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 the Lord is all knowing that is why I believe the Lord has this ordinance, Baptism for the dead.
When I was talking about the 10% vs the 90% I was talking about each person while on earth has a choice how they spend their time as they like some will on make a 10% effort and than their are those who who will make a 90% committment.
This has nothing to do with rich vs poor an in temtporal, this is in worship, where do people spend their time, bar hopping, sports, other recreation etc or about building up the Lord's kingdom?
But the result is the same, for both states. Huge errors were done, and it emboldened the polygs. Texas needs to take great care to make sure it's all done right.
You should be lawyer, if you aren’t already. My head is spinning.
“Of course the Lord is all knowing that is why I believe the Lord has this ordinance, Baptism for the dead.”
Setting aside the fact that the Bible says nothing about Baptism for the dead, I believe such an “ordinance” is unnecessary and thus pointless.
“When I was talking about the 10% vs the 90% I was talking about...”
Then you should make yourself clearer.
I do not believe in 10% commitment, or 90% commitment. I either am commited, 100%, or I am not commited. Simple as that. Rev 3:16 “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth”.
But that does not negate the truth that no matter how commited we are, we will yet fall short and thus require the Grace of Christ.
You said: Then POST those comments that have been made here 7. I've seen those terms directed against Smith and those in TX. So put up or retract.
This is an old debate, and those comments have happened more than once, but not on this thread.
Colorcountry, would you care to share your feelings on the matter? I assumed that other evangelicals felt the same way as you do, whoremonger, lustful, etc. Others have called him an adulterer.
Here again committment has to do with striving to Keeping the Lord’s commandment which you and I agree we are not perfect so even though you would like to do 100%, 90% is nothing to sneeze at!
So in your heart and most of us believe we are committed 100% but our 100% and what the Lord sees are two different things!
I agree with you on this
But that does not negate the truth that no matter how commited we are, we will yet fall short and thus require the Grace of Christ.
Setting aside the fact that the Bible says nothing about Baptism for the dead, I believe such an “ordinance” is unnecessary and thus pointless.
But than again it does not matter what you and I think is nescessary or not it is the Lord's plan that man is too fulfill.
I think we are pretty much in agreement with this, with one minor exception.
“most of us believe we are committed 100% but our 100% and what the Lord sees are two different things”
I think if we are really honest with ourselves, we know if we are, truly, 100% commited to doing our utmost... or if there is really one more thing we can do.
Sariah
Hagar
Keturah
I repeat the scripture:
Genesis 25:6
But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.
So, is Keturah also counted as a concubine here? It seems so. Now we have both women called wives and concubines, for both bore him children, and even though Keturah was married to him after Sariah’s death, her children were still treated as children of a concubine. These children btw were the ancestors of the Midians, whom Moses found after being thrown out of Egypt.
The point is I know of nothing in the Bible that even implies such a thing is necessary for the fulfillment of God’s plan. Couple that with the fact that the Bible does not even mention it, and it becomes irrelevant, so far as I am concerned.
Or to give my view on that more clearly...
It is an imagined solution to an imagined problem.
I am as concerned about it as I am with worrying about whether Santa Clause has a pilots licence.
Well, I’m glad you don’t feel that way, your approach was a bit confusing though. While the law against Adultery was clearly found in the Law of Moses, there were other laws, not had by us now, to which Joseph referred when he said this:
Gen. 39:9 because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?
God is the same.
The point is I know of nothing in the Bible that even implies such a thing is necessary for the fulfillment of God’s plan. Couple that with the fact that the Bible does not even mention it, and it becomes irrelevant, so far as I am concerned
***
The Bible does mention it but it is so vague to the reader yet to the LDS the puzzle is solved.
I guess you will have to show me that.
Color will have to fill you in on the more verbose ones, they were awhile back, but the adultery one is abundant, by more than one poster.
Here’s just one.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/1901375/posts?page=239#239
What if we exchange taglines? That would really throw em off.
1 Cor.15
29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
A truer post I’ve never seen. We agree 100 percent.
God specifically called Abraham his prophet, Elsie. Does that not mean anything to you?
nm, I see it. It is not a mystery I am deeply concerned about, since I am not concerned with baptising any dead people. I know nobody who is dead that is not baptised (at least that I am aware of). I am certain that all will happen with regards to them that God feels is just.
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