Posted on 04/06/2008 5:27:22 AM PDT by SkyPilot
Local and state officials entered the temple of a secretive polygamist sect late Saturday, said lawmen blockading the road to the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado.
The action comes hours after local prosecutors said officials were preparing for the worst because a group of FLDS members were resisting efforts to search the structure.
The Texas Department of Public Safety trooper and Schleicher County sheriff’s deputy confirmed that officials have entered the temple but said they had no word on whether anything occurred in the effort.
The incursion into the temple caps the three-day saga of the state’s Child Protective Services agency removing at least 183 women and children from the YFZ Ranch since Friday afternoon. Eighteen girls have been placed in state custody since a 16-year-old told authorities she was married to a 50-year-old man and had given birth to his child.
Saturday evening, ambulances were brought in, said Allison Palmer, who as first assistant 51st District attorney, would prosecute any felony crimes uncovered as part of the investigation inside the compound.
“In preparing for entry to the temple, law enforcement is preparing for the worst,” Palmer said Saturday evening. They want to have “medical personnel on hand in case this were to go in a way that no one wants.”
Apparently as a result of action Saturday night at the ranch, about 10:15 p.m. Saturday, a Schleicher County school bus unloaded another group of at least a dozen more women and children from the compound.
Although members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, have provided varying degrees of cooperation to the sheriff’s deputies and Texas Rangers searching the compound, all cooperation stopped once authorities tried to search the gleaming white temple that towers over the West Texas scrub, Palmer said.
“There may be those who would oppose (entry) by placing themselves between law enforcement and the place of worship,” Palmer said Saturday afternoon. “If an agreement cannot be reached … law enforcement will have to — as gently and peaceably as possible — make entry into that place.”
Sect members consider the temple, dedicated by then-leader of the sect Warren Jeffs in January 2005 and finished many months later, off-limits to those who are not FLDS members, said Palmer, who prosecutes felony cases in Schleicher County.
Palmer said she didn’t know the size or makeup of the group inside the temple.
The earlier refusal to provide access was even more disconcerting because CPS investigators have yet to identify the 16-year-old girl or her roughly 8-month-old baby among the dozens removed from the compound, Palmer said.
“Anytime someone says, ‘Don’t look here,’” she said, “it makes you concerned that’s exactly where you need to look.”
The girl told authorities in two separate phone calls a day apart that she was married to a 50-year-old man, Dale Barlow, who had fathered her child, Palmer said.
The joint raid included the Texas Rangers, CPS, Schleicher County and Tom Green County sheriff’s deputies and game wardens from the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife.
Although CPS and Department of Public Safety officials have described the compound’s residents as cooperative, Palmer disagreed.
“Things have been a little tense, a little volatile,” she said.
Authorities removed 52 children Friday afternoon and 131 women and children overnight Friday. About 40 of the children are boys, said CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner.
No further children have been taken into state custody since Friday, when 18 girls were judged to have been abused or be at imminent risk for abuse. CPS has found foster homes for the girls, Meisner said, and will place them after concluding its investigation.
Meisner declined to comment on the fate of the 119 other children and said authorities were still searching the ranch for others Saturday evening.
“They’re in the process of looking,” she said. “They’re literally about halfway through.”
I am glad you are amused I have had this wicked cold for a week now which hit just about every organ in the body...
I don’t wish this on anyone it is a doozy
It all started when I defended resty on a biblical point she made about Jesus being a descendant of polygamists. Somehow it devolved into a discussion about whether Jesus is biologically related to Mary. The next thing you know there was a discussion about whether Jesus was mystically transported from the womb directly to the manger.
The whole thing sounded like new age, gnostic, mysticism to me. The next thing we'll be hearing is that Jesus' body was not really flesh and bone.
Too deep for me this hour of the night...
I’ll read it later today...
Good night...
:)
The 2nd sentance of your post doesn’t quite jive with the 3rd.
There was a whole thread on that once. I'm surprised that story hasn't been updated to include an angel slipping Him a bottle.
You sounded pretty judgemental to me. Further, I was merely stating the Truth. Free Will, given by God, allows us to choose our paths. I never called you a heretic, you interpreted it that way yourself. Or do you DENY that God gave us free will and the ability to make whatever choices we do? Considering that you left out the statement I was responding to when you quoted my response, it indicates a bit of intellectual dishonesty on your part. Word games are not very becoming of a “Good christian”, mormon or otherwise.
***
First of all you jump in on something that has been going on for over a year this is not just a drive by thread I was here by my self before my nemisis showed up.
So statements I make are froma long trail of of being ambushed by a few here over and over. You really don’t know who is who to be fair so to have an assessment until after a few weeks you should hold judgement.
