As a member of the lds not the flds I find this story very disturbing as to that church allowing minors especially girls to marry or make them marry someone they do not love. They think they love this person only because that church tells them so. Why dont they put all of these members who follow marriages that are not only to one spouse but a number of spouses. When we lds members marry inthe temple it is for eternity only to one other not more than one. The flds should go to hell as they are not true believers in heavenly father but they make out that they are the ones that have a very strong faith. No not them maybe they need to read the book of mormon more closely.

THE CHILD IS BETTER OFF IN A FOSTER HOME, HER MOTHER INDEED WAS NOT PROTECTING HER. I'LL BE PRAYING FOR HER AS THINGS GO FORWARD.

When texas did what it did the first time, taking all the children away, I was 4 square on their side. As I have learned more I find these people, this religion does need outside intervention to set right their culture.

Everyone if quite aware of the underage marriage, which I have mixed feeling about because in Utah until a few years ago marrying at 14 with parental permission was legal, but the thing that I find outrageous is that these people this suposed religion of god kicks their young teen boys out of the house and community before they are able to fend for themselves just to make room for polygamy.

People where is common sense, common decency? You call yourself a religion of God, but you do this?

My hat is off to Texas. They have made a few mistakes, but they are trying to do what's right. I hope they are able to work through all the legal mess to give some help to these women and children.

Freedom of Religion doesn't give anyone the right to committ crimes--especially against children. I hope every one of these men are caught and prosecuted. I hope Utah, Arizona, Texas and other states are able to cooperated and share information to finally put a stop to these disgusting practices.

I hope to see the indictments coming.

Mistakes have been made by Texas yes. FLDS have made mistakes also. Texas should be held accountable for its mistakes, if it intends to hold FLDS accountable. Ends do not justify the means. They illegally executed an overly broad search and seizure of an entire community, in an act of gross brutality. But no one cares about human rights abuse so long as they save a girl from getting married a year too early by state's standards.

Indict not only men but women who willingly gave these babies to these men!! A girl 12yrs old doesnt have a clue what marriage is, and Parents BOTH should be punished!
My God even the notes written to Warren Jeffs are those of a child! This kind of religious mockery has got to stop, Children are suffering!!

Why can't people from Texas conduct an intelligent conversation without the "Go Texas" idiotic cheer leading. We all love Texas, but save it for the game.

Love can come to anyone at any age and many times in a life time. It's what one does with that love that's important.

"I am praying to become a Heavenly comfort wife for you."

----------------

Does this mean they were married not for this life, but for the next one? If so, how is this illegal? And wasn't Warren's father spiritually wed to at least one girl after he was dead? Is that child abuse, or just a weird religious practice? A practice not dissimilar to Catholic nuns "marrying" Jesus Christ. I think the state is going to have to establish what is actually going on, instead of jumping to conclusions.

Whoa People! You are relying on information from an unreliable source,CPS. It is only abuse if Warren Jeffs had sex with his alleged victim. There was nothing said about the alleged victim having sex. Remember Common Sense children sufferd when they were taken out of their homes and thrown into the Fort Concho Concetration Camp. Deseret News: It is only news if someone is indicted. Speculation about someone being indicted is non-news and constitutes prejudicial reporting.

It's so sad that the FLDS have stolen the childhood of these young girls and brainwashed them into believing that "god" has told them that their only purpose in life is to be a sexual object for a 50-year-old pervert.

Hundreds of thousands of pieces of evidence? Fishing expeditions, where authorities use vague search warrants to seize anything and everything, that is not specifically spelled out in the warrant is blatantly illegal. The fourth amendment requires that all people, effects and papers to be seized, be spelled out in the warrant. You cannot invade someone's home and search all their possessions in search of any possible unreported crime. The crime must be specific, the evidence seized must be specific to the crime.

There is a right way to conduct an investigation and there is a wrong way. Violating the civil rights of hundreds of innocent people fishing for a few suspected crimes is definitely the wrong way.
Remember the constitution protects the rights of us all, and the governments must be held to those standards or the rights of everyone are in jeopardy.

If there are any convictions that come out of these indictments, there is a real chance they will be overturned since the evidence was obtained illegally.

RE HCW......Jumping to conclusions is the problem with this whole affair.

Sex sells and gets plenty of play but still..........the conclusions jumped to are looking rather plausable.

I have given flds the benefit of every doubt as the CPS have bumbled their way thru this nightmare and still will stand on the constitution and law to defend them.

But heck........look at what might have been going on.......we can give the CPS at least that much.

Children suffered when their original fathers were kicked out of FLDS to, probably much worse than being in Shelter for 60days. AT least their mothers could visit them. When men are xcommunicated, the children are told from that point on their father is dead, never to be spoken of again. This isnt Religion , thats Facism. And shouldnt be allowed in this country.

