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3 FLDS members surrender in Texas

I am an out-of towner, so I feel free to comment on this situation. Like Dr. Phil says, get real! No man in their right mind would think it is appropriate to have this kind of relationship with an underage girl. I feel bad for the girls who obviously have been subjected to mind control since their childhood, and these men have been granted way too much power and authority to influence lives of the unassuming. I pray for the young women who have the courage to say "enough" and get out of Dodge.

Some people thought they forgot these two.

Saved the best for last.

I think you've got it all wrong, Fran. You're one of those people who watch the media and think that they are a truthful organization. I hope that more girls get married in that society than go out in our present day society and get pregnant at 14, 15, 16 and then go get an abortion because they can't afford the baby because their boyfriend won't pay child support. I just think it's amazing how everyone is soooo wanting to help the underaged girls when they are the ones that get scoffed at when in public places! By the way, there has never been one abortion, murder, robbery, domestic violence, welfare fraud, homosexuality, STD's, identity theft, child abuse(unless there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt, which I seriously doubt:), maufia groups, pent houses ever seen at the ranch!! Get a life Fran.

You are right about the world not being a pretty place to be. There is plenty of sin to go around. But that does not excuse the culture of the FLDSers. They, too, would be better off to get out of the plural wife and teenage bride business.

Jim, Jim, Jim,
WAKE UP!

Are you just trying to justify your own current lifestyle? Sounds like it!

You're wrong Jim! There have been proven cases of welfare fraud, bigamy, domestic violence, SEVERE child abuse, sexual abuse, and on and on. There was this one eye witness account, confirmed by others, of the husbands taking babies about one year of age and putting them face up under a tap of running water. If the baby cried he hit it and put it back under water. This often went on for well over an hour till the child passed out from exhaustion. This was done to male babies to instill in them a fear of their patriarch so they would never stand up their abusive fathers. If the mother did anything to interfere with this practice she and her children would get punished, usually through physical abuse or food depravation. I could go on and on with many accounts like these and only a sick pedophile pervert would defend a group who does this to children.

These young girls do not know any better. They have been taught one "truth" all their lives and do not know there is another way. This is abuse. And Jim, never say "never". I would bet the house that there has been at least 1 domestic abuse, welfare fraud, and STD at the ranch. Just because it's not been reported doesn't mean it hasn't happened.

so what will happen to these men? Will they actually go to jail and sit there, or will they end up on the sexual offender list in Texas. It doesn't matter where you hide in this world, there is always be underaged sex or marriages, no matter how hard any state trys to stop it. Like one mentioned in a post, there are girls all over the US that are pregnant at as young as 12 or maybe even younger. I am not making excuses for these men's actions and they should be held accountable for their actions. But, some where along the line, the younger FLDS men need to be educated about what could happen if there is under age marriages. Yah, sure some think that would be dumb, but charging the flds men thousands of dollars to bail them out of jail, won't put an end to their business. Seems funny that after 110 yars of practicing polygamy and under age marriages, the state of Texas finally cares after a prank call. If the flds wanted to hide under aged marriages, then why keep documentation of weddings and other information? did they want to get caught? Beats me

Sounds like you drank the cool aid!

I do not know if the group has been making young girls marry for a long time, or if this is new to Rulen. But if it is a long time practice, then it is obvious that even the men have been brainwashed, since childhood. All cultures "brainwash" their children to a degree, but some are harmful and dangerous, some are uplifting and a safe path.

I can think of two groups that have a lot of child mothers, young girls having children. The one group is the FLDS, doing it in the name of religion and in their minds eye, it is legal and spiritual. The other group is particularly one race where by all appearances, they find it of great worth to get pregnant in their young teens and to have three before they are 18. Of course there is multiple fathers and absent father, with the FLDS, those kids don't know their fathers either.

It is a shame that the law doesn't come down on all teen girls who are having babies, I guess they just want to go after the ones in the name of religion, not ethnic traditions.

@mel

If there is this really awful severe child abuse going on, then why have they returned all the children? They had a spy on the ranch for like a year and they still couldn't find enough abuse to get them out. I believed that the FLDS was on welfare and through this fiasco I found out they weren't. Uneducated people say things about MY religion (LDS) that are not true. This whole thing has been a fiasco. Geez.

Maybe some truth will come out and expose the government do-gooders for what they are. Anything for a dollar. They don't really care about these folks. They are embarresed about the fiasco of a raid, and now they just want to get even. Let these folks alone!!

If someone abuses a child, and is proven guilty, they must pay the penalty....period! But don't be so damn foolish as to believe every "eye witness" account as truth. Remember the incident in which a falsehood was broadcasted around about you? A lot of people believed it and a lot of damage was done, and even though you knew it was a lie, the instigator believed otherwise. Did that make it true?

Secondly, even if this type of abusive behavior happened in one family, does not prove it is a pervasive pattern of abuse used to indoctrinate a religious fear of the patriarch in every household, as you would have us believe.

If you're that gullible, I can put you in contact with some Nigerian scam artists that would love to communicate with you.

I'm so happy to see these old dogs turn themselves in. It was just a matter of time until the atthorities caught up to them. Anyway, they are too old to run any longer..lol! Nonetheless polygamy is so very sick and VILE!

I'm truly sorry for the young girls who have been raped and violated by these old fools. God will take care of them in the end.

those that love to see people surfer and cover up there wrong doing and accuse others meaning the (State of Texas) are guilty of the thing they accusing others of doing they will be despised by those that flattered them

now i say 1891 is a long , long , long time to develop a system until it becomes more like a whale then an elephant in the room...but there are a heck of alot of other groups in this state so I's be a keeping my eyes wide open from now on!

These guys were indicted weeks ago. It must take a long time to say goodbye to all those wives and kids.

Looks like you are the only one here who has a clue. The real cool aid drink is the media. The media can't report anything in an unbiased fashion. They have to sensationalize and exaggerate everything to draw more viewers so they can make more money off their ads.

How the media covered this election is a perfect example. Completely one sided. If Americans were smart, they would stop buying newspapers, watching the news, and turn off the radio during the news flashes. Frankly, I don't spend any money on news. Blogs is the place to go if you want to get all sides of the story. Most people say "both" sides of the story, but most stories have more than two sides.

First, Most educated people capitalize their name.

Second, polygamist communities have far less crime than the rest of America. You sound like you are getting your information from the Gossip, I mean the Jessop girls.

Third, just because someone defends a group doesn't mean they are part of or behave anything like that group.

Bigamy shouldn't even be a crime. When a society like Texas allows bisexual orgies to happen, and then they go after these people on bigamy charges. . . . well, that's just religious persecution.

Every society has SEVERE child abuse. If you find one or two cases, it is sad, but that doesn't mean you go in and hold guns to the heads of everyone in that society, and take the all the children without looking into the situation.

Even if the officials do find some abuse, the abuses would have to be significantly larger than those in normal society for them to even be an issue. How many underage age brides have they found? Last I checked, Texas had one suspected underage marriage out of 400 children. Looks like this boils down to a few perverted religious leaders, just like in the Catholic church.