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.

The rights of parents versus the authority of the state

A simply outstanding Albert Mohler show last Friday, on parental rights in light of the Texas FLDS compound issue. The show’s title captures the question: Balancing Parental Authority and Government Oversight. It is a frightening propisition to any parent, the idea of some official coming into your home, declaring you an unfit parent and seizing your children.

What should be the default position when it comes to parents? The default position is either that parents have ultimate rights to raise their children unless and until they are shown uncategorically to have abdicated that right by actions or neglect. Unfortunately we see more and more that the state’s reaction is just the opposite, take the kids on the flimsiest of evidence and then we will figure out what happened once the kids are “safe” in our custody. That is the world turned upside down, but it plays into the midset that I continually point out of the self-proclaimed elites in education and government assuming that they know what is best for children, over and above the parents.

Dr. Mohler gave a very sobering warning. There are those who would use the same argument against evangelical Christians that were used on the FLDS parents. Because of how we raise our kids, educational choices, religious upbringing, discipline, all manner of issues that some would find objectionable. If you think that couldn’t happen, that this is overreacting to the situation, then let me assure you of one thing: If they can take their kids, they can take ours.

Are there situations where children should be removed from the home? Of course. I have been closely involved in such a circumstance where the parents had clearly neglected a child before she was even born through substance abuse. Is this situation in Texas with the FLDS one of them? Quite possibly, although the state hasn’t proven that to be the case. But that should always been the last option, after every other avenue has been exhausted and the burden of proof falls entirely on the state.

Finally some sanity in Texas

Let me say first that I find the entire FLDS cult in Texas to be reprehensible. They are both a modern reflection of the very ugliest aspects of the early, non-sanitized mormon church of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young as well as a sect of false teachers led by false prophet Warren Jeffs. Theologically they are as false a religion as Islam, mainstream mormonism, Buddhism or atheism. But the idea that based on some assumptions and what turns to likely be a hoax phone call the authorities seized 400+ children from their families is a perversion of justice and a stain on our national identity. You would think that the government would have learned from Waco and Ruby Ridge. So today's decision that Texas officials overstepped their authority in seizing every child from the FLDS compound is a welcome note of justice in an otherwise entirely unjust event.

SAN ANGELO, Texas — In a ruling that could torpedo the case against the West Texas polygamist sect, a state appeals court Thursday said authorities had no right to seize more than 440 children in a raid on the splinter group's compound last month.

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the state failed to show the youngsters were in any immediate danger, the only grounds in Texas law for taking children from their parents without court action.

Try to take this event and overlay it on a more familiar setting. What if someone at Willow Creek or some other mega-church was accused of abusing children, so the cops came in and took away all of the children of every family that were members of the church? What if the cops showed up in Dearborn, Michigan based on an anonymous phone call that Muslim parents were raising up children as terrorists, so the police took all of the children from their parents in the assumption that if one Muslim family was raising a child to be a terrorist, they all must be. The probable cause the police used here would never hold up in any court for any sort of offense. I have no idea what possessed the authorities in Texas to assume that they were free to round up whole families of children. It was certainly made easier because of the odd temple, the closed nature of the sect, the fact that they dress like extras on Little House on the Prairie. But being an oddball is not a crime in this country, at least not yet.

This whole episode is an example of the nanny state gone malevolent. The assumption is that parents, especially parents with strongly held religious beliefs, really especially when those religious beliefs are a bit out of the mainstream, are not to be trusted to raise their own children or make decisions based on those beliefs. There are people in this country who believe that every parent who holds deeply felt religious beliefs and teaches those beliefs to their children is inherently unfit. Some no doubt believe that teaching children old fashioned religion is tantamount to child abuse. Whether or not you agree with the FLDS doctrines and practice (which I don't), whether or not you think that it is probable that young girls are being wed to creep old guys and abused in this community (which I do), without proof that a crime is being committed these people have the same rights as any other America citizens, rights that have been grossly violated by authorities who have flaunted their authority. It is easy to brush this aside in the belief that because these people are kooks, it has no real impact on regular old Christians. But it is a slippery slope, and a pretty short one, between rounding up the kids of the FLDS and rounding up Baptist kids at a Vacation Bible School. Think that is extreme, think that could never happen in America?

Think again.