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FLDS official: No more underage marriages; reunifications begin with the children
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I think that every member of YFZ needs to be shown the jailhouse video of Warren Jeffs - the one that HE begged his brother Nephi to show people - where he announces that he's the "wickedest man in this dispensation," and that he's, "not the prophet. Never was a prophet." And that he's sorry. And all that crap.
Tell me that would at least liberate the minds of the poor women and children who have been herded and treated like currency and cattle! Wouldn't it phase them?
Re Gal50
You made your observation of the number of Utah residents posting on this site and their generaly pro FLDS stance raises a few questions.
Doesn't it figure that this paper will have a preponderance of Utah residents posting.
If the split of opinions is a bit pro-FLDs isn't it a bit natural considering the origin and religion of the residents considering the roots of their religion and culture, and the resulting persecution of their ancestors.
I for one am from Texas and have been reading this paper since the beginning of this mess....have posted very little.
The reason for me posting now is that the SanAngelo paper has suspended the comment section...so much for freedom of speech in Texas.
The pro-con split of Texas natives and Utah natives seems about equal between the two papers.
blogs. and I have noticed that noone on either site condones perversion...they just don't like the means used by Texas to achieve the ends.
Texas has a habit of bullying it's citizens in the court system and law enforcement in more than just this one instance....the Texas prison industry makes a profit off the bullying......Just the way it is.
The early beatings, softening them up for the future...any choice there? The isolation and fear of the outside world as part of your entire life from birth...any choice there? The culling of the males from the herd, the arranged marriage, further beatings for non compliance. Choices? How about your adult right to self determination crippled by the fact that you will never see your children again? Your choice?
These people are running a perverted prison camp. Period. Supporting it is sick. Either we figure this out and draw the line, or I get to open a brothel, sorry I mean religious short term polygamist compound, here in Utah. With a Casino. God, through his prophet (me) says so. And we shall not engage in behaviour as depraved as the FLDS does, and I shall expect such unqualified support from the citizens of Utah for my religious freedom as I see here for the FLDS.
What you fail (miserably) to discuss is that the two children of the mid-west teen will have every opportunity to complete high school, go to college if they want, get a (real) job, choose their spouse, see the world (as much as $ or time allow), choose their religion, choose their view of the world, choose...., choose...., choose... everything.
The children born to FLDS will have no future EVER and no coices EVER.
I'd rather be born into povery and die at 20 than live to be 100 and have every decision made for me. These kids are slaves. Welcome to religious freedom (it's no freedom at all.)
For crying out loud. | 3:13 p.m. June 2, 2008
For the last time people.
1) YFZ is not on welfare
It is about choice....chose to be FLDS and follow the rules, or chose to leave.
Many chose the rules .....others leave.
Some of those that leave chose to use the word "Escape". "Escape" sells more books, stirs up more people, and makes the author a celebrity. Not bad for a former topless dancer and teen mother.
Anna Nichol Smith milked her sympathy train pretty far and set a few examples.....Guess the jessop woman learned a thing or two and didn't have to marry a 90 year old millionaire to make a buck.
Yep...we all have choices....sometimes hard ones.....life changing choices....but we live with the consequences right or wrong.
So this fellow thinks Cults are now religions and Churches...presiding over spiritual marriages are A ok and a bed in the Church for...hmmm is fine also? And now a girl will be 17 or 18 when she is dragged off to marry an old man, that's much better. Fine Job.
The state and the FLDS still need to develop an understanding because some of the laws are not clear. For example, let's say that a girl can monogamously marry with parental consent at 16. The FLDS may think that a parent can give consent to a forced polygamous marriage when a girl is 16 and that isn't true, because a parent can't consent to polygamous marriage.
Hopefully, the parenting class will be comprehensive and legally correct. It may be a good idea for both parties to audio tape the classes. Forced marriages of older teens are almost just as abusive as statutory rape, although not illegal.
Focus on court records which two courts stated CPS and the lower court overstepped. Also stated was that there was no evidence to support the action. The list goes on but you need to do the research and not gossip falsehoods.
RAPE OF CHILDREN IS STILL A FELONY and SHOULD BE PROSECUTED!
ABANDONMENT OF YOUNG BOYS IS ILLEGAL and SHOULD BE PROSECUTED!
WELFARE FRAUD IS ILLEGAL and SHOULD BE PROSECUTED!
Utah desperately needs a NEW ATTORNEY GENERAL!
Oh, she is amusing.
As far as marriage, forced marriages are NEVER legal, but arranged marriages are acceptable.
Who is Billy Dan Carroll and why did he make the news? That is an example of someone CPS trusts.
