Posted on 05/16/2008 6:27:40 AM PDT by JRochelle
Abandoning their religion and husbands may be the only way that FLDS mothers will be reunited with their children. Texas official issued new rules, Thursday, that dictate what the mothers will have to do before the state will return the 464 children.
The plan says that the mothers will have to prove that they have provided the children with “a home free of persons who have, or will abuse the children.”
Texas officials consider many polygamist husbands as abusers.
On top of that, Texas officials will have to know every person living in any building where any of the children live. This would make customary polygamist communal housing impossible.
FLDS Attorney, Rod Parker says that “the rules are subject to interpretation by Child Protective Services (CPS) in a manner that makes it impossible for these people to live on the ranch.”
To hammer their point even harder, Texas officials told FLDS communities that if they don’t cooperate, the court could “terminate parental rights” and “appoint a conservator with authority to consent to each child’s adoption.”
“Those terms are going to be defined, ultimately, by Texas CPS, and what Texas CPS says is a safe environment or appropriate education, exclude participation in this religion,” Parker said.
The initial call, that alleged that a 16-year-old girl was beaten and raped by FLDS member Dale Barlow, has never been identified, and is believed by many to have been a prank. Still, authorities are convinced that there is a repeated pattern of abuse on FLDS compounds.
Authorities point out that many of the teenage girls in custody were pregnant, some as young as 13 years old. They also say there is a conspiracy of secrecy within the mothers. They say that FLDS moms will not cooperate with identifying their children.
Authorities also claimed that FLDS boys had signs of broken bones and that they had possibly been sexually abuse as well.
Now, for the first time, the state is talking about lost boys who have allegedly been forced out of the group in order to have more women than men in the community for polygamy.
There are lost boys in Utah, however, Texas cannot name one lost boy.
Officials say that the proof is that there are more 16-to-17-year-old girls than boys.
FLDS attorney, Rod Parker says that Texas is counting 20-to-22-year-old women as underage girls.
“But we know they are counting women as underage girls,” said Parker. “That’s why the ratio is out of whack.”
Polygamy Ping!
I can see this going all the way to the SCOTUS............
“Texas official issued new rules, Thursday, that dictate what
the mothers will have to do before the state will return the 464 children.”
Making it up as they go. All your religions belong to us.
With pro bono legal services from the ACLU.
Tell me what would they be claiming? That they have the right to be polygamists?
Well thank God the government steps up because now the little boys can be adopted into gay marriage homes in California and have two daddies.
Texas has nothing to do with what is going on in Calif.
Ok, lets see if anyone wants to defend that.
First I had heard of a 13 year old being pregnant. Not that it is uncommon in Norfolk, VA or any other city in this country. If the father is over the age, arrest him, try him, and convict him. That might oddly enough happen once in awhile in the inner city, but the mother generally keeps the child regardless.
When a man who is not in this religious sect marries more than one woman, what is his punishment? Jail time? fines?
Just to clarify, not to give up ALL religion, and become completely atheistic, only to give up a couple of troubling concepts that seem to have no place in the wider societies.
Hmmm. Perhaps we could apply this to various other religions not of US origin, as a price of being accepted into the US society.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is of uniquely American origin. So were the Branch Davidians. One was finally accepted, the other was obliterated.
We have freedom of religion, which is very important to fight for. That doesn’t mean that people who break the law can hide under the name of religion though. If that was the case, people could commit any crime they wanted and never be held accountable.
Bill of Rights
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;...........
So you would prefer them to have a whole bunch of moms over two dads? LOL
They are same. Polygamy and gay marriage. Both demean what a family should mean.
The polygamists don’t legally marry their plural wives. They have “spiritual” ceremonies, but they don’t get marriage licenses from the state. Thus, they are not committing bigamy, as that is usually defined in state statutes. From a purely legal point of view, it is a multiple shack up, which is not a crime.
Polygamy and gay marriage aren’t quite the same. Polygamy at least makes biological sense. Gay marriage makes no sense.
Unbelievable.
So if gays were claiming they have the right to religious freedom by getting married to each other, would that be acceptable?
Polygamy is evil. I don’t care if you wrap it in religion, you don’t get to do it in this country. As of now.
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