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.”
Dang!!
Did I blink and miss the OFFERING of an apology?
I said why I thought that Plural marriage was a beautiful thing when done under the blessing of Heavenly Father did you read it?
Yep. Just shows anything is possible, huh?
Yet another example of your bile. Lighten up; enjoy life. This is my last post to you. God bless you.
Then EXPLAIN why you are so upset???
You post mumbo jumbo but never ever answer a simple question!
If you do not understand or know the answer then don’t pretend that people are being UNKIND or WICKED!
Most of us here don’t understand how LDS could be so upset about FLDS when they are only following J.Smith.....yet argue at the SAME TIME that Polygamy is BEAUTIFUL!!
Instead of blowing smoke.....tell us WHY the FLDS are WRONG?
Just answer the question and stop using the victim mentality when you don’t HAVE an answer.
Just be HONEST FOR ONCE!
McCain might have considered Mitt for VP but the Huckabee clan was vehemently opposed it!
So now the mud starts flying again
LOL. You say bile.. I say truth. I am quite comfortable, with anyone who chooses to, looking back over the exchange between you and I.
God has already blessed me, many many times. But I appreciate the sentiment, and wish you the same.
Farewell.
Excellent use of CAPS!
And yet, LDS members are crying and whining; wanting to be considered CHRISTIAN by the rest of us!
WE sure don't want to be 'misrepresented' either!!
BTW...
...just what was wrong with PRESBYTERIANISM that Joseph Smith claimed it to be UNTRUE?
And yet, LDS members are crying and whining; wanting to be considered CHRISTIAN by the rest of us!
WE sure don't want to be 'misrepresented' either!!
BTW...
...just what was wrong with PRESBYTERIANISM that Joseph Smith claimed it to be UNTRUE?
Now what am I suppose to think if you say don’t have a dislike for the LDS?
Welcome to MY world!! ;^)
Here is a video that you should watch (the second one down).
http://exposeromney.com/pages/Video_LDS.html#A_Millet_Milk
ROTFLOL!!!
:)
I was talking about the Hillsdale, UT / Colorado City, AZ folks: NOT these Texas ones.
I was confused about the location.
I, too, used to be real snippy when I first came on theses threads.
I'd been so used to yelling at the TV talking heads that I took my behavior with me when I started chatting back and forth here.
It wasn't 'til I got MY feelings hurt that I realised there was a REAL, LIVE person on the other end.
Now I hope I am doing better.
What I find a whack is this whole assumption because Christ is the immortal son of God, some evangelicals dismiss all the references to Mary being his Mother. Mary is indeed his Mother, and Christ's mortal line stems from Jesse, David's father.
I'd love to see scriptural references to Mary not being His mother.??? Anyone??
I surely hope so too. ;)
If you KNOW so much; as you claim; then WHY will you not answer the simple question:
What was wrong with Presbyterianism that Joseph Smith called it UNTRUE???
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/1/19#19
17 It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!
18 My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.
19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”
20 He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home. And as I leaned up to the fireplace, mother inquired what the matter was. I replied, “Never mind, all is well—I am well enough off.” I then said to my mother, “I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.”
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