Under God: Polygamy and Intrusion in West Texas (Wash Post column)

[High Plains]

This is a religious affairs columnist for the Post, commenting on the El Dorado raid where Texas authorities seized (at last count) 401 children from the FDLS community.

I post this in the hope of provoking responses beyond the reflexive and simplistic.


http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2008/04/polygamy_and_intrusion.html

Polygamy and Intrusion in West Texas

When the government sticks its finger into private religious worlds, the results are always bizarre and often evoke bigger questions about ultimate authority. The story of this weekend's raid of a polygamist Mormon sect's ranch in West Texas are worth watching and thinking about.

By last night, more than 200 women and children had been taken away on buses from the compound in Eldorado called "Yearning for Zion," where close to 600 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) have encamped for the last few years. The evacuation was peaceful -- putting to rest fears by locals of "another Waco," where a 1993 FBI/ATF seige of the Branch Davidian sect's compound ended with 82 deaths. It remains to be seen whether the raid will be remembered as another Short Creek, the 1953 government action in Southern Utah/Northern Arizona that ended up bolstering the power of FLDS leaders like Warren Jeffs, who used their community's fear of the outside world to control them.

The raid in West Texas and the investigation leading to it were spurred, according to news reports, by a phone call from the compound last week by a 16-year-old girl who said she'd been sexually abused by an older man. Although there was an initial stand-off over the polygamists allowing officials access to their temple, the events were ultimately peaceful. I spoke Sunday with a friend, J.D. Doyle, who lives in Eldorado.

The fear of another Waco has been looming since 2004, Doyle said, when the Fundamentalist Church bought the ranch clandestinely for $700,000 in the name of a Nevada business man. Since then, church members have been at work constructing numerous structures, as well as a large white temple. Doyle, whose father is the justice of peace for Eldorado, said the sense was that a larger and more brutal confrontation was avoided because the governing bodies were local, as opposed to federal.

[High Plains]

1. More from the column:

Actually, the rest of the column:

(Read the whole thing here: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2008/04/polygamy_and_intrusion.html)


Members of the Fundamentalist Church are without a doubt reading significance into this raid, but it's hard to know how they see it. But my guess is they're thinking about another raid that happened half a century ago in Southern Utah/Northern Arizona, where state authorities showed up at a polygamist Mormon community in the middle of the night in the summer of 1953, imprisoned many men, and bused off the women and children for more than a year to live in state institutions. The Short Creek raid has been called the largest mass arrest of men and women in America, and was later viewed as a disaster that further isolated polygamist Mormons from American society. That isolation, I would say, bolstered the power of future FLDS leaders like Warren Jeffs, who used the community's fear of the outside world to control them.

No matter the circumstances, sexual abuse can't be tolerated. But I wonder about the degree to which authorities reacted in Eldorado with this massive community evacuation. It's hard to know exactly what is going on down there, but questions of intrusion and authority should be asked, no matter how marginal the beliefs of the FLDS.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

3. The degradation of females that goes on in these communities is criminal.....

.... the girls are raised in these communities and not allowed to know anything but this way of life, so they don't know better. It's like slaves that only know the slave lifestyle. I'm GLAD every time the govt. tears apart one of these communities. The adult males in these communities are just pedophile polygamist pigs that need to be beaten or thrown in prison.

[Cerridwen]

2. The backstory - again and again and again and again...

See this old post of mine.

I've not checked to see if all the links in the post are still active but it might give you some valuable information about this over 100-year-old "church." (looks like it might be time to work on it again. Such short memories we have.)


Yes, I am going to keep posting this link as long as people keep worrying about another branch davidian nightmare rather than thinking about the women, children, dead infants (yes, infanticide), and abandoned boys who are the true victims of this bloody abortion called a "church."

There was a video (I'm not sure it's linked in my post) of a couple of women who had escaped these people. One of the most horrifying collection of stories was of the infants who'd been born so "deformed" (there is a genetic disease in this group due to the limited gene pool) they were drown at birth. Because the infants are buried inside compound walls, the authorities have been denied access to investigate.

I bet someone here has a link to that video. It was horrific; there was much more than the infanticide stories.

edit to fix link

[Quantess]

7. Infanticide?

I haven't heard about that yet. Let me guess, have they put their inbred babies with birth defects "out of their misery"?

[Cerridwen]

8. Yep. You guess correctly.

There is a rare genetic disease in this group of people; it's mentioned in one of the links in my post above.

Based on the video I saw, they were not putting the babies out of the babies' misery, but out of the community's misery and to hide what was happening.

[Quantess]

10. I hope they get prison time for that.

I hope all the charges stick!

[Cerridwen]

11. I put the video link up in its own thread. Take a look. n/t

[jody]

4. I agree that polygamy should be prosecuted under our law but what about muslims? I'm sure this

topic was discussed in other DU threads so please post links to them.

[Cerridwen]

5. This group is not about polygamy. Please see my post above yours. n/t

[jody]

14. I believe the group does practice polygamy, so your statement "not about polygamy" is not correct.

[Cerridwen]

15. They practice polygamy - one of many of their practices.

The others include welfare fraud, tax fraud, infanticide, child abandonment, shall I go on?

They are not about polygamy which is defined as poly-amorous relationships. There is not much amor within those relationships.

They are NOT about polygamy; they are about sexual slavery of women and children and abandoning the boys who get in their way.

Watch the video:

http://www.youtube.com/v/gI6pBftroEc&hl=en

[jody]

16. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints does practice polygamy and as you

point out, other things that are criminal.

What point are you trying to make by minimizing their practice of polygamy?

[Cerridwen]

17. What point are you trying to make by focusing on it?

I'm trying to get the focus on the type of people and who run it and their actions rather than some titillating distraction for the media drugged masses. Simple as that.

[jody]

18. I agree with you re criminal activities but you said "5. This group is not about polygamy." which is

clearly wrong.

We agree the group had many men who probably committed crimes and probably one or more woman were accessories.

IMO it's probable that the men were driven to commit some of their crimes by practicing polygamy which drove them to retreat from contact with more traditional families and societies.

Apparently you disagree so we are at a point of comparing personal opinions.

I can live with that.

Have a good day. :hi:

[Cerridwen]

19. Actually, I think we disagree about a definition. But, hey, no skin off my

nose.

Make sure to watch the video. It's quite telling.

Have a good day. :hi:

[kestrel91316]

6. Do please point out where any Muslim community in the US

is completely isolating its members and "marrying" preteen girls off to men old enough to be their grandfathers, to be forcibly impregnated. On this scale.

I'll be waiting for your response.

Your "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MUSLIMS???" response is, in this context, one of the most f---ed up things ever uttered by a DUer. I suspect you'd be happier over on CU or FR.

[jody]

13. My question was sincere since I personally know muslim families, not U.S. citizens, where polygamy

is practiced while they reside in the U.S.

Perhaps it is you who might feel more comfortable on other forums.

[Thickasabrick]

20. Thank you - that comment bothered me too. nt

[Quantess]

9. Polygamy is illegal in the USA no matter who's doing it. (no text)

[Thickasabrick]

21. Not if your other marriages are "spiritual" and not legally recognized

marriages. You could have a virtually unlimited amount of "wives"/"husbands", as long as you don't try to do it legally.

[Cerridwen]

12. Polygamy video up

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3121963&mesg_id=3121963