The Voice Of One Crying Out In Suburbia

More on the FLDS debacle

The state of Texas finally released the children of the FLDS cult last week in what can charitably be described as a disaster. Texas governor Rick Perry has warned them to consider getting out of Texas...

DALLAS (AP) -- Gov. Rick Perry hinted Thursday that members of a polygamist sect whose children were recently returned amid a botched sex-abuse investigation should pack their bags, a newspaper reported.

Perry, who was in La Baule, France, for a European business conference, said that the state of Texas has an obligation to protect young women from being forced into marriage and underage sex, The Dallas Morning News reported in its online edition.

He also warned members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that child sex abuse won't be tolerated and even suggested that followers of the renegade Mormon sect may want to get out.

"If you are going to conduct yourself that way, we are going to prosecute you," Perry said. "If you don't want to be prosecuted for those activities, then maybe Texas is not the place you need to consider calling home."

Very smooth, we come in and take your children without legal backing and now in the wake of that incident we tell you to get out of our state or we might come take your kids again. Very nice.
I cannot imagine what this has been like for the parents of those children, to have the government swoop in and seize your children based on accusations leveled anonymously against another individual. Despite the fact that they are odd and heretics, and that what they are accused of may very well be happening, there was no legal basis for it and the government just doesn't get to come into our homes and take our children because of vague suspicions.

The other big issue here is that because of the ham fisted actions of the state officials, in the event another real complaint comes up, they will have a much harder time taking action in the future, which is probably why Governor Perry issued his "warning".

The net result here is that these children were taken from their parents without justification, which will be used by the cult as an example of the evils of the outside world and increase their hold over these people; the state of Texas lost an enormous amount of credibility; they have made it harder for real complaints to be dealt with; families were put through an enormous amount of heartache absolutely without cause or justification.

This whole event also gave rise to another occasion for papers to erroneously assert that the mainstream mormon church renounced polygamy a century ago, when it reality it remains a valid doctrine of Mormonism, the practice of which has been suspended currently. The whole sordid affair is yet another example of our government overstepping it's bounds, especially where parents and children are concerned.