3 June 2008
FLDS Change Their Policy for the Good
Posted by Joy Bischoff under: Constitution in Peril; Judaeo-Christian Values Under Attack .
Families separated by raid on sect are reunited
SAN ANGELO, Texas - More than 400 children taken from a polygamist sect’s ranch two months ago began returning to the arms of their tearful parents Monday, hours after a judge bowed to a state Supreme Court ruling that the seizure was not justified.
“It’s just great day,” said Nancy Dockstader, whose chin quivered and eyes filled with tears as she embraced her 9-year-old daughter, Amy, outside a foster-care center in Gonzales, about 65 miles east of San Antonio. “We’re so grateful.”
Walther’s order requires the parents to stay in Texas, to attend parenting classes and to allow the children to be examined as part of any abuse investigation.
But it does not put restrictions on the children’s fathers, require that the parents renounce polygamy or force them to leave the Yearning For Zion Ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Late Monday, elder Willie Jessop said the church won’t allow underage girls to marry. Jessop said the new policy will forbid any girl to marry who is not of legal consent age in the state where she lives.
Jessop said the church has been widely misunderstood, but he said the church will not sanction marriages of underage girls and will counsel members against such unions. He insisted marriages within the church have always been consensual.
6 Comments so far...
Mac Says:
3 June 2008 at 9:30 am.
Wow this is fabulous. This new policy should do a lot to help stop the persecution. It had better and now this group can enter the modern world where young people have more choice than they were given in the olden days. Welcome to the twenty first century FLDS.
Tony Says:
3 June 2008 at 10:18 am.
That was just sad. Taking 400 children away from there parents when it was the parents who were in the wrong was just stupid. ( if i have misunderstood what happened please correct me) I am glad they are going to change that policy.
Angela Rogin Says:
3 June 2008 at 10:30 am.
Yes, those children are going to have scars for what has been done to them, and they will never trust the system. Just like that Thomas Jefferson quote that was here a week ago. The government needs to fear the people not the people the government. This was tyrannical.
Nalvy Says:
3 June 2008 at 1:27 pm.
Well now that the Government has provided more reasons for the FLDS to not trust them I say I am glad it is done and over with. I feel horrible for those children.. i mean if they are raised thinking something is right and then suddenly they are ripped away from that life and dropped into homes where we all know they were being told constantly their life was wrong! Why should they trust those who are outside of their world?
All i am saying is that the judges made the right choice… I dont condone ploygamy but I dont condone what happened either.
Cavetrollhead Says:
4 June 2008 at 3:03 am.
Well Basically Tony, you are right, but before you judge the parents too harshly, remember that if you take a trip in the way back machine, you will find that the FLDS would be Womens Libbers of 150 years ago regarding the age of consent.
Polygamy wasn’t so normal then- but mistresses were. Plural marriage was forbidden by the US congress in order to take power from Mormon Utah Governors about 150years ago.
Ironically mistresses were very common even among respectable people and, more or less, accepted by even the high society.
Then remember that the FLDS were forced out of main stream society by the US Gvt when they failed to comply with anti polygamy laws like the Main body of the Mormon (LDS) church did. The FLDS apostatized from the LDS and literally fled society in the last half of the 19th century. Why? Not because of underage marriage - but because of polygamy.
Underage marriage was not an issue. In fact, in some states it still wouldn’t be an issue for the FLDS. Check this out! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Age_of_Consent.png You will notice that the age of consent is still 16 in some US states.
And I quote from here: http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/teacher/aoc.htm
“American reformers were shocked to discover that the laws of most states set the age of consent at the age of ten or twelve, and in one state, Delaware, the age of consent was only SEVEN! Women reformers and advocates of social purity initiated a campaign in 1885 to petition legislators to raise the legal age of consent to at least sixteen, although their ultimate goal was to raise the age to eighteen.”
So you see that considering the FLDS have be segregated from society for so long, they could be considered champions for girls compared to the US from whence they fled.
So a sense of no-so-ancient-history, should give us a more tempered perspective of the FLDS.
Lets hope history isn’t so kind to the self-righteous CPS of Texas.
Joy Bischoff Says:
4 June 2008 at 8:22 am.
Wow, that was a great comment, Cave. Thanks and I couldn’t agree more.
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