I does however destroy Judge Walther's methods of removing the children.
CPS should be required to reimburse all FLDS travel costs, loss of income due to visiting children throughout the state, attorney fees, and pain and suffering for separating families for 2 months. Child welfare systems throughout the U.S. need to get the message that it is a crime to trample on parental rights.
Also, I do not think it would do much good. I believe it, because I know that the Prophet is Thomas S. Monson, and Jeffs is a fraud. However, I doubt many FLDS people will trust the authenticity of the jail house video.
You can not deny access to children merrily becuase of the beliefs of the parents. Look up Shepp Vs. Shepp. There may be only one p. It is a case decided by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court by drawing on federal jurisprudence that says teaching children that polygamy is good is not grounds for terminating a father's parental rights even when the mother odjects to it. I have issues with the ruling, but it is law.
No one has to prove they do not get welfare fraud. If you want to accuse them of such, give a reliable source of welfare fraud in Texas. I am beganing to wonder if "Bleeding the Beast" is a real thing or it is something Jon Krakauer made up along with the LDS Church opposing the marriage of white women and black men. Considering the one black guy on my stake's high council has a white wife, as does the black head of the BYU-Hawaii religion department and other black men in the church who hold such offices as Temple Sealer and Bishop, I think I have lots of proof that Kraukauer does not speak the truth.
NOW, can everyone see what happens when people don't listen to a true prophet? The FLDS apostate group refused over a 100 years ago to listen to a "true" prophet, who was Wilford Woodruff, who commanded that the practice of polygamy STOP. The FLDS are damned now for not taking heed to the prophets voice and stopping the practice when the revelation was given to a true prophet. This goes for all of you who are supporters of the FLDS. LISTEN TO THE PROPHET WILFORD WOODRUFF or be damned.
I was making the point that the FLDS children aren't by far the only children in America who don't know who their fathers are.
As for the girl with the two babies, do you seriously think this girl, daughter of a mother in the same type situation, and with 2 kids already at barely sixteen, is going to raise her children in some other culture--one that values education, commitment, and making wise choices--NO--she will raise another generation on welfare. "Drawing" is a way of life that we have fostered in this country for several generations now, and if you haven't seen it, I wonder which reality you live in.
I worked with hundreds of adult probation volunteers, and let me tell you, I saw it all the time. When I did jail visits, I saw the (multiple) girlfriends with children visiting--sometimes several different girlfriends with children the same ages--the same prisoner. Reality!
Good posts but some of these people exhibit such pervasive ignorance it is a waste of time to offer correct information. The obvious, however, is that if they were receiving state assistance of some kind, CPS would have access to their names and ages. The FLDS built that community, including an impressive Temple in less that 4 years with their own money.
CPS has fed the press outrageous stories about this community to advance their own illegal behavior and some of these bloggers keep repeating what they hear because they're too lazy to research the truth. Or they're just full of hatred.
POLYGAMY IS STILL A FELONY and SHOULD BE PROSECUTED!
RAPE OF CHILDREN IS STILL A FELONY and SHOULD BE PROSECUTED!
ABANDONMENT OF YOUNG BOYS IS ILLEGAL and ...........and on and on
Tell me Utah Resident...What church do you belong to, and tell me how you feel about gay parenting...and abortion, and 12 year old girls having condoms handed out to them , and tattoo artists being able to physically disfigure young girls with markings that last for life, and body piercing etc....
Just curious Utah Resident...Look around - child abuse comes in many forms
in many societies. Look at your own world & clean it up.
Hundreds of children were taken from their parents based on a tip from an imposter.
It could have happened to Catholics in a parish with a pedophile priest -- but it didn't. Why? Political power (hard-won) of Catholics. In earlier days, many attempts to separate kids from parents collectively (Native Americans)
I haved noticed that so many of these child-snatchings never result in prosecutions. The standard of proof is lower. To convict, it is "beyond reasonable doubt."
I hope the children (who appear loved) are feeling safe back with their obviously relieved and loving mothers.
"had I not seen the pictures of Warren Jeffs making out with a little girl,"
I would be very suspect of that picture turning up, - only after CPS had lost the first round in the higher courts...Why wasn't it put out at first?
I think it was a desperation move on the part of CPS...the face being blurred out (conveniently) so you couldn't determine age. As far as height, she was short, but so am I. Jeffs is very tall.
