Polygamist Sect Encouraged Fear

Children At Texas Compound Were Told That The Outside World Is Hostile And Immoral

(CBS/AP)  All their lives, the girls in the polygamist sect in the West Texas desert were told that the outside world was hostile and immoral, and that venturing beyond the brilliant white limestone walls of their compound would consign them to eternal damnation.

Now, if the state gets its way, hundreds of the girls could be put in foster homes, in what could be a wrenching cultural adjustment that may require intensive counseling.

"What they are up against is having to deprogram an entire community," said Margaret Cooke, who left the sect with seven of her eight children near the end of 1994. The children "are so naive and they have been sheltered to the point that they don't even trust their own judgment."

Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for the state Children's Protective Services, said the agency is working with mental health and other experts to make the children's transition as easy as possible.

Meanwhile, in court papers unsealed Friday, authorities said they found a "cyanide poisoning document" in their search of the compound in the town of Eldorado. But the 80-page list of items seized gave no further explanation.

Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said the document consisted of pages torn out of a first-aid book on how to treat cyanide poisoning. But she said she didn't know why the sect would have such information on hand.

Child welfare officials seized more than 400 children, most of them girls, in the raid on the compound of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, saying the youngsters were in danger of physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

The renegade Mormon splinter group requires girls at puberty to enter into polygamous marriages with much older men and produce children, authorities say. The sect also teaches children to fear the outside world, including the very authorities who removed them until a court hearing Thursday that will help determine their future.

"You're taught to fear everyone and everything," said Cooke, herself a 16-year-old bride.

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Read Hari Sreenivasan's blog post from San Angelo.

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The children and the 139 women who followed them voluntarily out of the compound are being so secretive that child welfare officials are having trouble sorting out who the youngsters' parents are.

The state is now scrambling to find shelter for the women and children, reports CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenivasan.

Most of the children are the offspring of the faith's inner circle - including its now-imprisoned prophet, Warren Jeffs - who were born since construction began on the compound in 2003, or were hand-selected by Jeffs to come to the enclave, which the sect regards as part of Zion on Earth

In 2003 and 2004, Jeffs, the spiritual leader of an estimated 6,000 followers in two adjoining towns along the Utah-Arizona line, plucked children under the age of 6 to bring to Texas without their parents, former sect member Isaac Wyler said.

"Over age 6 they were too contaminated for the world to be of use to God," said Wyler, who still lives in Colorado City, Ariz., and has 39 siblings. "He picked the ones that would be the most obedient, the ones that would be qualified to go to Zion."

Authorities raided the Eldorado ranch April 3 after a girl from the clan made a whispered telephone call for help to a family violence shelter. The 16-year-old, who indicated she was a few weeks' pregnant, said her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her. The girl has not yet been identified among the 416 children and may not even be among them.

In the call, the girl said that sect members warned her that if she ever left, outsiders would hurt her and force her to cut her hair, wear makeup and have sex with many men.

Most of the sect's children have never attended public schools or worn modern clothing. The girls wear long, pioneer-style dresses and keep their long hair pinned up in braids.

In their search of the compound, police uncovered dozens of journals and other documents that contain birth, marriage and other genealogical records. That may help social workers match children with their parents.

According to tax documents, the ranch paid more than $400,000 in taxes in 2006, reports Sreenivasan. In addition to a cement plant and cheese factory, the hundreds of women and children could be another source of income.

The hearing next Thursday will determine whether the state gets full custody of the children or whether they can return to the compound in Eldorado.

[billorights]

Atheists, like myself, who act morally because it''s the right thing to do, don''t need scary examples like this to convince us to treat others as we would want to be treated. As for declaring god "supreme," I really don''t get that, does god have an inferiority complex? - Posted by Voltaire333 at 06:19 PM : Apr 12, 2008

I will take your word that you act morally, but I would not be surprised if there were more than a few times in your life that you did the right thing in large measure because of the fear of some consequence, rather than only because it was the right thing to do. Whether it was a parent, a teacher, a traffic cop, or the IRS, there must be numerous examples that you can recall.