Since you are jaded on the LDS I am sure you will side with them.
—”The Spirit of the Lord has witness to me, thank you!”
The great cry of every person who thinks they have all of the answers, and who thinks to present us poor fools with their great wisdom. My response...
I have no market on the Lord and this gift is given to all who are sincere and with a contrite heart it is a personal thing between you and the Lord.
You can just assume that it is PRECISELY what I am doing to you right now.
How tall are you at least Napoleon height?:)
That was a joke </h humor off
You are a waste of people’s time, and reading your posts is a waste of bandwidth and probably kills a few brain cells in the process.
This kind of silly retort is very non productive only met to hurt from a person like who says he is a Chirstian but can not hold the tongue, really it is an automatic response I know I have the visit from the same spirit who urges one to do that, but I have been trying to subdue that voice of ill will!
Thanks PM, for the clarifying this so others could understand!:)
You're joking, right? Please tell me you're joking.
Sorry but it is not unanswered. If Mary simply and only carried Jesus she would not be his biological mother and he would not be a descendant of David or Abraham in any physical way. That would suggest he was physically a new created being with no biological relationship to any human beings. That scenario is clearly not the case in the scripture and would defy prophecy.
This isn't, and wasn't, Waco II.
The state if Texas had ample reason to remove those girls. For one thing, the founder of this "retreat" is Warren Jeffs. He was to have resigned 5 months ago as President, but not really "resigned". Read for yourself:
Jeffs gained international notoriety in May 2006 when he was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution on Utah state charges related to his alleged arrangement of extralegal "marriages" between his adult male followers and underage girls. He was arrested in August 2006 in Nevada, and agreed to be taken to Utah for trial. In May and July of 2007 the State of Arizona charged him with eight additional counts—including sexual conduct with minors and incest—in two separate cases.[5] His trial, begun early in September of 2007 in St. George, Utah, lasted less than a month, and on September 25 the verdict was read declaring him guilty of two counts of rape as an accomplice.[6] On November 20, 2007 he was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years to life and has begun serving his sentence at the Utah State Prison.[7] Jeffs reportedly resigned from the presidency of the FLDS Church on the day he was sentenced, but due to this narrowly crafted statement by his attorneys: "Mr. Jeffs resigned as President of the Corporation of the President of The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Inc., on November 20, 2007." it is possible that Warren Jeffs is still heading the FLDS church, as the statement does not report that he stepped down as prophet of the church.[8
Next, here was a news update from last night:
Search Continues at Polygamist Compound
Many people at the compound, built by followers of jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, are related to one another and share similar names; investigators said in some case they were giving different names at different times. Investigators on Sunday bused them out of Eldorado, nearly 200 miles northwest of San Antonio, as other law enforcement agents continued to search for more children and evidence at the 1,700-acre compound, the former site of an exotic game ranch.
Clearly, there is deception going on by the FLDS to hide identities - but even more telling is the fact that the authorities are actively searching for the girl who blew the whistle on this cult and its illegal practices. You can be darn sure the FLDS child abusers know her importance to this case. I fear for her life. If she is not in hiding, she may be in great harm. Also, the authorities may already have in in protective custody and are not going to tell the media. There are an estimated 60,000 FLDS cult members in the US. I would protect this girl, and her upcoming testimony, with the greatest possible security.
"Please tell me you're joking."
As strange as it sounds, Mormon doctrine actually places Jesus in the Americas. But as Mormon doctrine funkiness goes, that tidbit pales in comparison to other goodies.
“you’d have to deny the Mormons, the JWs, Scientologists, Moonies from owning property...”
What criminal activites are they accused of?
You’re correct, Mormon doctine does place Jesus in the Americas, which is not strange at all. I was referring to the bit about “sailing the seas” there before his ascension into heaven. That part is B.S. It amuses me when people try to explain other faiths’ doctrines when they obviously have no idea what they’re talking about, and make themselves look silly in the process.
I will blow all day LONG about the forgiveness and healing available for the hart!!
The 35th chapter of Isaiah contains a beautiful description of the peaceful kingdom which Christ will one day establish in the earth; and among other things it is said,
"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped; then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing."
That's my aim.
My 2*4 gets a bit tiring to wield; as it consists mainly of LDS publications vs Bible authority.
I told my mother that I've learned that the LDS 'church' is UNTRUE.
Is it sanctimonious of me to try and get a clarification from you (or ANY LDS member on this thread) about just what Joseph Smith felt was UNTRUE about Presbyterians as he claimed?
Well done; Grasshopper!
As he spins, rolls and breaks yet another tackle...
(And the CROWD goes WILD!!!)
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