Reader comments
Nearly 200 now taken from FLDS compound in Texas

sebsz | 6:27 p.m. April 5, 2008

is that all the children in the camp? safe to say then that it is now OK in the USA to take away your children if you are part of a small, unpopular religion? i hear catholic children are also "at risk" for abuse. are they next?

Ethel | 6:32 p.m. April 5, 2008

Last time I checked, the Catholic Church was not marrying off their teenage girls to 50+ year old men who forced them to bare children.
I am not a member of any organized religion and this kind of zeal and secrecy is just another reason why.

Anonymous | 6:41 p.m. April 5, 2008

I hope so, remember the state of Utah claim that this is "not about religion or a vendetta" so they should confiscate catholic children on the same grounds that "yeah, they're catholic, but it's not about their religion."

Yeah right it's not about their religion. Maybe someone who hates catholics should make a prank call to the CPS and trigger a raid on catholic homes too. Let's be fair and just to all remember.

Comments continue below

Anonymous | 6:55 p.m. April 5, 2008

When the world hates you all it takes is a prank call from aunidentified person and you lose your children. It's easy to accuse the FLDS because the main stream media hates them. What ever happened to "innocent until PROVEN guilty?" I don't think the parents at the YFZ ranch have had a fair trial yet.

Idaho | 7:14 p.m. April 5, 2008

It seems there was sufficient evidence to generate a search warrant, even in Texas it takes a bit more than a prank call to want to enter that armed camp. Given the nature of the charge, perhaps speculation should be suspended until we hear the testimony of the child mothers, and adult mothers. I'll bet we'll stop with the conspiracy crap, and show some Christ-like compassion to those women and children. Even subservient women deserve to be more than breeding machines.

Anonymous | 7:28 p.m. April 5, 2008

So where is this "breeding machine?" girl and her 8 month old baby? Dale Barlow never heard of her and she doesn't have a name or a face. You seem to forget that PROOF is required that an act of abuse has occurred. The people are so desperate to accuse these people that even if they do plead not guilty they are assumed guilty without a fair trial.

I still say they deserve a fair trial like any other American Citizen.

Deer Valley Resident | 7:35 p.m. April 5, 2008

Too bad our own attorney general (Mark Shurtleff) doesn't have the guts to protect these children like the authorities in Texas. Instead, he pretends the problem doesn't exist.

Tod | 7:46 p.m. April 5, 2008

Fundamentalist adhering LDS Middle age men Living the Principal who impregnate captive 13-14 year old teenage girls are committing a heinous form of child abuse ï¿½pure and simple. It is a basic function of government to protect one who in the name of religion would be harmed, endangered, or killed by the action of another.

Jimbo49 | 7:55 p.m. April 5, 2008

I'm guessing there probably are crimes going on in that compound and I'm glad the authorities have raided it. I think it is important that men with this desire to have multiple wives (some of them children) understand that their actions may bring harsh consequences to them. I don't know if it is true but I have heard that this group has experienced high levels of birth defects and that they routinely run off teenage boys so that the men will have more access to teenage girls.

CITIZEN | 8:26 p.m. April 5, 2008

Plural marriage is not entirely illegal in the U.S.A.per example;if you live in saudi arabia and decide to move to the U.S.A.and it is your religion to have multiple wives you can legally bring them with you and live together as man and wives.and you can continue to have as many wives as you choose without fear of prosecution.FACT!!!!

Nicole | 8:36 p.m. April 5, 2008

Anonymous:
Um, "Innocent until proven guilty" DOES NOT work with kids. There just has to be reason to suspect abuse and risk of immediate future abuse. Yes, as an adult, you have the right to subscribe to any nut job religion- I respect that. But you do not have the right to abuse and neglect children in the name of said religion. There is a lot of evidence that girls are being routinely raped in this community (yes, having sex with a 15 year old girl is RAPE.) It is the responsibility of the government to protect children.

Barney | 8:59 p.m. April 5, 2008

Polygamy is allowed by the largest religion on the face of the world,
Islam. There is a racial group in America where 8 of 10 babies born
are to a single parent, with their siblings fathered by other men. We
provide welfare for those women, yet we bust up polygamist families,
that are self-sufficient and hard working. Texas, the land of Waco!

Jared | 8:58 p.m. April 5, 2008

The state actually owns your children. If you don't raise your children to meet it's very very low standard the state has the right to take your children. So I'm glad that the state took the children. It's not hard to imagine, the state can provide a better life than the FLDS.

gfr | 9:14 p.m. April 5, 2008

anytime a 15 year old has sex it's statutory rape. That's why 15 year olds never have sex. They would tell you that themselves but there's a gag order

Jeremy Parker | 9:16 p.m. April 5, 2008

Anonymous, I agree with you that we have not been given enough justification for all the actions taken, but the phone call was definitely justification for an initial investigation, though horribly flawed by their Waco'esque tactics. What all they found in interviews and in person we have not been sufficiently told.

After Reading Carolyn Jessop's book, I only wish that more people cared in a Christ-like manner enough to provide refuge for those from ANY such privations and abuse from ANY corner of ANY organization.

I would give anything and everything I have to help anyone in such need as Carolyn described or otherwise.

Tex | 9:25 p.m. April 5, 2008

Texas, the land of justice.

Where kids are not allowed to be abused by wacko religious nutcases.

Arizona | 12:44 a.m. April 9, 2008

If you want multiple wifes then move out of the US to where it is legal. In the Us the government protects one who in the name of religion would be harmed, endangered, or killed by the action of another.

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