As far as that x-LDS woman who has been responsible for all the salacious scandalizing of the Ranch and it's inhabitants, I have about as much faith in her 'testimony' as I would in Satan himself. I will trust none of the testimony of any of the children (on child molestation) after the state and CPS psychologists get their hands on them for the �programing� they are so adept at...Why else do you think they want to take them �off the ranch� when they do their psychology on them. They have a bias, and really �need� these kids to have been abused
So they won�t look like the Keystone Nazi Brigade they actually are.
What? Still investigating? Are they waiting for Rozita Swintons DNA?
What causes child abuse is the kind of hysteria, and witch-hunting that just raised it's ugly head in TEXAS and horrifically abused over 400 women and children to a degree they have never suffered in their lives.
You people who would give unfettered control to the state to determine your neighbor and his children's life are hypocrites and are the first ones to cry foul and run to attorneys when you feel 'your' rights are being infringed upon. You dig out the Constitution then, don't you?
Texas has a bad name for being a brutal regime....and it's getting worse. Texas hangs them, and has their trials later.
And a little torture on the way...Nice guys!
Dubya started a war in Iraq, why don't all you Texas cowboys/girls with your tanks and guns go there and fight. Show us how brave you are then - leave the FLDS women and children alone.
I NEVER said, nor intimated, these fahers were molesting their own children.
But, these FATHERS are molesting underage neices, step daughters, cousins and anything else that bthey can get "spiritual" with.
I have posted on EVERY FLDS news item about my support of children being with family...BUT, Adult men who have sex with, and father children with, underage girls having MY contempt poured all over them.
Trashy men have sex with underage girls.... These men actually deserve the death penalty, IMHO.
Stop acting like you men are victims here.
You are trash. You can't hide behind the Constitution like the women and children rightfully did.
You ran off into the brush; hiding from authorities, If you had stepped forward like REAL men, instead of trashy bottomdwellers, you perhaps could have ended this sooner.
You men are sorry trash dwellers.
from an LDS who has a good moral compass.
I look forward to learning which FLDS members the grand jury that sat today indicted.
Is Willie in trouble, is he one of the cases for the grand jury today?
Why did he change his mind so quickly?
For those who continue to lable everyone who won't go along with your lynch mob mentality as FLDS or as someone somehow aiding perversion, I ask you to honestly look at the facts in this case, sort out the sensationlism and hysteria created by the media circus and look to your own prejudices.
"The Houston Chronicle has reported that not one of the nearly 3,000 residents of Schleicher County, where the Yearning for Zion Ranch is located, is receiving state assistance."
also, from the Dallas News:
Here are the recent findings of the Texas special Senate Finance Committee by head of Social Services himself, Albert Hawkins. Child Protective Services falls under Social Services, so it's in his best interest to try to claim the FLDS have received public assistance, even if minimal, but he says they have received none:
"Do sect members in Texas get on welfare or obtain other forms of public assistance, asked Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound. State social services czar Albert Hawkins said a state review showed that sect members haven't sought public assistance."
This was revealed when Warren Jeffs was arrested; there was an examination into the funds he controlled.
Indeed, if this had turned out to be true, then the YFZ ranch could have been taken away! But it's not true; repeat; THE RANCH LAND FOR THE RANCH WAS PURCHASED BY THE PRIVATE WEALTH OF AN FLDS MEMBER WHO MAKES AIRPLANE PARTS; he even has a military contract! (I can now see all these "good Christians" going absolutely bonkers over this and trying to find out who he is and ways to end his contract.)
Also, I'm sick-and-tired of too many people making the claim that only other LDS-types are supportive of the FLDS. That is not so. Indeed, I am what Michael Savage freely calls a "Red Diaper Doper Baby." I'm an Atheistic Jew from NEW YORK CITY that has a very fine appreciation of Witch Hunts conducted by various levels of government, of which this is very clearly one of them.
Yes, the FLDS are weird. That said, the US Constitution applies to them, too.
The FLDS bully, Willie Jessop is nervous now, i saw that in his speech today. He says they will have no more under age marriages...WOWSERS he even admitted it-- NO MORE UNDER AGE MARRIAGES...lol! I wonder if the FLDS gals can now pick and choose their own man, and fall in love and marry to whom they please? Of course, when they are of a proper age to do so.
Are they sure Nancy Dockstade is her mother.
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Think about it. If CPS had started trying individual cases from the get-go instead of gathering them all up, then half of that YFZ ranch would have disappeared before even being identified, and the culture would have continued in its secrecy.
Now that their identities are pinned down, they'll become recognized felons if they try to escape Texas. Good luck holding onto their kids if THAT happens.
Walther has her hands tied, but I commend her bravery. I'm glad the kids are back, and I'm glad the parents have to go to counseling. I'm glad the investigations are continuing.