Reader comments
LDS Church calls request 'erroneous'

I concur with Mr. Trotter's remarks. The question is not whether the LDS church and its members is willing, but rather "what is appropriate and sensitive for the FLDS in this regard?"

FLDS view the LDS as the apostate breakaway. They would prefer to keep the LDS as far away from them as possible. I would think that it would be more culturally sensitive to have suggested a different denomination- or even better, a non-denominational service group.

I agree with Sensitivity. The LDS church is willing to help all people. To tell you the truth, I don't think they would be interested. They have clearly kept to themselves cause they chose to. Where are the other members of that church, why aren't they helping their own. But, the best help they could get is for the guilty to stand up and stop hiding behind the innocent. No church has the right to have beliefs that are against the law of the land. Meaning Polygomy.

Sensitivity: I agee with you the FLDS has many times stated that the LDS is the apostate breakaway and are hostile toward us. The FLDS refuse to except that they are the ones who broke away and are the apostate breakaway church.

It looks like the judge is trying to tie the lds with the Flds, they are to trying to put the burden on someone else because they are feeling the heat, for doing the wrong thing to 99% law bidding FLDS folks at the ranch. The judge and police most likly been planing this raid for a year or so, and the minstery caller, etc. I pray for the children,being away from their mothers and fathers, this should not happen in the USA. arest the whole FLDS Ranch, take them away from their homes and church, not able to go to the Temple, what a wonderful Temple the FLDS built, with skills and wisdom to do this, only from Heavenly Father.
Pray that some day help will come soon, what about their gardens that they need to feed the families. The state of texas realy upset their lives, it hard to belive this could happen in the USA, Wheres the ACLU whos looking after their rights? Shame, Shame

One of the difficulties the LDS Church will have to eventually face up to (vis-a-vis the FLDS Church) is that polygamy (more correctly in this instance - polygyny) was begun and practiced by the LDS. And, to counter the carefully crafted comments of Brother Trotter that the "...the basis that our beliefs and practices are close to those of this polygamous group because they are not." Well, he is at least half-correct - current practice, no; beliefs, yes. It is odd that many LDS do not seem to believe in polygamy yet their canon makes it an eternal eddict. One only has to look at the thousands of genealogical records and Utah obituaries (the latter up until the late 60's) wherein you will find the words "sealed to" (another woman or women). If interested further, read the words of early LDS leaders to see how very specific the practice of having multiple marriages is an "eternal" decree. And, incidentally, Deseret Territory was shrinking mightily until the LDS Church decided to wave the white flag such that statehood could eventually become a reality (in some cases decades after other western states).

KS has stated this well. Brother Trotter is either disingenuous or ignorant of LDS history, teachings, and beliefs. The FLDS are our theological cousins and deserve our assistance if requested.

Doesn't matter between the two - they're both a religion descended from the crazy "prophet" Joseph Smith. How people in today's world can believe all this nonsense is beyond me!!!

"C" you need to grow up.

John writes: The FLDS are our theological cousins and deserve our assistance if requested.

If that is the case I want a religious DNA test! These guys won't even place a picture of Christ on their website and tack up oodles of pics of Warren Jeffs instead. I think if your theory is true, these guys got off on a tangent, became inbred and lost and similarity to what the LDS Church is now. Claiming to continue with a practice that was banned by the Lord, they are no more fit to represent God than Henry the Eighth was when he split off from the Catholic Church, who has a legitimate claim to authority.

James Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, Father Shandly, Warren Jeffs, The truth is all religions are cults. Every one promotes their "brand" of worship as Gods exclusive truth, and God is not happy. You see God loves Evangelicals and Baptists...He loves Mormons too, even the Fundamentalists.

This raid is purely political. After the 2008 Presidential Primary DEBACLE where Mormons and Evangelicals were used as Patsys to kill the Conservative movement in America by canceling out each others vote and electing McCain ( I suppose you all believe what he says instead of looking at his voting record),Hatred and Bitterness between the two groups has reached historical highs. The Gov. of Texas is up for re-election and what better way to win Huckabee supporters than Humiliate the Mormons, even if the call for help was a total lie, and the charges are unproven with no due process or warrant, the children will still be stolen from the arms of their Mothers and their culture, in order to re-elect the Gov. of Texas and satisfy the revenge lust of the Huckabee supporters.

I think I'll Become a Buddist.

I hope who ever is in charge will see to it that this type of going ons where they end up marry their cousins, and any intermarriage are subject to be put away. Look up Fumarase Deficiency and see what happens when intermarriage is allowed. My thought and prayers go out to the children. and the women (who must be brainwashed ) get some couseling and the men have an operation where they can not produce anymore children. I hope the Judge sees that this is not allowed to ever happen again

If the Children are to be adopted then they should go to "Main stream" LDS families. This would cause much less stress on the children as the culture shock would be greatly minimized. My assumption is that they will be given to Evangelical families to satisfy political needs.

I feel like they had something to hide or they wouldn't have their community so isolated from society. I am a Christian woman, but I believe that we should take the WWJD and go for there.

I don't know the ins and outs of the Morman religion, but I do know what our Constitution says. We can believe what we want, worship how we want, as long as we don't break the law by doing so. Satanists cannot murder for their religion, so I don't believe that the FDLA should be allowed to marry or rape underage girls. If a 50 year old man has sex with a 17 year old girl, or younger, within a normal community, we would be horrified and would convict him as a sex offender. I as a mother am so saddened to hear that the children were taken from their mothers, but at the same time, these children were in danger of being sexually exploited. I just wish there was a way to keep the families together without endangering the young ones.