As to declaring God supreme, as you put it, there is a bit of a semantic difference to be seen in the 10 Commandments. The 3rd commandment states Do Not Have Any Other Gods Before Me, which sounds a bit less authoritarian.

[bsl103158]

Any adult or adolescent males that Warren found the silliest excuse to kick out, he kicked out. He has done this to hundreds of boys and many dozens of young and middle-aged fathers and husbands, so that his pervert cronies could get more wives and so that the adolescent girls would not be able to marry anyone they really might choose themselves.Young,kicked-out males are not sought for eventual return, but young females that escape have often been hunted down with guns, believe it or not, from city to city. When you see a reasonably normal-looking couple with this group, bear in mund that Warren may have tolerated them just to keep a few less weird couples to parade in front of cameras when needed, so his group has a veneer of acceptability to keep the public fooled. There have been hundreds of underaged girls forced and "re-educated" with this group. This is a pillar of the flds doctrine. They know if they can keep the girls pregnant, and believing the whole world is wicked, they can keep them a long time, since to run away with numerous little ones to beg for help from strangers is impossible for them to face, but some have. Plenty of books to read about all this.

[cpaide]

"All their lives, the girls in the polygamist sect in the West Texas desert were told that the outside world was hostile and immoral, and that venturing beyond the brilliant white limestone walls of their compound would consign them to eternal damnation."

i thought they learned that from watching South Park and MTV.

[darnedsocks]

WHERE ARE THE BOYS? OBVIOUSLY, HALF THEIR CHILDREN WILL BE BOYS? WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM, IF ONE MAN HAS 10 WIVES, THAT MEANS THERE ARE 9 MEN WHO HAVE NO WIFE; CORRECT? DO THEY KILL THEM OFF OR CAST THEM OUT OR WHAT?

[darnedsocks]

WHERE ARE THE BOYS? OBVIOUSLY, HALF THEIR CHILDREN WILL BE BOYS? WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM WHEN THEY GROW UP.... IF ONE MAN HAS 10 WIVES, THAT MEANS THERE ARE 9 MEN WHO HAVE NO WIFE; CORRECT?

[jankebenz]

jankebenz, TESTIFY, MY BROTHER!

(I.e., you are a hopeless cause)

Posted by Voltaire333 at 09:38 PM : Apr 12, 2008

Is that another way of saying you find it too hard to argue against sound reasoning? Don''t feel bad, its hard to deny the truth, for the truth will catch up to all sooner or later. The trick is to find it before it finds you!

[cpaide]

this is obviously a scheme by some crazy fundamentalist christians zealots to kidnap several hundred white children and sell them for adoption.

shame on texas.

don''t mess with mormans.

[voltaire333]

jankebenz, TESTIFY, MY BROTHER!

(I.e., you are a hopeless cause)

[mediabrat60]

For once this is actually entertaining but I just wish I wasn''t so da*M sick....it''s a friggin'' pain just to sit here and type.......it took so much time to go thru all these "scripts" and now i need to go back and lay down.

My only hope is Sunday will be a better day.
Oh yes, the Lords day.
Well, wait.....actually, the Sabbath is Saturday...which would be today........OH YOU FILTHY SINNERS!!!

I need more cold medicine.

[bdrlnt4rl]

now there is some good commenting going on. this is enjoyable

i still would like to know where down-ndirty gets his idea that jesus was brash with his mother.

wasn''t that the last thing jesus said before he died to john, take care of my mother, well, not in those exact words, but to that nature?

[jankebenz]

What is this way out of our predicament? First, we must understand that the offer of reconciliation with God is extended to us as a gift (Romans 6:23). A gift must be accepted for it to be of any use -- otherwise it remains a perpetual offer. A gift cannot be earned because then the gift is no longer a gift -- it becomes wages for a job done (Ephesians 2:8-9). We must approach God individually in humility to accept the gift God is offering to us.

