Polygamist Sect Encouraged Fear

(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?