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.”
Such a wonderful love story when they see each other for the first time.
3. Same number you believe are in the trinity.
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
There’s your red herring.
Mary is the mother of Jesus, and Jesus is the literal son of God. That cannot be denied.
3. Same number you believe are in the trinity.
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
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But it’s not in the Bible..
How come you and Rest will answer the hard questions that these guys that are good at debating ask but won’t answer my easy ones?
Mary is the mother of Jesus, and Jesus is the literal son of God. That cannot be denied.
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Oh yes it can
God did NOT have sex with Mary...
There is no scripture to say anything so blasphemeous...
Jesus is the only begotten Son of God..
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Sweet..
:)
Wrong. Mormons don’t end up with 3 separate Gods. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost are one God. We know that they are one in purpose, as it clearly states in the quotes already posted.
“I did bring in his shop fan once though. He was hogging the little fan. Wosh...it sounded like a jet taking off:’)”
A shop fan is a heck of a lot of fan in a bedroom.
Please explain the two personages seen by Stephen as he was being stoned?
Such a wonderful love story when they see each other for the first time.
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That is a great story...
Yes one... Not three “personages”
Please explain the two personages seen by Stephen as he was being stoned?
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Stephen never saw any “personages”
But you havent turned in your homework from the last lesson...
Welcome to any FR thread that has any mention of Mormons. The birds circle awaiting any sign of fresh meat. Some of us don't take it lying down, and shoo the fowl away. It's why these thread usually surpass 1000 or more.
That one is mild. I won’t repeat what he’s said to me in the past.
Stephen never saw any “personages”
And nor did the false prophet Joseph Smith..
And what Stephen did see...
the false prophet Joeseph smith didnt...
Stephen never saw any “personages”
And nor did the false prophet Joseph Smith..
And what Stephen did see...
the false prophet Joeseph smith didnt...
Yes one... Not three “personages”
Please explain the two personages seen by Stephen as he was being stoned?
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Oh, and the words “personage” or “personages” are not in the Bible..
Gotta play this game by the mormon rules dontcha know...
Maybe you can point to one of his posts to you that is "repleat with reasons for the hope that is within [MHG] of God’s Grace in Christ"..........
Or.... maybe not.
So what do you say about Jesus and what he said about marriage?
Why doesn’t that count?
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