To accept the gift of reconciliation that God offers us we must understand that we are imperfect sinners who cannot save ourselves (Romans 3:23). Also, we must understand that God, as the determiner of all truth and morality, is just and true. As sinners, unless we reconcile ourselves with God then we will die in our state of sinfulness and will be punished eternally (because our offenses are against an eternal God) as the just treatment for our state of sin. Yet, while God is just and must punish us for our sins He is also merciful and has extended to us the gift of salvation.

[jankebenz]

trust it to tell us the truth about worlds of which we do not know. Therefore, the Bible must be open to scrutiny to prove its trustworthiness. As those seeking truth with an open mind, we have examined the Bible and found it to be perfect and without error. Therefore, since it has no errors we read it as the source of all truth and study it to learn what we must know about both God and life on earth.

With the Bible as our guide for life and morality we know how we must submit to God and how we must act in order to live a life that pleases him. In the Bible we read that mankind has chosen to separate themselves from God because we humans have failed to meet His standard of behavior and conduct (Romans 3:23, Isaiah 59:2). This failure is called "sin" because of the Old English archery term. In archery contests if an archer failed to hit the mark the judge of the contest would yell out "sin". Thus, whenever we sin we fall short of God''s standard for us -- perfection (Matthew 5:48).

Since no one is perfect morally we seem to have no hope. In fact, we as humans could not rectify this situation, no more than a drowning man can save himself by pulling on his hair to lift himself out of the water. Yet, God extended mercy to us by making a way for us to be saved out of this situation (1 John 4:9-10).

[jankebenz]

As people searching for truth with an open mind, we must conclude that there is a source of truth which is bigger than the universe and which gives meaning to all of life. This source of truth must also be personal. We know the source of all truth to be personal because the universe in which we live had a beginning. Having a beginning, the universe must have been caused because it obviously had a starting point. If the universe had a beginning it must have had either a personal or impersonal cause. Since there is no such thing as spontaneous generation (an impersonal cause) the universe must have had a cause which is personal. This personal source for the universe and the truth within it is God Himself.

If God exists and if He gives meaning to the universe then we as His creatures must submit ourselves to him. Fortunately, we have not been left groping in the dark for information about this God, as some would claim. Instead we have the Bible, a book which claims within itself to be the truth of God. If this is the case we must also question the Bible in our search for the truth. If the Bible, which claims to speak to us of realities beyond this world, is true then it must be internally consistent and unable to make any mistakes. If there are any inconsistencies in the Bible concerning the truth of this world then how can we trust it to tell us the truth about worlds
continued

[jankebenz]

Voltaire!
People must approach life with a desire to seek out truth and an open mind to honestly judge the truth value of what is real. Truth is here defined as that which corresponds to reality and that reality is that which is perceived by all people, not any given individual''s perception of truth. For example, if any person can, through their senses, determine that the computer you are viewing this on exists then it is real and it exists in truth. A Christian must also be someone who will seek truth in reality.

In a search for the truth, one must realize that if there is no source of truth which is larger than the universe itself then there can be no truth shared by all people in the universe. In other words, if there is no source of truth bigger than the universe then all truth is merely that which can be perceived by any given individual or group of individuals. The belief that there is no truth larger than the universe itself is the philosophical system known as relativism. If everything is relative then all of society and all of life falls apart because there is no basis for ethics, morality or cooperation between human beings. What may be true for one person may not be true for me. Taken to an extreme this philosophy decays all of society because there is no means for stating that any action is right or wrong. A person can kill if they so desire because it is true for them.
continued

[voltaire333]

Only the firstborn of the egyptians were slain because pharoh refused to heed the warnings of Moses.
. . . A lesson for those who refuse God,s warnings,
Listen and obey, or it will cost you dearly.
Posted by jankebenz at 04:21 PM : Apr 12, 2008

Actually, on further reflection, I guess another lesson to learn here is that no matter whether you act morally or not, you might be struck dead based on something as fortuitous as the choices made by someone you have absolutely no control over, so there really is no fear-based reason to act morally.

Atheists, like myself, who act morally because it''s the right thing to do, don''t need scary examples like this to convince us to treat others as we would want to be treated. As for declaring god "supreme," I really don''t get that, does god have an inferiority complex?

