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.”
Riddle me this resty - why did joey lie about having multiple wives while at the same time teaching his followers that polygamy was forbidden???
****
It was not forbidden when under the direction of the Lord.
Joseph followers knew it only those who would be antagonist were not privy to know.
They had no need to know of God’s business with his people.
(That worked out really well!)
“My desire to be there is to see the look on your face or any others who have given the LDS on this side such a hard time!”
When I think you are incorrect, I am concerned about what your fate will be, and fear that if I am right, your fate will end up badly. On the other hand, when you think others are incorrect, rather than fearing for their fate, you look forward, with glee, to seeing the fate you believe will happen being carried out.
Interesting perspective you have... I wonder which one the Lord would approve of more.
I doubt it.
Other than plugging your computer into the SPEAKER outlets (which might hurt the computer), there is not enough power anywhere to hurt either system.
Wannabe Christians really have AUGMENTed the role Abraham plays to that of a type of Joseph Smith (who WASN'T a) father of nations; rather than a FAITHFUL man who obeyed GOD.
More than nearly anything else you should fear the day that you come to believe you ARE walking in perfection, for on that day you are lost.
That is what is ment in
2 Nephi 25
23 For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.
We are to have faith and exercise it in doing the will of the Lord and he will make up the difference for us that is the grace part!
All those who believe in Christ have grace in general, but your reward comes by how much effort you put into striving to keep his comandments.
Matt. 10:
41 He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.
42 And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
Matt. 16:
27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
Rev. 22:
12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
bookmark
Ah.. but without the grace of Christ.. no matter what your works, you are never going to be able to win your way to Heaven. All of us fall short, none of us are worthy based strictly on our works. Our obligation is to strive to the best of our ability.. whether or not we have done so only God will be able to judge.
I know the Lord loves you and most likely if you are not evil you will find know the way and there are those on this side doing vicarious work for all of the Lord’s children!
This is what the thousand years of peace is for so those who have been deceived but did live a good life on earth have a change to accept the gift or to refuse it!
Remember the Lord gave each of us free will so each will beable to choose.
"Extra nookie for ME, but none for THEE - you Not_as_HOLY_as_ME person!"
Strange... I've been in these threads all along; and I have not noticed this.
Perhaps you have some PROOF?
I do not dispute anything in that post.
Nice to be able to say that once in a while.
I agree with you.
The BEAST + 2K!
If you are NOT going to play along...
YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO defend YOURSELF with thousands of words; you, you... GENTILE you!
--MormonDude(Sheesh!)
Maybe it is; but just to you!
Correction, when I say I do not dispute what any of that post, I must amend it in one respect, in that I am unsure of what you mean precisely by “there are those on this side doing vicarious work for all of the Lord’s children!” After answering I realized that I can see multiple possible meanings to that phrase, so my agreement is conditional to what you mean.
I don't understand your reply I said in general all who believe in Christ are saved meaning they have grace.
Now as far as reward goes that depends on how much effort your put into striving to Keepping the Lord's commandments.
Some put in 10%, 50% etc the Lord knows our hearts and minds and how much were really were making an effort.
Are you one of those who think that the person who only put in 10% should get the same reward as the one who put in 90%?
BTW works here means getting your attitude as close as possible to teachings that the Lord Jesus Christ showed us to do.
We don't really do it from a personal self disciplend; it is something as we summit ourselves to the Lord that grows within us, the enabling comes by the atonement of Jesus Christ!
Go ahead and defend.
The jury has returned and found LDS to be wanting.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.