that had a baby with his daughter and niece and then all the kids were killed when the police tried to do something about this family that he was building. this guys army( thank the spirits that saved these children) that they were not killed also. i am wiccan and we dont breed to build an army or sect. where do these people come from to think that this is the way their god wants then to go. i just cant think of what these little girls think when they are married to these men so young and they are so old i feel for them . their mothers should never get them back for they will just go back to their husband and keep it going from there. these girls will never be saved if they go back to their families please help them to know what is right and that they dont have to be forced into anything they dont want . guide them to the knowledge that this is wrong and that they must not do it anymore.

Your heart goes out to these young people born into this world trusting and listening to people who are supposed to be making sure they have good lives. I know I don’t understand this mindset and it has been going on for generations now, but these adults need to be held accountable. This goes beyond freedom of religion. I genuinely hope the children and young people can learn how to live in the “outside world” and can be the truly wonderful human beings God wants them to be. It isn’t over, but 416 lives, and maybe more, have just been saved.

LFTI and Gary:
When is the rape of a child ever okay? LFTI said that being in the compound keeps 13 or 14 year old girls from getting pregnant…Read the report about the countless teens who escaped who are currently pregnant…pregnant from rape and possibly the result of incest. Read Carolyn Jessop’s book Escape and get a real view of the life of women and children and the lost boys who were kicked out of FDLS because they were viewed as competition for the old men. At some point this cult–very different from a religious group–needs to be disbanned. Thank heavens a child was brave enough to speak out. I just hope she escaped safely because her life could be in danger. The mere thought that the rest of the world is brainwashed clearly shows that Gary drank the FDLS koolaid…how sad.

Hmm… So these young mothers and children were “saved” from abuse and put into the social services system.. The same system we read about children being abused, tortured, and killed on a daily basis? I’m not sure saved fits here..

Wow my comment got deleted Fox I am disappointed.

PENNY, Please get your facts correct before you post , The Authorities were taking the children regardless , The Mothers were given the option to stay with, and care for them .
DUH.

Maybe ellen degenerate can adopt several of these children and raise them the modern way.

We should deplore any abuse that goes on. We should also recognize peoples right to be different and to live a chosen life style and protest this outrageous abuse of governmental power and trampling of individuals rights. You dont go in and arrest and “deport” an entire neighborhood at gun point, ransack their homes and their church and rip childern from their families and siblings based on one unsubstaniated claim that one child in the neighborhood was abused. Everyone should be protesting this governmental overstepping. We should all be outraged.

Bill,
How does one, then, handle widespread sexual and physical abuse that continues to grow over time? Should it just be ignored? When do human rights outweigh govermental involvement? Rape and incest is never okay…Those children needed to be rescued. The cycle of abuse needed to be stopped. Look into the crimes of Warren Jeffs. Reseach how those people were forced to live. Again, I will refer you to the work of Carolyn Jessop, one who survived.

Well these children have now been rescued from the horrible lifestyle they have been subjected to.
They are now in the care of dozens of 200lb lesbian social workers who will provide all the Mc-Donalds meals and MP3-players needed to bring these children into the melting pot.
Those girls were safer in those compounds than they are now in the hands of the MONSTER.

Gross generalizations don’t lead to rich discussion, Gary. Your comments don’t offer much credibility to your argument.

RACHEL.
Do you actually think i care to discuss this matter with you or any person posting here .
Whats to discuss , Shall we talk about Ruby Ridge-Shall we Discuss The Alabama FREEMEN- Shall we Discuss the WACO Massacre .

Go load the dishwasher and clean your home for your family rachel , Dont worry your little self OK .