Civil Rights werent violated, Childrens rights were protected. If you cant see the difference, maybe you need to try another country.

Debbi Evans do you belive in the Doctrine & covenants, If so go read sec. 132.

Well, the FLDS are blogging again. Obfuscation all over the place.

The photo of Warren Jeffs kissing a twelve year old is ample evidence of abuse. That alone is enough for a conviction. An adult in a romantic embrace kissing a child is, by definition, child molestation. No proof of sex is necessary. And, by the way, Warren Jeffs is NOT her husband. The "marriage" was totally illegal and a fraud.

Matt. 18:6 "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones...it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

Sarah, you are right. They have stolen the childhood and innocence of these children and they will be called to account before the judgment bar of Christ.

Warren Jeffs has publicly admitted that he is a FALSE PROPHET. It is time for the FLDS to get out of denial and face the truth.

Well done, Texas. No quarter for child-rapists.

I can't believe how many people here are still sticking-up for child rape.

Sad. Sad. Sad.

Cats said, "The photo of Warren Jeffs kissing a twelve year old is ample evidence of abuse. That alone is enough for a conviction."

Actually, without authentication, it's no evidence at all. The state knows this, and that's why they gave it to the media. They wanted to get some mileage out of it for their smear campaign, since they couldn't use it in court.

I know these people are on the defense. It is only natural and completely understandable. Their way of life is under attack and they don't know what to do. They come on the internet and go on the attack hoping that somehow they can justifify the unjustifiable--somehow they can convince the rest of us that lies are truth and truth is lies. It's really sad.

Actually, I feel a lot of sympathy for them. But, they just have to face reality now and stop this sick way of life. They cannot continue to flaunt the law and victimize innocent women, children OR men.

The ONLY way this will be stopped is if a major catastrophe forces them to face the truth and stop. Their leaders need to face justice and the victims need help.

Former FLDS members often say that they didn't understand the way they had been brainwashed until after they got away. Now they see it all too clearly.

They need help and it is going to take a major effort on the part of law enforcement and family services to get them on the path to healing and freedom.

To: Evidence of Abuse?, What will or will not be admissable in court remains to be seen. However, those photos are PROOF of child molestation! That should be obvious to any FAIR-MINDED, REASONABLE person.

To Evidence of abuse,

They say that pictures are worth a thousand words. In this case they will probably use the thousands of words found in the journals, bishops records and church records to convict. In my heart I know there have been and probably will continue to be crimes against the children. I wish that were not the case but there are ways to hide these "spiritual marriages". I have no doubt they will continue to practice whatever they chose to and the authorities will be none the wiser. So sad that anyone can believe that marrying minors to adults is okay and that marrying them to old men is anything but sick and wrong.

Response to Debbie, They should go to hell? Wow what harsh words.... You need a little HISTORY lesson yourself of the root of their beliefs. You don't know what anyone’s eternal fate is. How secure is yours? Do you think a church will save you? God loves ALL people, and weeps for those who do not know him. The road is narrow. If we continue to bash them, and do not take the time to get to know them, love them, and set an example of kindness, they will never have the opportunity to make better choices for their children.

Whats your name?

Fred.

Fred Jessop?

Yes

What are you in for?

FLDS are nothing but perverts. How twisted and sick the FLDS people are, to use religion for the purpose for raping women and girls. Enough is enough!

it's obvious these people force (through coercion) little girls to be married to old pedophiles. All of you sticking up for them obviously have EXTREMELY bizarre sense of right and wrong.

DO NOT EVER ask to babysit my children. I have NO CLUE what kind of sick perverted things you might dream up in God's name.

by the way, please stop saying these are good parents. They have decided that the only way they can raise decent childen is to hide them from the world. In other words, they are incapable of raising decent children in the real world so they feel the need to hide them and lie to them. And pimp them out to pedophiles.

Unfortunately, in hiding them and pimping them out, they are simply raising more incapable and abusive parents. And the circle continues...

To- Wakeupcall,
section 132 in D&C was a mistake. So give it up! No one believes it anyway. accept for a bunch of perverts!

Hey realitycheck:

No, you and many others who post their comments here are not rational, but are too emotional about this issue. It's a legal matter not an emotional about one-sided selective evidence prematurely claiming judgments with absolute certainty. At this point, and without a trial, you have no reason to believe that what you are emotionalizing is true, yet you do it anyway. I'd like to cross examine you on the witness stand regarding your real knowledge of thee facts and your concepts of "right and wrong" and watch your frail character and presumptuous sense of righteousness become detached and collapse like an unreinforced masonry building in a 8.0 M earthquake. Concepts of right and wrong --- LOL Good grief!! It is about the law not your mob-like emotions and culturally biased ethno and egocentric concepts of right and wrong.

Unfortunately, we all know that people get away with murder and rape and I fear this may happen yet again with the FLDS. It will be very upsetting to see that the law does not protect FLDS children.

