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This won't be 'another Short Creek'
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Same answer - Of course not!
"We didn't invite them here, but by God we are going to make sure they follow the law," Hilderbran said. "This violates Texas values and our lifestyle and the way we see traditional relationships. We are not going to tolerate it."
'nuff said.
You can't legally hold all people of a group responsible for what one or some do.
I didn't say there was a monogamous household on the ranch, their lawyers did. Since this is easy to verify, I doubt their lawyers would make it up. But we shall see.
As for the law being changed from 14 (13 only by a judge) to 16, this was to provide for parents of kids who had gotten into "trouble" voluntarily. It became clear after the FLDS moved in that it had the potential to enable child abusers and rapists.
Go Harvey! Go Texas. Thanks for having the courage that others lacked! Texas can be forever known as protecting women and children from pligs and their meglomania and abuse. The.Great.State.of.Texas. God bless her forever.
There is no excuse for underage pregnancy, even if it's Baptists practicing it.
That's still underage girls being pressured into marriage to fulfill religious purposes (covering the shame of single motherhood), only when non-"Mormons" practice it lots of Texans are willing to go to the bat for them.
I ask again, do they not have adoption in Texas? Because I fail to see any common sense in marrying off a child just because she pregnant simply because you're afraid of what your neighbors think. This particular Texan mentality doesn't seem so different from the FLDS to me.
Go Texas!
Texas was just one of many factors that triggered the Mexican War, and once the war started the US Army made it into Mexico City just fine without Texas' help.
Get over yourselves.
There can be no PROOF, in any case, until there has been a trial.
Until then, all we have is evidence and PROBABLE CAUSE.
That doesn't mean that people aren't allowed to look at the evidence so far and form their own opinions.
For PROOF of abuse, look to your leader, Warren Jeffs and his many followers who have already been convicted of child abuse for similar offenses.
Yeah, 14-year-old folks.
Marrying kids that are too young to legally have a job and expecting them to raise a child of their own is not my idea of welfare for women or children, whether it's FLDS or Southern Baptists, who marry their pregnant daughters to keep the neighbors from shaming them. I don't see how anyone can possibly call that "helping" the daughter is beyond comprehension, but not important to the point at hand.
What irks me about this case, and I think a lot of others, is how so many Texans come to bat for their own dirty laundry but at the same time cry horror at the FLDS take on child marriage.
I think many commentators here could stand for more objectivity and less hypocrisy. Until then, it's clear that this entire boondoggle is nothing more than religious bias. FLDS made the neighbors nervous and the state took care of it at their first opportunity.
If you want to find teenagers at risk, raid a clinic.
You had better learn your law a little more before you start lecturing. Marriage age of 14 is based on English Common Law and was extent throughout the various states (with some variations). In fact, a number of states back in the 1800s had 12 as the age of consent for the girl and 14 as the age of consent for the boy because the original English Common Law had those ages.
During the 19th century the laws were slowly changed wih the age creeping up to 14 and 14, respectively. Even so, some states had the age several years older while some states continued until the first decade or so of the 20th century to have the ages young (like 12 & 14 or 14 & 14). It has only been in the 20th century (and now 21st century) that the expectation for age of marriage/consent has risen to the older ages. That was because of the extension of childhood and the urbanization of the nation in general.
More agrarian and traditional societies have always had a younger age of consent than more urban societies.
Texas law enforcement establishment credo:
FLDS girls have children at a young age. They are wicked and bad and we won't tolerate them because they believe in weird things and wear long dresses and no makeup. Let's raid their church building and take away their children and mothers.
Inner-city girls have children at a young age. They are to be supported and accepted because they are only reflecting the culture they were brought up in. They dress like prostitutes, do drugs and wear tons of makeup, but at least they don't have any funny religious beliefs. Let's send them a bigger welfare check each month and subsidize their rent. Then fight any effort by the state to separate them from
their children.
Anybody else smell the rank double standard?
everybody knows | 3:00 p.m. April 28, 2008
the Mexican War couldn't have been won with out the MORMON BATTALION. you're welcome, Texas..."
?
"...For years, Mormons viewed the Mormon Battalion as an unjust imposition upon the Mormons, and as a further act of persecution by the United States (Carrington 1857, p. 5)..."
"...Approaching Tucson, in future Arizona, the battalion nearly had a battle with a small detachment of provisional Mexican soldiers on December 16, 1846..."
"...Nearing the end of their journey, the battalion passed through Temecula, California during the aftermath of the Temecula Massacre..."
Ummm..thanks for nearly getting into a battle, and for arriving after another one and watching the dead get buried?
Child Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar says 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 were living on the ranch in Eldorado. Of that group, 31 already have children or are pregnant.
Child welfare officials say there was a pattern of underage girls forced into "spiritual marriages" with much older men at the ranch.
Loving parents who were concerned about protecting their children from the evil "outsiders"? Or child abusers?
Okay, 53 girls at risk.
How many kids did CPS actually take away? 400 or so?
Here's my suggestion for Texas:
(1) Get evidence
(2) Prosecute the males responsible.
(3) Let the rest of the church get on with their lives and live where they see fit.
As I understand it, Young (or some other high church officials, or their representatives) actually engineered the recruitment of the Mormon Battalion through quiet negotiations in Washington. Lots in the US government didn't think the Mormons were sufficiently loyal to serve in the army, but Young realized that their salaries were desperately needed for the trip west.
