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Polygamist sect hearing in Texas descends into farce

Posted by Charlie Kilo on April 18th, 2008

You could have seen this coming from a mile away:

A court hearing to decide the fate of the 416 children swept up in a raid on a West Texas polygamist sect descended into farce Thursday, with hundreds of lawyers in two packed buildings shouting objections and the judge struggling to maintain order.

The case - clearly one of the biggest, most convoluted child-custody hearings in U.S. history - presented an extraordinary spectacle: big-city lawyers in suits and mothers in 19th-century, pioneer-style dresses, all packed into a courtroom and a nearby auditorium connected by video.

At issue was an attempt by the state of Texas to strip the parents of custody and place the children in foster homes because of evidence they were being physically and sexually abused by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a renegade Mormon splinter group suspected of forcing underage girls into marriage with older men.

As many feared, the proceedings turned into something of a circus - and a painfully slow one.

One Response to “Polygamist sect hearing in Texas descends into farce”

  1. Leah PettePiece Says:
    April 21st, 2008 at 4:31 pm

    Talking about Live Vote: What should judge do? - Crime & courts- msnbc.com

    Quote
    Live Vote: What should judge do? - Crime & courts- msnbc.com
    when children and women are being mind washed in a cult masquerading as ‘religion’ it is time for the state to step in and apply the law in as stern a way as possible. This is 2008, just forcing the girls to wear such outlandish clothing constitutes abuse in many states, and the problem here is that these people are under the influence of teachers who are misusing religion for their own aggrandizement. The situation is not much different then the Dravidian Branch and we all remember what eventually happened there. There are young children who are being indoctrinated into a belief system from which there is no escape, they are not being taught about modern day life, technology, innovation, science, or health issues. They are being taught a way of life that will forever separate them from the world at large, and they are not old enough to be able to say no on their own.
    As the Social services has pointed out even the adult women from this cult are unable to make decisions on their own. The court must begin to come at this problem from the standpoint of what exactly constitutes a health psychological relationship between adults and children. Many of these children probably could not pick out the mothers who birthed them if they were put in a line and asked “Who is your Mother, who id your Father? The damage to the minds of these children is already evident in the faces of these emaciated, odd looking slow adults that are seen on the tapes from the ranch and now are on national news.
    There should be no hesitation in taking these children away from what is not a healthy environment. I once as a foster parent had a child who had been raised by some Mormons these two boys have six mothers, couldn’t even tell me which one gave birth to them, they didn’t respond to social stimuli in normal ways. they were totally incapable of normal play with children from the foster family, they didn’t understand that TV was not real, nor were they able to state they were hungry or cold, or needed something. They were reclusive, and scared of everything in the world. I bet that if you took two of three of these children at a time and put them in a playground situation with normal children you could write a thesis based on their abnormal social responses.
    Although the Constitution provides freedom for Religion it does not give a blanket to what is called Religion, no indeed, if you read closely the amendments regarding freedom of Religion you will find that there are guidelines as to what constitutes a religion, and those guidelines do not cover cults that are off shoots of normal Religions, it also might surprise you to know that this entire compound there is a perfect definition of a “CULT!”
    I would surely hope that the Judge in this case does her homework, because no matter what the mothers and ‘fathers’ of these children say, the way in which the children are being brought up is unhealthy! How many homes do you know of where coming into a central room and sitting on chairs in a circle to sing songs is considered “Playing”? How many homes do you know of where nothing is given to the children to help them learn about society in this country, and about the world? Just the facts tell a story of a place where children are treated like cattle, herded into meals in lines, made to wear clothing that is old fashioned. never dealt with as an individual, sleeping in room made up to look like dormitories, please….where is there any chance for individuality to grow, I watched as the one mother pointed out the dorm style rooms and the look alike dresses, good heavens if these children were in a live in school they would still be treated better than that!

    Personally the research that I have done says that this group is not a religious organization, they are a cult and the proof is in the definition of that word. I bet that if one of their “Prophets” told them to they would poison their children thinking it was the word of God, just like the people who followed Jim Jones did. Think about that…these people have no mind of their own; they are totally dependent on the leaders of the group. If these children are sent back there in a month, or a year we will hear that their prophets have decided they should die for the cause, or perhaps they will twist their minds and decide that the rest of us are evil and should be destroyed, who know what evil is in this place. The law must find a way to extricate these precious little kids from this life which they did not choose.
    5:12 PM | Add a comment | Send a message | Permalink | View trackbacks (0) | Blog it

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