My wife and I were enthralled with the media coverage earlier this week on the FLDS scandal in Texas, where authorities have taken into custody hundreds of girls amid allegations of cult polygamy.
Today's Los Angeles Times has an excellent overview of the story, indicating that Texas - unlike Arizona, Utah, and other states - takes a hard line in protecting public safety from wayward polygamy groups:
After a polygamist sect took up residence outside this tiny ranch town a few years ago, the library stocked paperback, cassette and hardcover copies of "Under the Banner of Heaven," an unsparing look at such groups that was suddenly in hot demand.
The local weekly newspaper devoted stories in nearly every edition to the outsiders. And it posted online audio clips of the sect's self-styled prophet, Warren Jeffs, ranting in a creepy monotone about the Beatles being covert agents of a "Negro race."
The people of Eldorado (pronounced el-doh-RAY-do) took in the sect's arrival with nervous anticipation -- because they understood that, unlike in Utah and Arizona, this would not last long in Texas.
Texas' aggressive raid this month -- in which state investigators took custody of more than 400 children, disclosed evidence that men were marrying girls at puberty, and discovered beds allegedly used for sex acts inside a towering temple -- is the most decisive action against the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in at least half a century.
Court papers released Friday showed that state investigators hauled off a cache of evidence from the polygamist compound that included marriage and birth records and what was cryptically described as a "cyanide poisoning document."
Texas' raid contrasts sharply with the approaches of Arizona and Utah, which have looked the other way for decades while the FLDS put underage girls into "spiritual marriages." The 10,000-member sect was founded in the 1930s by religious leaders who continued practicing polygamy after it was banned by the Mormon Church in 1890.
"God bless Texas," said Flora Jessop, an activist who escaped the FLDS at age 16. "The state has done in days what Arizona and Utah failed to do in more than a century -- protect children."
Authorities in the sect's home states have recently taken more aggressive steps; Utah successfully prosecuted Jeffs last year for being an accomplice to rape after he arranged the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her cousin, and Jeffs awaits trial in Arizona on similar charges.
Utah and Arizona officials have long argued that polygamists are too entrenched in their states to simply stamp them out. In Utah, Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff's office has prosecuted polygamists for child abuse. But it has never contemplated a full-scale raid like the one in Texas, spokesman Paul Murphy said.
But see also the Times' related coverage, especially the "History of Polygamist Sect":
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a rogue offshoot of the Mormon Church, which has disavowed the sect. Polygamy is a central FLDS tenet, and FLDS followers believe the Mormon Church was wrong to have banned it in 1890. Here's a brief history of the group and recent events involving its leader, Warren Jeffs, who is imprisoned:
* 1930s: The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints breaks from the Mormon Church.
* 2002: Sect leader Rulon Jeffs dies and his son Warren becomes prophet, or leader, of the FLDS.
* 2003: Warren Jeffs starts banishing "unworthy" men and boys from the church. He reassigns wives and children to new husbands and fathers.
* 2005: Jeffs goes into hiding after felony criminal charges are filed against him in Arizona for the alleged arrangement of marriages between underage girls and adult men.
* 2006: In April, felony criminal charges are filed against Jeffs in Utah, accusing him of rape by accomplice in arranging a 2001 marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.
* 2007: Jeffs is convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of five years to life in prison.
* March 29-31, 2008: A 16-year-old girl calls a domestic violence shelter and reports that she lives at the YFZ (Yearning for Zion) Ranch, an FLDS compound near Eldorado, Texas, and that she has been sexually and physically abused by her 49-year-old husband.
* April 3: Texas police enter the YFZ compound and begin interviewing residents.
* April 4: Police begin removing children from the compound; eventually, 416 children are removed and placed in state custody.
See also, " Blind Eye to Culture of Abuse: Children of a Polygamist Sect Have Been Exploited, Molested for Years."
The New York Times has more information on the Texas case, "Texas Polygamy Raid May Pose Risk."
Photo Credit: "COMPOUND: The 1,691-acre YFZ Ranch, which stands for Yearning for Zion, in Eldorado, Texas," Los Angeles Times
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