1) We are, thanks.
2) We have cells (and cellmates!) ready and waiting.
3) Fat Chance. Why would we return children to the cult to be abused as soon as they turn 12? (Besides, there aren't many adults who will get past 2) above.)
Kindest Regards,
Texas
Of course they have something to hide. This country has, unconstitutionaly, made polygamy illegal. And yes I say unconstitutionally because polygamy is a tenant of their religion whether the rest of society believes it or not. If any of these men attempt to stand up for their rights they will be told that they don't have any and be convicted for living polygamy that is why there is no way of saying that this raid is not based off of a relious biase and is ranks of religious persecution.
I tend to agree. FLDS, regardless of how much their rights have been trampled, aren't nominees for any good citizen awards. And Texas, my goodness, "found" another child in their custody today--and said it was because it's easier to get a better count in foster homes. Ohhkay--I don't think any adult (or gov't agency) that cannot count should be trusted with 400-something children.
The difference is that CPS is a government agency, is supposed to employ qualified personnel, and will ultimately be accountable for this sort of thing. FLDS, well nobody really expected anything of them.
But at least those numbers are going up rather than down.
I would appreciate it if you would help me understand how you can compare this action with Hitler's Germany, yet the FLDS takes children away from it's men constantly? Along with property and wives, which are also considered property, Jeff's rules that if a father isn't forthcoming with his tithing plus $1000/month, or with his young daughters, or if he makes a statement the leaders don't care for he's gone without the ability to appeal the decision.
The FLDS men in Texas will have the opportunity to appeal. The Hitler's Germany comparison seems better connected to Colorado City, than Texas.
Don't you think that if God wished all men to have 3+ wives, the female to male birth rate would be 3 to 1? I doubt God wishes that 2/3 rds of the men be banished.
Some of us aren't FLDS apologists so much as we are civil libertarians who realize that what's happening to the FLDS now could easily happen to us in a few years. If Texas wants to prosecute, then prosecute. But play by the rules.
Incidentally, the second paragraph of your post is a classical "et tu" logical fallacy.
2. Why did Warren Jeffs harp so much on Black people being a conduit of evil, when Elijah Abel and others were ordained to the priesthood? Abel's activities were not restricted until the 1840s and both a son and grandson of his held priesthood office after him, yet everyone knew. Mormonism under Joseph Smith did not specifically ban Blacks from the priesthood.
3. Didn't President John Taylor quiety drop the Adam-God Doctrine, that President Brigham Young taught?
4. On the FLDSTruth.org website, they describe Lorin Wooley as claiming in 1923 that, "The resurrection is going on. There are those I have known in life who have passed away, and I have since seen and shaken hands with them." What are the implications of that?
Having been raised in Texas for 17 years as a boy I can only say...
Texas is a good place to be FROM...
won't ever live there again...
in this case they have TRULY overstepped their authority...it IS timeoforachangeNOW
Peace I bring unto you.
Love one another.
Love your enemies.
I don't always like Texas, but if you're in any state other than Utah or Arizona, and the CPS workers find underage pregnant girls, YOU BETCHA THEY'RE GOING TO TAKE THE KIDS.
If the FLDS were actually "Mormons", then here's what they should believe in:
1. The 12th Article of Faith (obeying and sustaining the law).
2. That polygamy and statutory rape are both illegal in Texas.
3. That President Thomas S. Monson is the ACTUAL Prophet, Seer, and Revelator today.
4. That President Willford Woodruff was correct when he received the Manifesto from the Lord, and it would have countermanded any "claim" by President John Taylor when supposedly gave four men the power to practice polygamy (which the "claim" doesn't exist).
I have the sympathy for those brainwashed women and children in Stepford, Texas. They need constant therapy from hereon out.
The following statistics (www.dshs.state.tx.us/famplan/tpp.shtm) were taken from an official Texas website. Every ten hours a 14 year old gets pregnant in Texas. This begs the question, �How many children born to these teens were taken from their mothers? How many �good ol� boys� were prosecuted for statutory rape?�
�Medicaid paid for 173,226 deliveries in Texas at an estimated total cost of $420 million . . . Approximately 10% of these deliveries were to teen mothers aged-13-17, at a cost of $41 million . . .
Every 10 minutes, a teen in Texas gets pregnant.
Every 10 hours, a 14-year-old teen gets pregnant.
Every 3 hours, a 15-year-old teen gets pregnant.
Every 10 minutes a teen gives birth.
Every 48 minutes a teen has an abortion. . . .�
A wise man once said, �He who is without sin cast the first stone.� It would appear from the above facts that your glass house is about to get stoned for a policy of �social imperialism� engineered by a Baptist Legislature and unilaterally enforced on an ethnic minority.
The Constitution is a pretty big stone Mr. Hilderbran and its coming your way . . .
can you possibly imagine, a ten year old little girl in bed with a 50 year old man, or any man. can you picture this disgusting scenario in your mind? some of you have little girls, some of you were little girls. at what age does a little girl quit being a little girl? is it at the time she is forced into the bed of a man she married,and then 9 months later she experiences the excruciating pain of childbirth? accepts the life style she was born into,, because thats all she knows. crying herself to sleep at night, after she has been violated over and over. having been programed that her role in life was to bear as many children as she can, so her little girls can become victims of these monsters just as she had, and her sons, what about them ? kicked out at the tender age of 14,never to see their family again, all under the disguise of a religion.
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