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One phase of FLDS work is complete

Mothers allowing their barely teen-age daughters to have sexual relations with depraved middle aged males is truly abusive. All of their children should be taken away from them in order to keep them from abusing more and more of their children. As for the men, quite simply they need to be imprisoned for a long period of time and the repulsive FLDS sex cult should be required to pay for the cost of imprisoning the men and the cost of putting the children with new parents.

... how on a micro-economic scale, the burden of the FLDS is of great concern, according to this article.

But spread across Utah and Arizona and across the entire United States as a whole, the millions upon millions of welfare fraud and economic burden of this decades-long financially abusing sect has never been a concern.

Just saying.

Mothers allowing their barely teenage daughters to...
...get myspace accounts and post foul language and provocative photos of themselves...
...chat online with older men...
...dress like little prostitutes...
...go to parties and consume alcohol...
...watch hours of mind-numbing televisions and get lazy and fat...
...get pregnant and get an abortion, again and again...

... the list goes on and on. Problem is, these young girls are the ones next door to YOU, or maybe in YOUR HOME. And we, the moral authority, should have every right to simply take them away from you, after running your name through the media mud, of course.

How many "barely teen-age" FLDS girls have been proven to have had sex with "depraved middle-age men" ? Now, how many child rapes does Planned Parenthood cover up every day, and use your tax dollars to do it?

@bcbob:
If all the men are in jail as you desire, then it will be the wives that have to pay the costs. I presume that since you mention the men should be jailed and not the women, you see the men as guilty and the women as innocent. If that is the case, then it would not be correct to have the women pay the price of re-housing the children and jailing the men.

Other arguments that could be used:
1. Both the women and men are guilty and should be jailed.
2. Both the women and men are conditioned by their upbringing and thus are in need of counseling and not imprisonment.

No matter what is chosen from the above, the question remains of who is going to pay.

While I am not FLDS, I do think that outside of real abuse, we do not have the right to judge these people. As for their beliefs and non-abusive practices let God be the judge.

I was disappointed that none of the commentators who came after my contribution to discussion around the Amy Mackert article (3.18 pm yesterday) had anything to say about the plight of the boys who are cast loose from the FLDS on any handy pretext to make way for elders who wish to have multiple wives. For every man with five wives there are four boys who are pushed out into the cold. Come on Deseret News - what about an in depth piece about what these discarded kids think about what has been going on in the Texas ranch?

Time for the State to take away all teenage mothers' babies and put them up for adoption. These anchor babies are such a toll on our welfare system it is time to begin rounding them up and putting them in good homes.

I agree with you. But dont' stop there. I demand that the innercity get raided too. Lot's of teenage mom's there as well. And their mom's were most likely teens when they gave birth. I know grandmothers who are only 28! TWENTY EIGHT. No dad's in sight. No means of support, except your dollar.

Raid them as well. You should not have a double standard.

31 of 53 Girls ages 12-17 are pregnant or have babies. Is anyone still faulting Texas for Raiding this Compound. And some are saying they should leave the ones under 12 because they are not being abused. We do not know that is the case only the fact that they can not get pregnant. Even little boys are molested. Brent Jeffs was by his uncles.

Genocide ----- Texas has committed Genocide

Why aren't we hearing of any arrests of abusive men? It seems Texas is only interested in punishing the victims. Yes, the mothers are victims too. Anyone who has studied abuse knows that it takes little time to break a person's spirit until they don't know anything else, they are numb and accept what their captors tell them. Punishing psychologically (as well as possibly physically and sexually) abused women by depriving them of their own children is further abuse and is totally contrary to teaching them how to stand up for themselves and avoid abuse in the future. Texas is reinforcing the fears that have been put into their heads by their abusers - that the outside world will hurt them.

Where are the experts in psychological abuse of women who could explain how this is not the way? You do not lock up the victims without sending a message that they are to blame for their abuse.

Yes, children need protection, but they would not be at risk staying with their mothers with proper help and counseling. The mothers are not the problem and the fact they didn't know how to protect the children does not make them abusers.

