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.”
Of course, they are now known as the JST.
So the WORD is the voice of Jesus the [Son of God the Heavenly Father who is the Highest] and the Bible is a recored of the Life and dealings of Jehovah/Jesus over the house of Jacob.
And man can know these things by the Witness/Power of the Holy Ghost!
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And man can know these things by reading the Gospels and the rest of the Bible and John Chapter 1...
Jhn 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Jhn 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
Jhn 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Jhn 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Jhn 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Jhn 1:6 ¶ There was a man sent from God, whose name [was] John.
Jhn 1:7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all [men] through him might believe.
Jhn 1:8 He was not that Light, but [was sent] to bear witness of that Light.
Jhn 1:9 [That] was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
Jhn 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
Jhn 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
Jhn 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name:
Jhn 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Jhn 1:14 ¶ And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Jhn 1:15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.
Jhn 1:16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
Jhn 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, [but] grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Jhn 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared [him]. John 1:1-18
The name of Jacob was changed to Israel...
The Godhead is described in 1 John 5:7
1 Jn. 5:
7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
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That is the Trinity..
Where’s the Godhead described ????
This isn’t even about LDS law or Old Testament law or New Testament law.
What it IS about is that the Unites States of America, and specifically Texas, have a huge honking problem with polygamy. We have one view for it: it is against THE law. The ONLY law. The one we all voted on and MADE the law.
So all you LDS or FLDS or Fee-Fie-Foe LDS, listen up: we don’t need your stinking rationalizations. One wife. It’s the LAW. The ONLY law.
Deal with it.
Absolutley!
Love to hear what you have to say ping.
Texas law was changed in 2005, raising the minimum legal age of marriage from 14 to 16.
I lifted this post by GovernmentShrinker from another thread, which I think is an excellent comment on this situation:
"There is no age threshold at which rape becomes legal. Consent is not a meaningful term in these communities, where girls grow up with no contact at all with the outside world, and no exposure to the idea that maybe God doesn’t want you to follow your the orders of your “prophet” when he orders you to submit to being raped by the middle aged man he picked out for you. The way it works is the girls are taught that the outside world is a horrible, sinful place, and any acceptance of its ways, or any failure to obey the orders of your prophet or your assigned husband will consign you to hell. Then you get raped and impregnated by the time you’re 13 or 14, and by the time things are bad enough that you start questioning whether you really believe all this crap, you have a baby or two, no clue of how you might support yourself much less your children in the scary sinful outside world. You think about making a run for it, but realize you’d have to abandon your children — you physically have no chance of escaping with them (even escaping by yourself is an iffy proposition). So you stay. What’s that you were saying about consent?"
Texas law was changed in 2005, raising the minimum legal age of marriage from 14 to 16.
I lifted this post by GovernmentShrinker from another thread, which I think is an excellent comment on this situation:
"There is no age threshold at which rape becomes legal. Consent is not a meaningful term in these communities, where girls grow up with no contact at all with the outside world, and no exposure to the idea that maybe God doesn’t want you to follow your the orders of your “prophet” when he orders you to submit to being raped by the middle aged man he picked out for you. The way it works is the girls are taught that the outside world is a horrible, sinful place, and any acceptance of its ways, or any failure to obey the orders of your prophet or your assigned husband will consign you to hell. Then you get raped and impregnated by the time you’re 13 or 14, and by the time things are bad enough that you start questioning whether you really believe all this crap, you have a baby or two, no clue of how you might support yourself much less your children in the scary sinful outside world. You think about making a run for it, but realize you’d have to abandon your children — you physically have no chance of escaping with them (even escaping by yourself is an iffy proposition). So you stay. What’s that you were saying about consent?"
“Consent is not a meaningful term in these communities...”
There you have it. A woman should be free to give her body to a man of her choosing. Any man who doesn’t understand that, let them feat sheep. Or apple pie, whatever.
The definition of “conquest” is NOT ‘rape.’
Mentally I don't know how they could take them unless they take all the kids from moms in Texas that are living with boyfriends though.
They had a complaint from an unwilling participant. That’s all it takes. Doesn’t matter if she was of age when she conceived, blah, blah, blah. What matters is her concern for the child she birthed. Based on her own experience.
And, given the amount of bad press several states’ CPS Depts. have had, my guess is San Angelo CPS will be on this like white on rice.
I would presume he was already currently married, making the marriage loop hole not valid.
It is all contained in the Luke 1, I said nothing different!
The Son of God will also begat a God which is the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD!
So the highest God [Heavenly Father]begat the Son of God the Word [Jesus Christ]!
So what if the patriarchs practiced polygamy?
The promises of poliferation of Abraham's seed was through his first and only legitimate wife, Sarah. When Abrahan took matters into his own hands is when all the trouble started. Look at the trouble that is has caused the world. Just check out who the descendents of Ishmael are.
David paid the price in his own family for his many wives. That was one troubled family there with murder and rape all the way.
Solomon likewise had his share of issues with too many women.
God's design is for A helper suitable for him. God created one woman for man and declared that it was VERY good.
If God intended for man to have many wives, He would have made that clear from the beginning. The patriarchs sinning is not justification for us to sin as well. Examples of wrong doing by the people in the Bible aren't as examples for us to follow.
That’s all they needed. Time to clean house. I suspect they have more though. Those 18 girls are being put in foster homes. That’s serious. It means they probably aren’t going back.
If God the Father and God the Son are two different Gods, then that means that they WOULD NOT be of one mind.
So, what happens if they decide to disagree with each other? Who wins? What if the Holy Spirit were to start telling people things that neither the Father nor the Son agree with? Tell us, if there were some divine "power struggle" which side would you be on and what would your recourse be if you picked the wrong side?
That's because he knew we couldn't handle any more stress!
Apparently many people think that claiming activity is religious protects it from prosecution by the government. The 1st Amendment has been misused to protect all kinds of reprehensible behavior under the claim that it’s *free exercise* of religion. Anyone can make any claim that their activity is religious viola, instant exemption.
I don’t think that the First Amendment was meant to protect illegal or immoral behavior.
It’s one thing to have been forced into a sheltered life. It’s a new ball game when someone thinks for herself that maybe, just maybe, there are people out there who live diffently than she’s been forced to live.
Yes, it takes courage to do what she did: call for help. The risk is enourmous. For all we know, it’s a ‘sin’ punishable by death not only for herself but for her child[ren,] too. Talk about your leap of faith!
Have you tried flowers and champagne instead? (j/k)
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