Reader comments
Children will stay in state custody for now

This is just wrong!!!!! Now they are having to propose breaking up families in order to get the right to their children back. Our family breakup in society is a big enough problem. Get these folks home and leave them alone!!!!! Respect their rights when you expect yours to be respected. God said do unto others as you would have done unto yourself. This is stupid and wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!

This isn't wrong - it is SO SO SO right. Have you seen the clip on CNN about water boarding babies???? These evil people should never get their children back .... unless they REALLY, REALLY prove they have left this cult behind them. And only then with periodic supervision and mandatory integration into society. Revolting, disgusting, evil. What kind of mother refuses to identify her own children? That is abandonment. What kind of mother stands by when her daughters and sons are abused? I swear, if my husband laid a hand on my kids we wouldn't be here the next day. And any woman who isn't strong enough to do that should lose her children. Go TEXAS! You will forever have my unending applause!

I am pleasantly surprised to hear that FLDS mothers might be willing to get their own apartments and obtain counseling to get their children back. A safety plan would be a good solution for everyone concerned, especially the children. Foster care would be a terrible alternative, as these kids have led very sheltered lives.

One of the problems that I do foresee would be that if the mothers obtained restraining orders against the husbands, they would never report any violations. The law pretty much leaves it to the one seeking the order to follow-up by reporting violations to authorities.

I still think that the State will require genetic testing in order to place children back with the appropriate biological mother---and that in itself might be very revealing.

A safety plan is a good option, and one that is certainly worthy of discussion. I hope CPS�s Angie Voss gets off the high horse and opens a dialogue on the possibility.

IN TEAXS IT WAS LEGAL TO MARRY AT THE AGE OF 14 UNTIL 2005 WHEN THE LEGAL AGE WAS CHANGED TO 16 TWO YEARS AFTER THE CHURCH GROUP MOVED TO THE COMPOUND.

"I am pleasantly surprised to hear that FLDS mothers might be willing..."

To them this is a hostage situation. Just like most parents, they will say and do anything demanded by the hostage taker to protect their children and get them out of harm's way.

They must be careful, however, to not make desperate promises that they can't keep. CPS isn't going to give the children back without some very onerous strings attached. Strings that will chafe more and more over time.

Sandy & Family, you need to read the BIBLE so you find out why your are wrong.

COMPADDION, where did you get your information? It has been illegal for someone in Texas to marry under the age of 17 for decades. In fact, it is rape if a man has sex with a girl who is under 17 years of age unless he himself is within two years of her age. If the allegations are true, then these so called men have committed rape. That is the law in Texas stupid.

without their kids, they will not be able to collect
all those nice welfare checks to pass along to the prophet so they can buy more land to build on.

lets stop this "bleeding the beast"
lets incarcerate the pedophiles who milk the state

Just because it WAS legal to wed at 14 and now IS legal to wed at 16 does not make it morally or ethically right to do so.

The part of the human brain that governs reason starts developing in our teens and continues on until our twenties. That's why teenagers are such a challenge. Not to mention that the female body is not fully developed at 14 or 16 either.

What makes anyone think that getting married at that age or having children at that age A GOOD IDEA?

I don't have any answers for the FLDS situation except serious long term counseling for all concerned. Jail time for the men comes to mind too...they knew they were up to no good, treating their women and children as objects to be hidden away from society and abused...castration for the men comes to mind too.

!!!!!Parents!!!!!
You can have your CHILD stolen by the CPS CHILD THEFT RING.
They get $4000.00 for every child they steal.
A very good example:
The Thugs in the State of Missouri Child Theft Ring and St. Louis County Courts stole the youngest daughter away from a mother.
The Thugs in the Missouri Court System and the Missouri Branch of the CPS Child Theft Ring said that because the mother rocked her daughter to sleep in a rocking chair , there was no bond between the mother and child. The State of Missouri had stolen the child away and would not return her for two years then said because the Mother and child had been separated for two years the bond between the mother and child had been severed.
shreddedsociety(dot)com

According to Texas state statistics in the year 2001- 53,856 babies were born to girls under the age of 19. And 10% of 15-16 year olds had been or were pregent. Did the state taken custody of all of these girls and their siblings along with all the others since 2001? Or are they just going after the FLDS people because they are different?

