Posted on 06/21/2008 6:17:09 PM PDT by JRochelle
Six-year-old Samuel Jeffs has only one leg. On April 3 he was taken away from his home and his mother by the Texas Child Protective Services (CPS). His father, Warren Jeffs, is in prison, convicted in Utah of being an accomplice to child rape.
On May 19, Samuel’s mother, Sharon Barlow, is sitting in a San Angelo courtroom with her attorney to hear a review of Samuel’s care. She is wearing an ankle-length turquoise dress, cut roughly in the style of a 19th-century prairie housewife’s. She has reddish hair, a pointed nose, sleepy eyes and poor skin. The hair rises in a high wave from her forehead, a thin strand is plaited into a circle on top of her head, and the rest is bundled into a heavy braid. She looks unwell. It is 100F outside, but the courtroom is over-air-conditioned and freezing. Judge Barbara Walther constantly adjusts a thermostat on the wall behind her, but it seems to have no effect.
Samuel is well represented. He has his own attorney, a CPS worker and a court-appointed special advocate. This is a review hearing to check on his progress. He has the judge on his side too. She asks searching questions about his medical care. She sympathises with his handicap. The judge had polio as a child and wears callipers. Daily she hauls herself onto her dais, from which she presides over this monumental, unprecedented case. For Samuel is not the only child involved. There are another 460-plus children, all taken in one night from the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) ranch by the CPS, sheriff’s deputies and Texas Rangers. The ranch, which belongs to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), is near Eldorado (pronounced locally Eldoraydo), 45 miles south of here. They were being saved
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
The book “Escape” by Carolyn Jessop is very informative about the FLDS and the relationships of the wives, husband and children. It’s so bizarre, brutal and controlled that you need to read it if you can get the book.
It is a fast read. Once you start, it’s hard to stop. My copy of the book is being borrowed by my friends. Once everyone reads it, we plan to discuss it.
thanks.
I don’t agree with the author about going into Iraq as a fundamentalist Christian crusade. I believe that Bush believes that goodness and evil coexist and that he went in for the War on Terror, and that the Islamofascists are evil, like the Nazis ( who also btw claimed to be “Christian “ ). And yes, the writer has some liberal views, but overall has written an articulate description of the FDLS.
He raises the significance of America not persecuting religous groups just because they are not ‘mainstream”, but groups must be dealt with if they are hurtful and illegal.
The Amish are different and so are the Orthodox Jews. This country respects their religions and does not “raid “ their communities, because they are not evil and do not abuse women and children.
You are right. But that may be because they are being “defensive” and insecure. Those who are confident in their religion, whether Christianity, or Buddhism or Judaism are not afraid to condemn those within their religion who committ evil abuses.
the Catholics I know denounce the priests who abused children and are quick to point out this is NOT Catholocism or Christianity.
Why does the boy have one leg? Why, one legged boys are as common as flies out in the normal world where incest is not a common practice. There’s one on every corner among those evil Gentiles!
(I am trying to be an FLDS apologist, apparently that is to be preferred over the idea that the FLDS are run by a bunch of sickos who follow Jeffs and in turn Joseph Smith).
The irony of the case is that polygamy is illegal in Texas. That should be enough for prosecution.
Further irony: the women have custody of their children. In fact, they are now the legal heads of the “households” because the men wouldn’t stand and be held accountable for their actions.
"Imminent danger" indicates the immediate threat of physical harm, as I've read in the Texas statutes. Ongoing mental abuse apparently doesn't present sufficient danger.
IMHO, these children need to be freed from this harmful environment. Can the women be deprogrammed? I shake my head in sadness for the kids' bizarre upbringings.
If the women believed as you do, they'd courageously walk away from the ranch, one after another, with their children in tow. I'd bet they know where they can find help if they want it.
While I suspect many, but not all of them, are bitching among themselves about these "cowardly men", that inculcated fear of eternal damnation will keep them obedient.
No - he identified Masonry as a belief system, with ideas that could be copied.
In contrast, discussion of both religion and politics are not allowed, inside a masonic lodge.
But you are allowed to go outside and beat the heck out of each other, ;)
bflr = bump for later reading
Could it be fumarase deficiency which has been found in the flds community?
Fumarase deficiency is characterized by polyhydramnios, enlarged cerebral ventricles in utero, and fetal brain abnormalities. In the newborn period, findings include severe neurologic abnormalities, poor feeding, failure to thrive, and hypotonia. Early-onset infantile encephalopathy, seizures, and severe developmental delay with microcephaly are also common. Other findings include infantile spasms, trunk hypotonia with hypertonic and dystonic posture of the limbs, athetoid movements, and autistic features. EEG abnormalities such as hypsarrhythmia, facial dysmorphism, and craniofacial dysmorphism have been reported. Findings can include neonatal polycythemia, leukopenia and neutropenia, and mild hepatosplenomegaly. Neuroimaging may reveal nonspecific mild hypomyelination, progressive cerebral atrophy, ventricular dilatation, periventricular cysts, Dandy-Walker malformation, agenesis of the corpus callosum, deficient closure of the sylvian opercula, large lateral ventricles, and diffuse, bilateral polymicrogyria. Many children with fumarase deficiency do not survive infancy or die in childhood; those surviving beyond childhood have severe psychomotor retardation.
Masonry teaches a unique and spiritual viewpoint in their funeral service.
It is MOST definitely a religion.
Yeah, and those heathens perform secret rituals in a cave, in the dark, in the middle of the night - and they have the treasure of the Templars hiddin in a cave in NYC - and, oh yeah, the holy grail - they have that, too...
LOL.
Except, according to their doctrines, we are the heathens.
The masons think you are a heathen?
Are you a polythiest?
I think I found the cave, in Yonkers, just north of the Bronx:
I missed the seguey - what does a creepy park have to do with masonry?
Masonry is not remotely a religon. It’s a fraternity, with as wide-ranging a membership from George Washington, Ben Franklin, to John Wayne and Gerald Ford, to the author of the Pledge of Allegence and the founding members of the US Marines, the Boy Scouts, and the Salvation Army.
But, yes, founders of mormonism were masons and boldly ripped off the fraternial handshakes and the like and made it part of their religion.
This is no small part of the reason masons get accused of being a religion, when they are not.
Complete nonsense.
Burl Ives. You forgot Burl Ives, a 33rd degree mason.
The ugly bug ball has its own museum, for heaven’s sake.
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