Winston Blackmore stated on television that Jeffs was advised by attorneys not to arrange underage marriages. He ignored the advice. So, one could expect that there have been legal discussions as to how to avoid prosecution, when it comes to statutory rape. Fences, guard towers, moving children during the raid, giving false names, indoctrination, obedience all serve to protect abusers.

In order to overcome the well-protected FLDS and end the abuse, Texas was forced to conduct a raid to obtain evidence that may not be fully admissible in court. CPS was not allowed to seize all children from all homes and likewise it may be illegal to search all homes. It is possible that all of the evidence will be thrown out. None of the FLDS victims will testify, so seized evidence is all that Texas has. If this occurs, there is no case and the only punishment these men will incur is the punishment of a criminal trial.

Anyone beleive in Bible without adding to it? Or by using an accompanyment to the bible?
I certainly do! NO I dont beleive in LDS or FLDS doctrine. But I do beleive in a HOLY GOD, who gave us words and wisdom to live by. And some of those words were, Do NOT harm little ones, if you do, you deserve to have a milestone tied around your neck, and drown in the deepest sea.

IS that in your D&C anywhere? If it isnt, along with all the other words spoken by GOD through those he chose to write them down, then regardless your religion, you missed the mark.
I say, Any Mother or Father given the gift of a child, and allows even encourages this type behaviour, she be in prison.

Re: Sleuth...Get another job. The FLDS will run out of money eventually and they won't beable to pay you. And besides you contradict yourself right and left, and who would knows what to believe listening to you? Or what's right or wrong.

Start looking.....

I wish people would stop quoting section 132 to support polygamy. Section 132 refers to the holy covenant of eternal marriage. Although plural marriage is addressed in the beginning of the section, it does not make any kind of statement that plural marriage is necessary for eternal salvation. Anyway, if you believe in all that, you would know that entering into the covenant of plural marriage is not necessary in this lifetime. We will all have a chance if that turns out to be the Lord's wishes, whether in this life or the next. I think this is a case of lack of faith, patience and just plain lust on the part of some men who use it as an excuse to molest sweet young girls.

No one seems to understand that these are uneducated people, brainwashed and mentally controlled in every way. Told what and what not to think.Their told who they can talk to or have any contact with.What to believe in and not to trust outsiders, outside of their own tight knit families.The poor children of the large families aren't feed right. They sleep many to a room, even on the floors. Their not allowed to attend public schools to learn social behavior. Boys are forced to work at a young age not attending Junior High or High School.The kids are not allowed to have their own money. They give what money they get to the head of the house (their father) "It IS ALL ABOUT CONTROL" These mothers and children are afraid to do anything against what the father tells them to do. The Mothers are afraid and really can't protect their Children, if the man wants to do something he'll do it, and the mother has to go along with it or she'll be punished in some way. Their is alot of mental and physical abuse in these homes, and the poor children are suffering.

"...those photos are PROOF of child molestation! That should be obvious to any FAIR-MINDED, REASONABLE person."

A photo is "proof" of child molestation?

Wow...then Bigfoot and UFO's are for real....just look at the hundreds of photos.

Well, I will not bash about this article as there is so much of that already.
But after reading the article I was curious about some things that were written. If anyone can help me understand their meaning I would appreciate it. These question are from the letter that was found on the photograph. "I am prayng to become a Heavenly comfort wife for you" and "I pray I may be worthy to advance"
If someone WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT and not just guessing I would like to know for sure what this means.

Has Merrill Jessop been indicted? If not...why not??? It has already been made clear that he married his daughter to Jeffs...would that make him a party to statutory rape?

In response to RealityCheck,

I hope you are never in need of mercy in this life, for you hold NONE for these people. If you were raised in a community where everyone always followed a particular path, you would most likely follow along. As a parent you would love and want the best for your children. You might question and consider rebelling but if it were a matter of your religious instruction, you just might follow along and think you are correct. Have you ever looked at the FLDS website for the children? Have you listened to the songs and viewed the videos? These are not bad people. They are good parents but they just might be following a bad leader. I just wish they had a chance to consider God and His Word without the Mormon teaching and find their way out towards life on the outside. Of course if they happened to come into contact with people like you, they might not find the outside to be a place of mercy and kindness.....

Common Sense...just so you know, the part in the Bible where it says no one should "add" onto "this book" refers only to the Book of Revelations, not the entire Bible. It's very well known, but certainly not disseminated over the pulpit by money-making preachers, that the Book of Revelations was written before the books of John as well as other books in the New Testament. The Bible is just a collection of various documents found, which wasn't compiled until a few hundred years after Christ's death. The order the documents are placed in is not chronological. So, if you take the notion of not "adding" onto the "book" literally, you'll have to eliminate half of the New Testament. I suggest studying up on your Bible history and using a bit little common sense yourself. You'd be surprised at what you'll discover.

