Free Republic

A lawyer for the 16-year-old daughter of polygamist group leader Warren Jeffs is requesting a restraining order to prevent a spokesman for the group from intimidating and harassing the girl. The request for a restraining order against Willie Jessop was filed in San Angelo today by Natalie Malonis. The teenager was one of the hundreds of children taken from the Yearning For Zion Ranch by Texas Child Protective Services in April because investigators believed they were exposed to abuse by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Her name is not being disclosed because Malonis...

Texas police have been standing guard outside the home of the Texas judge who ordered the removal of all the FLDS children from the YFZ Ranch. The heightened security was ordered after authorities from Utah and Arizona warned them to be on the lookout for FLDS "enforcers," the Deseret News has learned. Every officer guarding Judge Barbara Walther's San Angelo house was provided dossiers and photos of 16 FLDS men and women whom Utah police deemed a threat. However, e-mails obtained by the Deseret News from the Washington County Sheriff's Office warned Texas authorities to be suspicious of everybody, not...

The San Angelo judge accused of abusing her discretion by a higher court fought back on Friday, overruling objections that cited the appellate decision during a lengthy and contentious child-custody hearing that will continue next week. 51st District Judge Barbara Walther indirectly rejected assertions by the Third Court of Appeals that she should not have allowed the state to maintain custody of more than 450 children belonging to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Attorneys for the state's Child Protective Services agency and an attorney for the infant in Friday's hearing did the same. "I...

ELDORADO, Texas (AP) — In just five years, the West Texas polygamist sect transformed 1,700 acres of scrubland purchased for $700,000 into a bustling ranch with a blazing-white limestone temple, sprawling three-story log cabins, woodworking shops and a dairy. Assessed value of the property now: $20.5 million. How did members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints do it? Sweat equity was clearly one factor. The men quarried limestone themselves from the hard ground and built the enormous homes with their own hands, using skills learned at construction companies close to the sect's main base of...

"And now, polygamy," sighs Charles Krauthammer, in a recent Washington Post column. It's true. As if they didn't already have enough on their minds, Americans are going to have to debate polygamy. And not a moment too soon. For generations, taboo kept polygamy out of sight and out of mind in America. But the taboo is crumbling. An HBO television series called "Big Love," which benignly portrays a one-husband, three-wife family in Utah, set off the latest round of polygamy talk. Even so, a federal lawsuit (now on appeal), the American Civil Liberties Union's stand for polygamy rights, and the...

FORT WORTH, Texas | Representatives of the United Methodist Church turned back attempts to liberalize its policy on homosexuality Wednesday. Almost 1,000 delegates to the church’s General Conference rejected a proposal from a legislative committee, leaving in place the position that the practice of homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.” The General Conference, which meets every four years, is the only assembly that can set policy for the 7.9 million-member church. It includes delegates from all 50 states and 66 overseas regional jurisdictions. The question of the status of gays was likely the most contentious one delegates will deal with...

Curious and open to Christianity, Hemant Mehta became the "eBay atheist" when he posted his soul on eBay and began accepting bids to visit churches and then share his thoughts. Some 30 church services later, he's still an atheist. He tells us why, what he does believe in and what Christians should consider when talking to someone with different beliefs.I like many others, first learned of "the eBay atheist" in a Wall Street Journal article last year. Hemant Mehta had posted his "soul" on eBay, the article read. He told eBay patrons: "While I don't believe in God, I firmly...