"I don't know how you do it. I know how you don't do it. You don't show up with a tank at the gates with an army," Parker said.

Texas authorities, he said, are putting a religion on trial while trampling on the individual rights of church members. "This isn't about Sarah. This is about all the other people," he said.

One attorney asked Parker why FLDS men marry teenage girls.

"I know we have a lot of rumor and misinformation about it," he said. "Not all of the marriages are to old men."

Parker said the matter is complex and goes back more than a hundred years. "These people live in the 19th century," he said.

Shurtleff took issue with that, saying former FLDS members have told him child brides are common. He also didn't buy the argument that church members don't live in the 21st century. "All I care about is what is going on today," he said.

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