Gary,
Just know that I am praying for you.

gary i do remember the ones you are refering to but they are different than this . i do also agree the goverment agencies do have alot to be desired as i work for the goverment so i understand that where they are now maybe bad for them for this minute but as time goes they will have a chance to learn how their lives should be not how they were trained. i just hope they choose the right way

WOW Ifti…First of all I am not looking for a spiritual fight…so back off. My first concern is for those children. I have friends that are Mormon and they do not condone this behavior. Anytime a child does not have the chance to be a child or has the fear of being abused ,mentally, sexually or both, that is wrong. I am a FIRM and I mean FIRM believer in freedom of religion and separation from church and state…by the way which was created to keep the GOVERNMENT out of the CHURCH not vise versa. These children ( not all but a lot) are at risk. You tell me what a 50 yr old man wants with a 15 yr old girl? huh? That my dear is a lot of mens fantasies. Why do you think there is such a problem with child porn? I am sure that not all of the children were abused. But think how many women want better for their kids? How many of those women were praying that something like this would happen? Not to mention the inbreeding…come on.

To Ifti, Gary and all the others:

My great-grandmothers married a little over 100 years ago, 120 to be exact, and were all 18 and older. My grandmothers married almost 100 years ago and were all 18 years and older. The depth and breadth of this is so vast that every comment made here has not truly touched the many horrible aspects of this situation.

The young women in these families are not given any choice, they are severly punished or brow beaten if they question or show any resistance to the way they are taught. Young boys who question the way their mothers and sisters are treated are tuned out, ex-communicated, and run off with no resources or means of support. The second, third and fourth wives are not “legally” married in an effort to circumvent bigomy laws. They then apply for Federal and State aid to unmarried mothers. Fathers who are not fully engaged because of the numerous wives an children they don’t have time for. Mothers shouldering the majority of the burden. How do I know?, Family members who have come out of this horrible lifestyle.

Yet we have the government trying to do the best they can to intervene for those trapped in this insidious life style. They choose to remove the women and children who are the victims. They put them in state custody which is scary on many fronts. Yet they have compassion and keep them in the same community setting they ar used to. I truly believe their are many officials involved who are compassionatly trying to do the right thing.

Being different isn’t a crime. Raping, sexually abusing, beating, molesting and threatening another human being, especially a minor, is.

Do we now tolerate Islamic jihad in the form of raping a non-Muslim woman the same way as the prophet Muhammed in the name of freedom of religion. We have laws for a reason and those laws must be upheld.

This would be a good time for the polgymous free portion of the Mormon Church to come up to the plate and help out these women and families. I shudder to think of Social Services trying to acclimate these folks to “Modern” life. They’ll need people helping who intimately understand their background and it’s values. People who’ll help the innocents scrap the bad baggage and hold on to the values.

Raping a child is against the law…it is called being pedophile…. These men are just a bunch of guys who want to flaunt religion in order to get plenty of free sex …and rule women with an iron hand.

This is the 21st century for God sakes….

By the way, the Amish and Quakers do not rape and sodomize their children

After reading the comments posted, I am sorely disappointed in that many of the people who have posted, as they seem to have the impression that this “raid” has to do with polygamy. It has nothing to do with polygamy. The FLDS is a Cult. This cult preaches that minor children must marry, have nonconsentual sex and produce babies. Forcing a minor to marry, have sex and produce a child IS child abuse. It has been reported by former members and proven in court, that this is a fundamental belief of this cult. It is about time someone did something about this continuing abuse of children. No one has the authority to force children to do these sorts of things. No one has the right to hold someone against their will. The raid on the FLDS is equivalent to opening Panorda’s box. More and more will come out, we WILL find out about girls much younger than 15, who have been forced into marriage and sex. Shame on any state for allowing the FLDS cult to continue to have custody of minors.

So a 15 year old girl is a “child” now, huh?

Both our 13 year old neighbor girls (children by your definition) we’re every inch full grown women. They were my height, and filled out just like me, mother of 4 kids. They drank alcohol. They cursed like pirates. And - shock - they both got pregnant by their boy friends! And not an eye brow was raised. Ho hum, business as usual. No swat team breaking down the front door of their home, no (single) parents thrown in jail, no placement in foster homes. All this 2000 miles from Texas, 1000 miles from Utah, in the great state of Washington. Why? Because neither they nor their boy friends are Mormons. In fact, they didn’t belong to any religion.

Moral: you can do the same stuff as the FLDS are accused of, but if you stay in the system, and stay out of Church, you don’t even get your hand slapped. What gross hypocrisy!