Im glad the CPS finally used their calculators.

When a mental list is compiled of why Utah and Arizona don't go after the sect, the expense is one thing that comes to mind. Both are small states with large FLDS populations.

Comparatively, Texas is a large state with a relatively small FLDS population. Here, it isn't going to blow the budget.

If this all came about because of Rosita Swinton, Texas must wonder how different the outcome would have been if it never got the call and the sect grew to contain thousands of well-guarded FLDS members or if an FLDS member finally broke rank ten years down the road when a raid would have been more costly and massive.

You know what.
If you say the "cult" is illegal, then you certainly can't make them bear the costs of a worldy state seazing the children.

They are no more a "cult" than any other religion in America the free and the brave.

How in the name of humanity can the citizens of Texas, who watched this walled city go up, just pretend things are alright? It seems to me it is a bit like the trains of Jews in Germany when the farmers just kept on working, even knowing murders and abuse were going on right beside them. Hard to believe just what people will accept. Any woman who knowingly sets her daughter or son up for this treatment (and they all know) is as guilty as the men who keep it going.

And, what do these people do for a living? Who supports all those people?

The rumors that we are hearing about the FLDS are the same old rumors that used to run around about the LDS people and their temples. The world is a fickle place and loves a "bad" story. Until the REAl information comes out through the legal system with lawyers and others looking at all the "facts" we still may never know the REAL truth. It is all a travesty...The poor families. I would never want to be in their shoes. By the way, in my community in central Texas we have SUV vehicles with magnetice signs that have popped up. These signs read "Baptist Disaster Relief Team". No Kidding! I have never seen one before this week. I've lived here a LONG time. What do you think the chances are that the Baptists, long time haters of "CULTS!", are jumping to rescue all those lost souls? Think about it...

For the record, I am the author of the 5.14 a.m comment by "Anonymous". I failed to fill in the box at the top by mistake. Although I live in England I am appalled at the treatment accorded to both the girls and boys by the FLDS. My reason for writing about the boys is that it seems to me that their predicament is in danger of being overlooked. There is something rather nasty about old men sharing out the female children among themselves, which is what has been happening in the Texas Ranch, and the LDS is to be admired for resolutely turning its back on polygamy. Likewise the state of Texas is to be congratulated for doing everything possible to bring this abuse to an end.

What are the chances, when the DNA results are in, of a dangerous degree of inbreeding, if not downright incest, coming to the surface?

FLDS apologists are deluded in thinking that simply because there are other pregnant teenaged girls in this country and that other kids that are also abused, that somehow justifies the FLDS in abusing their children.

Stop deflecting and admit that what you have been doing to your children is wrong.

Two wrongs never did make a right.

Stop trying to deflect criticism of your abusive lifestyle.

Stop forcing your daughters to submit to your child sexual abuse masquerading as "religious beliefs."

Stop abusing your sons by forcing them out of your community so that the old men will have less competition.

Stop abusing your families by reassigning them to different fathers.

Stop willfully breaking the law and then expecting the law to protect your "right" to abuse your children.

Thank you for your comment. I think you are right on. This isn't about religion, this is about basic human rights. Percentage wise there are far more pregnant teenagers outside the FLDS and lots of abortions. I am positive many of them with older men met on the Internet.

It is sad that religion has been used as an excuse for pedophilia. But the goings-on at the FLDS ranch is only the latest string of abuses that people perpetrate on others for the sake of belief. What's sad is that this sect is not alone. There are others who practice this type of abuse localy under the name of their particular faiths currently in Utah and other western states. This has only come to light recently, but if the truth be told there are more who are silently, secretly suffering under these twisted, warped religious practices. It is time these others are exposed and investigated, and if necessary shut down. As for the 1st ammendment, nothing in the constitution guarantees the practice of pedophilia!

"If all the men are in jail as you desire, then it will be the wives that have to pay the costs"

I don't think these guys are supporting their wives and children anyways. Most of them are on welfare, the wives that do work have to turn their paychecks over to their husbands.