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.”
Who died and made you the boss of this thread? Your comments have been so rude to so many posters here, NOT TO MENTION YOUR FREQUENT SHOUTING, that it drags down any chance of a real conversation. Please lighten up. You may be head of the PTA in your one-horse town where everybody knows your name, but your rants about legalisms (don't start -- we know your BIL is an AG, already) are a waste of bandwidth because your attitude is so condescending.
In. My. Opinion.
Excellent list of scriptural references; thank you!
Sorry about that typo
Why are you sick, Resty...
Wrong question:
“Why aren’t you HEALED?”
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That too...
:)
Too bad this wasn't one of those times. Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God and was borne by a virgin.
It was my understanding that they were arrested, but it appears they may have been put up at a local church.
The sixteen year old in question is nowhere to be found, unless they found her this morning.
There is always the possibility that this was a prank I guess. It does seem strange that they authorities would be caught not knowing where she was, and still raiding the farm.
I’m not saying this to damn them further at this point. It’s just an interesting development. The girl could have met with foul play too, so I don’t want to take advantage of this factoid until things flesh out more.
Now let's discuss ebonics!
Thanks.
How does Jesus Mother family history deny Jesus still being the ONLY Begotten Son of Heavenly Father, as far as I know there has never has been another Son...
It happened after WW2:
Just watching CNN, five minutes ago they are reporting the girl as "not yet located."
Thanks for the update, TLI. Haven’t had the tv on since this AM.
Well I hope the kid is okay. If her story is true, she’s been though enough already.
Was David a polygamist?
Yes or no?
Is Jesus a descendant of David?
Yes or No?
Too bad this wasn’t one of those times. Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God and was borne by a virgin.
How does Jesus Mother family history deny Jesus still being the ONLY Begotten Son of Heavenly Father, as far as I know there has never has been another Son...
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But Jesus is NOT the ONLY Begotten Son of “Heavenly Father” in the flesh..
Jeus is the only begotten Son of THE Father, but God did NOT have sex with Mary..
Mary did not have sex with a mortal man or an “immortal” man (or god) in order to get pregnant/conceive
And this following junk from the mormons is just that...JUNK...
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“Father as Literal Parent”
Scriptures embodying the ordinary signification-literally that of Parent-are too numerous and specific to require citation. The purport of these scriptures is to the effect that God the Eternal Father, whom we designate by the exalted name-title “Elohim,” is the literal Parent of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and of the spirits of the human race.
Jesus Christ is the Son of Elohim both as spiritual and bodily offspring; that is to say, Elohim is literally the Father of the spirit of Jesus Christ and also of the body in which Jesus Christ performed His mission in the flesh, and which body died on the cross and was afterward taken up by the process of resurrection, and is now the immortalized tabernacle of the eternal spirit of our Lord and Savior. No extended explanation of the title “Son of God” as applied to Jesus Christ appears necessary. (The Father and The Son: A Doctrinal Exposition by the First Presidency and the Twelve.)
One of the great questions that I have referred to that the world is concerned about, and is in confusion over, is as to whether or not his was a virgin birth, a birth wherein divine power interceded. Joseph Smith made it perfectly clear that Jesus Christ told the absolute truth, as did those who testify concerning him, the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, wherein he is declared to be the very Son of God. And if God the Eternal Father is not the real Father of Jesus Christ, then are we in confusion; then is he not in reality the Son of God. But we declare that he is the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh.
Mary told the story most beautifully when she said that an angel of the Lord came to her and told her that she had found favor in the sight of God, and had come to be worthy of the fulfilment of the promises heretofore made, to become the virgin mother of the Redeemer of the world. She afterwards, referring to the event, said: “God hath done wonderful things unto me.” “And the Holy Ghost came upon her,” is the story, “and she came into the presence of the highest.” No man or woman can live in mortality and survive the presence of the Highest except by the sustaining power of the Holy Ghost. So it came upon her to prepare her for admittance into the divine presence, and the power of the Highest, who is the Father, was present, and overshadowed her, and the holy Child that was born of her was called the Son of God.
Men who deny this, or who think that it degrades our Father, have no true conception of the sacredness of the most marvelous power with which God has endowed mortal men-the power of creation. Even though that power may be abused and may become a mere harp of pleasure to the wicked, nevertheless it is the most sacred and holy and divine function with which God has endowed man. Made holy, it is retained by the Father of us all, and in his exercise of that great and marvelous creative power and function, he did not debase himself, degrade himself, nor debauch his daughter. Thus Christ became the literal Son of a divine Father, and no one else was worthy to be his father. (Melvin Ballard, LDS Apostle)
???
Now who is Jesus Christ, and how could he bring about the resurrection when no other man nor all men put together could do so? The Scriptures respond to these questions. They make it clear that the spirit person Jesus Christ-as are the spirits of all men-is the Son of God, our Eternal Father. In this respect he is like all other men. He differs from all other men, however, by reason of the fact that men’s bodies are begotten of mortal men and are, therefore, subject to death, being descendants and inheritors from Adam, while Christ’s physical body was begotten of God, our Heavenly Father-an immortal being not subject to death. Christ, therefore, inherited from his Father the faculty to live on indefinitely. CR1975Apr:123-24 (Apostle Marion G. Romney to the General Conference of the LDS Church, 1975)
The historical fact of these practices is recorded in the Old Testament, as is the fact that stoning to death adulterous women was condoned by the leaders of Jewish society of that time. However, I am not prepared therefore to conclude that God approved, although admittedly the prophets claiming to be his messengers did not condemn these customs.
How does Jesus Mother family history deny Jesus still being the ONLY Begotten Son of Heavenly Father, as far as I know there has never has been another Son...
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Noooooooooooooooooo
The mormons claim there are lots of them...
“The answer is found in the fact that of all the sons of God, only Christ could qualify, because he was the only sinless man who ever walked the earth. Furthermore, he was the First Begotten, the eldest of the sons of God in the spirit, and the Only Begotten in the flesh, and therefore the only one who possessed the full powers of Godhood and manhood.” (Conference address by Hugh B. Brown in 1962)
I think it’s natural to be wondering what the hell... My only reason to withhold comment at this time is that they may find her body on the farm.
If they haven’t coughed her up in a week or so, this is going to look like one more abuse of power in Texas. I may be wrong, but it would seem that a judge would take a very dim view of it, when charges were brought against other people at the farm based on these warrants.
Strange...
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