“Children” my foot. When are we going to acknowledge the irrefutable biological fact that girls mature much faster than boys, and are there fore adults long before boys are. If a boy is an adult at 18, a girl is an adult at 16. You other ladies think back to when you were 16. Now don’t lie. You knew it all, didn’t you? You fought your parents to be able to do things your way, on your own. AND, if you could get it, you were having sex.

Let’s all grow up and let these 15-17 year olds decide for them selves what they want to do, and stop babying them. They are NOT children!

I don’t know who made so many of you all “judge, jury and hang man”, because the way you are talking all the men in this compound are sick, preverted 50 year old child molesters. I have looked at these kids and they all look like they are happy children. It is sad we may never know it the call from the 16 year old is real or not. And if this happened to her, someone should answer to the law, not everyone of them. But these people should be able to live however they choose. We live the way we want, don’t we, pretty much. We have our own sicko’s in the “outside”, and I think these women and children have a better chance at where they were at. We need to stop adopting them out to so called loving families and thinking that now that CPS has taken them, they have a chance at a real life. Because I am in agreement with some people posting, its not so great in our world.

Crissy, you prove my argument. The children of the FLDS, to which I refer, did not get to “decide for themselves”. Many of the men that these young girls are FORCED to have sex with are related to them. How can any human being think that forced sex and forced marriage is okay? There are distinct differences in your comparison. FORCED sex is rape. If you are a 50 year old man, forcing a 15 year old to have sex with you, then you are a rapist. You are also a child molester. More than likely, as it applies to the FLDS, you are also perpetuating incest. Would you allow your daughter to be forced into marriage, as soon as she reached puberty? A marriage, in which, you would have no say as to who the husband would be? A marriage which could be incestuous? A marriage in which your daughter would have to submit to sex whenever it is demanded? Forced to have baby, after baby….? I do not know anyone who would allow their daughter to be subjected to sexual abuse.

Victoria, Lets Be frank , Really????? how many of those young Mormon girls have been staring in this years PORN movie line up.

Get with it people, You are glued to the tube and actually believe the LIES.

Why were all the children and women torn from their homes? Wouldn’t it have been kinder to leave them and taken the men to be housed in state custody? God have mercy.

Yeah GARY, I did get my facts straight. I KNOW that they were given the option to stay or go. THEY CHOSE to go with their children. No imprisonment, no FORCING THEM to do so. Seeing as parents don’t usually (or dare I say, NEVER) get the option to go with their children when their children are taken away by social services, I’d say they were lucky (relatively speaking, of course).

And Ifti, I thought you were “out of here” but I see you couldn’t keep your promise. I don’t know where you get your information but do a little reading and you will learn that most brides were in their late teens (yeah, even OVER one hundred years ago).

Seriously, how can anyone defend these men who are impregnating YOUNG teenage girls? Seriously, a line HAS TO be drawn. Just because some or even most of these child brides (MINORS) are okay with the way they are treated, it doesn’t make it right. Abuse is Abuse.

These young women often DON’T KNOW any better because this is the only life they’ve ever known. They aren’t educated and they work like animals their whole lives. They literally are baby factories for their incestuous, older husbands. These girls don’t even get to chose who they marry. They are assigned to whoever. There are women who are reassigned to new husbands if their husbands fall out of favor with the leadership of the church. These women aren’t treated like people, they are treated like possessions. How is any of this OK?

Dear Maggie,
I pray ‘that girl’ is found, and that she isn’t killed by these pedophile controlling men. She may be hidden some where in that huge compound. I feel ‘those controlling men’ aren’t going to release her easily as she ‘exposed their non-biblical rotten ugly dirty ways’. Jesus said: ‘A man will have only 1 wife’. What they have done over the centuries is lawfully wrong, and why hasn’t the LAW OF OUR LAND stepped in and done some thing way before this? It’s legally ‘WRONG’ to have more than 1 WIFE! Let alone, underage children! I pray the authorities find her. But, I feel she is NOT with the 401 children they found. They are so secretive group that they would be enraged at her, and will punish her severely! They know who she is. The reason for ’secrecy’, is to ‘hide’ something. Otherwise they would be out in the open with their so-called-religion. The group has secrects no one knows about, and you can bet ‘they have hidden’ and ’shut the mouth’ of this girl, or are using her child against her. These men are NOT going to give up their ‘harems’……..!!! SICK.