Texas has broken the laws by which our Constitution was formed. Anyone can make a call and with no real evidence an entire community has it's children taken away, wholesale. People get all emotional and imaginative about what they think is going and gone on. You have to prove guilt. If a law is broken then due process should take place. Texas should be on trial for such criminal actions. If my neighbor abuses his daughter should the police come in and arrest my whole neighborhood and take our children because I lived in the same one as the perpetrator? If a mormon or Jew or Catholic had a member that did something wrong, should all the rest of the people their children taken away, and only on accusation from who know who? They are acting on assumption and not by the laws of our own land. Even a police officer should abide by the laws he enforces. This is about our rights as a nation not about the FLDS people. You can't take someone's children from them because they might abuse them someday even though they haven't yet.

The Jehovah's Witnesses have settled lawsuits alleging church policies protected pedophile men who sexually abused children for many years.
JW Frederick McLean is one of the most-wanted fugitives in the United States

Jehovah's Witnesses pedophile cover up problem at a glance:
It's the WAY that the Watchtower's protocol for (non) handling of Criminal Pedophilia that is the root of this evil.

Recent Watchtower 'damage control' in house memos on 'correcting' past cover ups and years of past stone walling/foot dragging does not undo decades of child abuse damage.

This is not about polygamy. It is about child rape and abandonment. Young girls are bread and brainwashed into accepting sex from older men. Boys at ages of 10 to 12 are used for unlawful cheap forced labor, most to be thrown out by their parents when they are excommunicated at age 15 and 16. The boys crimes maybe to flirt with an girl or breaking one of the cults rules. The older men have to kick out the young boys to remove any competition to their raping the young girls. This cult destroys all, young girls, boys, and young mothers. The only ones gaining are the "religious elder" of the FLDS.

"Spiritual" marriages aren't recognized or legal in the state of Texas; especially if the man is already married.

The house of cards that the FLDS leaders have built is beginning to fall apart.

You said nothing about the rights of the children.

Are children simply property that parents can give away to anyone they choose?

Or do children also have rights?

LetUsReason
Thank you so much for having a decant grasp of reality. I wish people would use their comon senses instead of acting on every feeling or emotion that pops up with in themselves.
These FLDS people are a step back in time. I suggest people take a tour through their family tree history and they would not have to go far to find that older men marrying young ladies was common practice. I think the men that founded and built the nation were respectable and sober minded men. Now these FLDS people have preserved a culture more like our ancesters had. They'er not wrong . They are just different. ...........LEAVE THEM ALONE.

Who is worthy to judge these people...........not you.

There is a difference here between minors who become pregnant and girls who are forced into sex and childbearing by religious leaders. That is the issue, not the religion. If it was just a group of old men solicting sex from little girls, I'll bet you would be all for this raid. My great-great grandmother wass married of as the second wife at the age of 14 to a man nearly 50. She never recoverd from the trauma and the event reverberates through our family to this day. She had no choice and neither do these girls, even though they will swear to high heaven that they are given a free will choice. I hope these "men" get what is coming to them---and it's been a long time coming.

As said earlier, the issue isn't about the group but about what is going on inside the compound. If they want to stick to their beliefs and way of life, they have that right ~ give it to them! But when we learn that someone may be being abused, raped, ect, then it is in our hands to do something about it and not stand back and let them do their thing! Earlier someone said to treat them as we want to be treated....I agree. If I were a kid being abused, wouldn't I want someone to step in and be my advocate! Let people do their own thing ~ they have their rights ~ until they start hurting someone else and so violating that person's rights. It makes me sick. IT IS WRONG!