[voltaire333]

Only the firstborn of the egyptians were slain because pharoh refused to heed the warnings of Moses.
. . . A lesson for those who refuse God,s warnings,
Listen and obey, or it will cost you dearly.
Posted by jankebenz at 04:21 PM : Apr 12, 2008

Actually, on further reflection, I guess another lesson to learn here is that no matter whether you act morally or not, you might be struck dead based on something as fortuitous as the choices made by someone you have absolutely no control over, so there really is no fear-based reason to act morally.

Atheists, like myself, who act morally because it''s the right thing to do, don''t need scary examples like this to convince us to treat others as we would want to be treated. As for declaring god "supreme," I really don''t get that, does god have an inferiority complex?

[voltaire333]

Pretty easy, the difference between the 2 testaments is that in the n.t. a new era arrives when God sent his son Jesus to preach the good news (gospel)and to die for our sins (an ultimate sacrifice of love). . .

Only the firstborn of the egyptians were slain because pharoh refused to heed the warnings of Moses.
After 10 plagues of warning and loosing his son,pharoh finally relented and declared God as supreme.A lesson for those who refuse God,s warnings,
Listen and obey, or it will cost you dearly.
BTW,the events of what happened to the egyptians are documented by hieroglyics on various monuments and stones in Egypt
Posted by jankebenz at 04:21 PM : Apr 12, 2008

Okay, but you haven''t explained all the contradictions between the Old and the New Testament, which can only mean that God is not perfect because he changes his mind about morality.

Furthermore, I have no use for a god who kills innocent children because of something a pharoh does or refuses to do. Not only is it silly and stupid, it''s just plain cruel, so the "lesson" here, if there is one, is that god is arbitrary, capricious, and at best, stupid.

[jankebenz]

then why''''d he pull the ol'''' switcheroo between the Old and the New Testament? And, how do I know he isn''''t still trying to make up his mind? Further, the following doesn''''t seem to me to be a sign of someone with perfect character, but I''''m sure reasonable minds will differ (not): "And at midnight the LORD killed all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn son of the captive in the dungeon. Even the firstborn of their livestock were killed. Pharaoh and his officials and all the people of Egypt woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt. There was not a single house where someone had not died." (Exodus 12:29-30 NLT)

Posted by Voltaire333 at 03:08 PM : Apr 12, 2008

Pretty easy, the difference between the 2 testaments is that in the n.t. a new era arrives when God sent his son Jesus to preach the good news (gospel)and to die for our sins (an ultimate sacrifice of love).This event was predicted to occur throughout the old testament.
Only the firstborn of the egyptians were slain because pharoh refused to heed the warnings of Moses.
After 10 plagues of warning and loosing his son,pharoh finally relented and declared God as supreme.A lesson for those who refuse God,s warnings,
Listen and obey, or it will cost you dearly.
BTW,the events of what happened to the egyptians are documented by hieroglyics on various monuments and stones in Egypt

[klingon69]

i wear a thong, does that make me a *********
Posted by bdrlnt4rl at 12:47 PM : Apr 12, 2008
Well, that depends, you may have grown up from a ***-puppy to a ho-dog

[down-ndirty]

faith comes by righteousness, although miracles often confirm one faith.
Posted by jankebenz at 02:55 PM : Apr 12, 2008
-------------------------

Are you so tunnel-visioned that you believe that religious people have a monopoly on righteous? Are you so naive to believe that only religious people have morals?

Why is it that the majority of the U.S. cities with high crime rates are in republican (moral?) states? Three of those cities are in Texas, a very republican and extremely religious state. LOL... Maybe that''s why the polygamists relocated there.

Why is it that the majority of the U.S. cities with low crime rates are in democratic (low or no morals?) states?

Why is it that so many "religious figures" such as Ted Haggerty, Jimmy Baker, Jimmy Swaggert, et al, are so easily corrupted by sin?

I would think that if god is so omniscient and omnipotent that no religious person would ever DARE to step off the line.

Duh... Omniscient and omnipotent are mutually exclusive terms. If god is "all knowing" why doesn''t she do something about all the "bad" things?