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Ex-FLDS members try to counter claims of persecution

why only crickets commenting on this one? Where are all those motherly tears when their boys are dumped on the side of the road?

I know little of this church, but if some folks got booted out of it, or they chose to leave to go get high or to be vagrants, so be it. They have that choice. A church's leadership has the right to choose its own members. Anyone in the flock has the right to leave if they want. They even have the right to ditch the current leadership and start their own church if they're unhappy.

The same as their families/wives/etc. have the choice to either go with them, or let them go and stay with the church. Truly, ts a wonderful thing we have, Freewill. (Kooky "brainwashing" theories notwithstanding).

And I guess those 14 yr old boys must've all chose to go,huh? Amazing how consistent their stories are.

Naive would be a misuse of the word to describe you.

They have no choice. They're brainwashed and so it would appear are you.

Warren Jeffs and his lackeys assign the children and women to others. They have no such right to do so but they still do it.

How immature are you?

"why only crickets commenting on this one? Where are all those motherly tears when their boys are dumped on the side of the road?"

Funny though. The crickets speak VOLUMES!

I agree, free will is a wonderful thing. However, I am also incredibly grateful to our government for putting pressure on my own ancestors to stop practicing polygamy. Otherwise, I'm afraid I would be living a very similar lifestyle that the FLDS are living today.

Hopefully, future generations of FLDS people will feel the same gratitude that I do. God bless Texas and the USA!

Alexander...

They have your children. There are manned guard towers. Does this sound like 'anyone in the flocke has the right to leave if they want'? I've been followed by the thugs in the suburbans with tinted windows. They don't seem to be willing to entertain a change in church leadership. Freewill is a wonderful thing. It is more than absent on these compounds.

How is it a choice to lose your home and family when you have a different religious opinion? Try reading a little more before making ignorant statements. Men and their sons are clearly the victims here when you have a few sexual preditors running deciding who and what your family relations are.

Alexander, you are failing to realize that this is a group that indoctrinates their people from the cradle---they are told their prophet is all powerful and has a say over every aspect of your life---they can and do "throw people out" for no-reason know to anyone but the prophet and his inner circle--they also literally give wives and children away with the threat of eternal damnation on both sides----very little free will in this group.

Two wrongs do not make a right. Regardless what FLDS did within their own religion does not give Texas a right to traumatize the children (PTSD anyone?). Even within Evangelical circles, those who are disinfranchised or bitter or disagree have a different views of their ex-religion than those in it.. Why lower ourselves? Texas needs to be moral regardless of what others do.

The big deal in this case is the alleged abuse. Period.

Kids need to be protected, and what applies to the rest of us should apply to the FLDS as well. The state of Texas was within their rights to investigate and if no real proof of abuse is found the kids will be returned to their mothers.

If the FLDS really wanted to straighten this out and be left alone they would wait for their "spiritual" wives to grow up to the legal age of consent before marrying them. The claims of "cult" are always used when people don't understand a religion but it may be applicable here. If the FLDS are not a cult why do they go out of their way to look like one. They are secretive and separatist that willingly break the law (be it bigamy or underage sex).

Everyone has the right to worship god without breaking the law. If they disagree with the law they should fight to get the laws changed and not continue to break them.

Who is traumatizing children? Texas, or the FLDS? Is it really ok because this is a religious group to force (yes, force) girls barely out of their teens into marriage? How do you expect the State to react? Sit on their hands and let this keep going on? If some 50 year old slept with your twelve year old daughter because "God told him to" would you be so forgiving?

How can anyone excuse the horrendous and reprehensible behavior of these FLDS men? And what about the adult women who have been complicit--FOR YEARS--in enabling the repetetive rape and forced "spiritual marriages" of their underage daughters to perverted old men? HUH? How innocent do these mothers think their daughters will be after a trip to the temple mattress? How is it that a felonious sub-culture is allowed to flourish in this country, today? The FLDS is an abomination and should be held accountable (like any other church in the USA) for their illegal behaviors. If these little girls were anywhere else, or belonged to any other religion--they would have been removed from their abusive environment LONG AGO!!! Just because these little girls know no other home, does not mean that they should be returned to the place of their abuse. How crazy is that? WHERE ARE THE BOYS AND YOUNG MEN OF THIS COMMUNITY? WE SEE NO EVIDENCE OF THEM! That's because boys and young men are systematically exiled from the only homes they know when they begin to pose a threat to the perverted older men of the community. The older pervs don't want competition!

Finally a story that is not biased towards the FLDS

Yeahhhhh . Let's forgo any PTSD today and let these inbreeding molesters ruin these lives for their entire lifespan. Ignorance, apathy and disdain for children. "Don't mess with Texas"

Yes, because taking the kids out of the situation is so much worse than leaving them on those grounds to continue to be exploited.

You want to talk fairness? Lets be fair. This is the first time something of this calibur has occurred in Texas. There are no policies for something like this and no laws to help them. CPS is doing the best they can considering the circumstances.

Would leaving the children with these people be moral? I say no. Maybe CPS isn't handling this the best way, but they're doing the best they can with what they have. They are the ones working above and beyond the call of duty to try and help in this situation and yet they're the ones being made out as the bad guys.

The most telling phrase in the whole article is: In interviews, the FLDS people on the YFZ Ranch have refused to address allegations of child abuse and sex abuse leveled against them."

They moan and cry and say their children are being ripped from their sides... but that wouldn't happen if they didn't sexually and physically abuse them....

I feel like the FLDS is trying to frame this as a witch hunt against polygama when its not--all about child abuse plain and simple. In this day and age no one really cares which adults are sleeping with whom: but a 16 year old girl? Cmon...

There have always been crazy cultists in the world who believe they must be separate from the rest, and somehow better, and there will always be some odd cult or the other that will continue to come to light, and go back underground.

Hallelujah, a story that isn't FLDS propaganda!

Wow, I loved the comment in this article:

"They howl and cry that they're being ripped away from this wonderful family condition they're in when they've got blood on their hands.

So True.......