I'm quite fed-up hearing about these young FLDS girls being sent to bed with old FLDS geezers. Any woman in her right mind would realize how "repulsive" that would be- puke puke!. I'm afraid if I said what I am truly thinking about FLDS Men, it would no doubt be censored immediately. So use your own minds and imaginations and don't vomit in the process.

And I have never believed in section... 1:32-D&C...give me a living break!

Yes, Bruce. A photo of a child being molested is proof of child molestation.

Don't try to create a straw-man argument by bringing in Bigfoot and UFOs. Do us all a favor and stop sticking-up for child rapists.

Cats---these people have the right to live however they want.

Before we all go passing judgment, remember that a judge is still in the process of ruling on whether or not the evidence obtained in the raid is admissible. If the ruling is against the State, the whole case will fall apart.

poor Bruce - do you REALLY think it's ok for a 50 yr old pedophile to stick his tongue down a 12 yr olds throat? Do you really not understand just how disgusting that is? Or are you just trying to get a rise out of the people that find this extremely unconscionable?

Or do you think the photo is fake?

Pick one or the other, because no one in their right mind would be ok with this. (We know the FLDS aren't in their right minds, or none of this would have happened.

Wow, there are some very, angry, threatening, FLDS MEN on here. You men need to get out of the bedroom for change. There are other things going on in the world rather than playing alone in your bedroom compound with your forced girl toys.

re Jay 12:21pm

you are quite right. I hold no mercy for these parents. What they do to their children is immoral and unethical, and a direct violation of the children's civil rights. It shouldn't be happening, and they should know better.

If your god (the one that finds this ok) wants to let it slide, so be it. But you won't get that from me. And you certainly won't get it from my God. Every pain cause to innocent people will come back to you in the end.

wow - now I do feel sorry for them.... thanks for that.

Good comments. But I wonder what agenda compels you to keep insisting that these people's problem is Mormonism?

It isn't.

These are people that rejected Mormonism. They live in a state of opposition to the Mormon Church.

We can all agree the bell curve operates in the FLDS population, and that most must be ordinary, decent folks, beloved of God and deserving of His mercy. We can all agree they should mend their ways and comply with the law. But, the wickedness that leads them astray is the opposite of Mormonism.

I think you know that. Why the dishonesty?

Well I guess we can count BRUCE out as a fair-minded, reasonable person. Gosh, who are we going to believe--BRUCE, or our Lyin' eyes?

This is typical of the silly responses and justifications you get from FLDS bloggers. This is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about in my earlier blog. These people are understandably scared. Their way of life is being threatened by the fact that their crimes are receiving national exposure. These people are so brainwashed, they have no idea of anything else. They've probably been assigned to do this by Willie Jessop. It's hard to face the fact that what you have been taught all your life is a fraud.

Thank you to ANON 11:55. You have hit the nail right on the head. Neither Joseph Smith nor Brigham Young EVER taught that plural marriage was necessary for exaltation. This is a myth concocted by men with big egos and big sex drive. These are men who didn't have the faith and humility to follow a TRUE prophet. They had to be in charge. They had to be a prophet. That's what apostates do.

Warren Jeffs has publicly admitted he is a FALSE PROPHET.

Debbie Evans | 4:58

"When we lds members marry in the temple it is for eternity only to one other not more than one.

Not so. If a man's wife dies he can marry another in the Temple. He need not have "divorced" the first. The two will be married to him in the hereafter. Not unlike the FLDS.

To Re: Common Sense: Thank you for your blog. You are exactly right. The Bible is a collection of works, not in chronological order. John is only referring to the Book of Revelations when he says not to add to it. There are many references in the Bible to other books that are currently not available to us. That shows the authors of the Bible acknowledge that there is more truth to be known, not just what is in the collection of works known as the "Bible."

To Tiger Lily: Yes, these people should be able to live any way they want as long as it's their own free choice and they don't impose their will on others. Unfortunately, people who are programmed don't have free choice. Children who are forced into underage marriages before they have the understanding and maturity to know what they are doing, don't have free choice. Girls who are assigned husbands and then watched every minute so they can't get away before their "wedding" don't have free choice. Boys (competition for wifes)who are kicked out of their homes, don't have free choice.

The FLDS have lost the principle of "free" agency.

tigerlily and others who think the FLDS need to be let alone to live how they want: Their way of life includes abusing children and women to please the "priesthood head" (i.e. husbands and fathers). Warren Jeffs has transformed a strange religion into a disturbing, highly abusive cult. There are hints of Hitler in his leadership style.
The FLDS have as much in common with the LDS Church as Spam has with a pig. D&C 132 has nothing to do with the equation. They use polygamy as an excuse for the men to have multiple partners and abuse them and their children if they don't comply.