Penny.
Perhaps a communist lifestyle would suit these teenage girls far better than the MORMON life.
We could ship all of the female children off to PEKING and have an auction , Or we could send them all off to southern africa for MACHETE practice, Or possibly San Fransisco where they can be taught to worship the nipple ring .
What EXACTLY do you want for these children PENNY.

As a seventeen-year-old growing up in the so-called “outside world,” I’m very disappointed in the gross exaggerations the past comments have held. I certainly fit into the parallel age group to these girls from the ranch, but contrary to common misconceptions neither my friends nor myself are the promiscuous, drug-abusing, alcoholic, suicidal, disaffected people the youth of today are depicted as being. And my friends and I aren’t the only ones - there are millions of other teenagers who don’t engage in such debaucherous behavior. Sure, there are probably loads of self-destructive people my age in this country; I don’t deny this. But just as you argue that it is unfair to make generalizations about the ranch community in question, it is equally unjust to make generalizations about the “outside world.” I believe that this world has many wonderful things to offer, and the good shouldn’t be overshadowed by the bad. I think that history has proven this particular religious sect to have violated several important laws, and it is only rational for the police to take action upon recieving notification of unethical (and unlawful) behavior taking place in a community with a known reputation for these behavior. While I do believe that it would have been best to remove the men from the compound in order for the victims to be subjected to less trauma and stress, the fact that action is being taken is something to be grateful for. These girls cannot be compared by any standards to the common youth of today; they have only ever known a certain lifestyle. When they were ebing married to men over three times their age, they probably saw it as something normal. However, inherent in all humans is a central code of ethics that tells you when something is really wrong–when you constantly live in fear and sometimes even pain. These girls probably have more emotinal baggage than the average American teen! I’m not suggesting that they fully assimilate into modern American culture (they probably would never be able to fully do so), but I believe that outside intervention is necessary in mending the many physical and psychological wounds. Instead of bickering with each other pettily and using low-blow insults, we should all send out our best wishes and hopes (if you have a religious belief that includes prayer, that works too) to these children as they attempt navigating these tumultuous times and the times to come. And yes, they are children: physical development doesn’t make you any more of an adult. It’s internal development that determines maturity and growth. Maybe some fourteen- to seventeen-year-olds can be considered adults, but once again, don’t make umbrella generalizations like that. It’s unfair and causes misinformed opinions and decisions.

PENNY , You are correct .
How can anybody defile a group of 1000 men who work every day in the hot UTAH sun and earn a living for their familys , Plumbers -Masons- Bankers-Clerks-Policemen-Doctors-Janitors.
I guess the IDEA that their is an area in which White People still remain pure and true to their HERITAGE scares the hell out of you.

Gary, quit being so juvenile. Why don’t you take a more intellectual approach instead of being incoherent and extremely disrespectful? If you want to pick a fight, go somewhere else.

PENNY, I dare say that you have no Voice or Anger with a Gay pride Parade or the closing of a Boy Scout Camp because the new Owners are gay, And the boy scouts are not part the GAY lifestyle.
PENNY , you would Embrace our Enemys And Point your feeble finger at your NEIGHBOR for another day of life.

TO JODY,
VERY GOOD RESEARCH JODY. I WILL GO TO YOUR WEBSITE AND CHECK IT OUT! ALSO…..ORGANIZATIONS THAT ‘HIDE THINGS’ OR ‘CO-ERCE’ PEOPLE, SHOULD SEND A RED FLAG UP SOME WHERE IN A PERSONS MIND! IF YOU GO AGAINST THE JEHOVAH’S WITNESS RELIGION THEY ‘KICK YOU OUT’! IT DOESN’T MATTER IF YOUR 15,16 OR WHAT! IF YOU DON’T CONFORM, THEN YOU’RE BUTT IS GONE. SAME WITH THESE POLIGAMISTS, SAME WITH ANY OTHER CULTS. CONFORM, OR ESLE!!!!!!

also, everythin