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.”
Now we have the “ceremonial Bed” discovered in the temple for de-flowering the child brides.
Sorry, but had he become the nominee, Mitt would have been killed by the d’s over this. If Hillary can attack Barry over his preacher, can you imagine what she would do with this story?
Hold this thought.
YOU have a nice eternity, considering the FACT that whatever the reasons you so lamely give, you CANNOT post the verse to back up your claim.
You, of the MASSIVE spam shots, cannot BOTHER to post evidence for your claims.
Pathetic!
She's still there; eh?
Are you still LDS? And if so, why???
Under YOUR system, Christ COULD change His mind and the verses are silent on the will of the Holy Spirit.
First, not all evidence has been removed, you may want to read up on archeology which supports the book of Mormon (there is a surprisingly large amount of it, if you want some links, just ask.) Second the religion fell into apostasy because of pride, a lack of faith, and because of the temptings of Satan. Next?
So, you are saying that Christ came to America and failed?
The Gold plates were taken back by the angel of God who lent them to Joseph for translation, they were not "lost" God knows exactly where they are and when we are ready the rest of the plates will be translated (did you know that Joseph was only allowed to translate a portion?)
Why didn't you just say so?
the Urim and Thummim are still used by the prophet of the church today.
What are they "used" for?
Why did Constantine (a pagan) call the council to decide God's definition?
As emperor he convened it, he did not influence the council.
Why was this pagan allowed to set the agenda for God's church?
He didn't set any agenda.
Since revelations was written in AD 90, and we are told there can be no more revelation (Revelations 22:18-19), and the Council happened in 325 AD, how is this accepted as revelation, and further revelation rejected?
There is a vast difference between definition and revelation.
If this is to become the central doctrine of the church which all Christians must accept, were those who believed before 325 AD no such Dogma (because it didn't exist) not Christian, including the disciples?
The Church needed to devine what it had always believed, some who claimed to be teaching the Gospel were incorrect.
Perhaps it's been explained before, in another thread, was gonna post it but the dog ate his homework, doesn;'t want to do YOUR homework...
Blah, blah, blah, barf!
There are other ways of dealing with malcontents and name-callers, the first and best is to ignore them.
Carry on with your back-and-forth personal feuds, it's not my concern. I've made my position clear on the concept of the privacy of freepmail.
Leni
...she accuses them of not acting in a Christian manner.
HMMmmm...
This sound vaguely familar!
That defense is akin to a neighbor who puts a nasty note in your mailbox accusing you of being "gutless", a "liar" and a "drunk"; and then pounds one your front door demanding an apology for having the audacity of reading it out loud.
Matthew 10:14
If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.
"But we ain't Flds!!", would be the cry!!
(And the voters think: "Why take a chance?")
It was adultery, pure and simple. It happened, but not as an example for us to follow. Sin mentioned in Scripture is never mentioned for the justification of immoral behavior.
I was referring to the video in the link in #1849.
Colofornian was using absurdity to demonstrate the absurdity of many of your arguments.
I’m still waiting for evidence of Resty’s older, “higher” commandments.
What if one of them was along the lines of, “Thou Shalt Not Try To Snag Post 2,000.”
Yikes!
So, Brigham Young thought men could become Gods. If that is not antithetical to the teachings of the Bible, then nothing is.
Interesting. Seems we heard that line before. I'm surprised anyone can still get mileage out of it considering what happened the first time.
Agreed. If you do not want someone to read something you would be ashamed of, such as poison pen letters, you should not send them either in open forum or by PM. The only difference between flaming someone in public and doing so in PM is that those who do it in PM are moral cowards.
Me too!
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