Polygamy...

I've followed the news of the group in Texas, until lately, when there seems to be no new reports. Maybe it's a moot point to say that I think these women (and children) are brainwashed. But I do feel sorry for them, and wish they could be educated to think for themselves. Has anyone heard or read of any progress or new news of this situation?
Patty

I catch a glimpse of it now and then. I have great empathy for the children who are in a world they do not know. I imagine the greatest negative impact will be with the children, and may last a lifetime.

It seems to me that it is so unnatural to share a man with multiple wives, and it is interesting that the men of this "cult" have been noticeably absent when commenting on the situation.
The women who have spoken to the press seem programmed to the max. And I do feel sad for the children, both boys and girls, since they are indoctrinated and brainwashed to this lifestyle from infancy. I wonder how the new caregivers of the children are managing.
Patty

you have to wonder, if they are marrying the girls off at a young age to much older men, what happens to the boys?

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thelostone said:
you have to wonder, if they are marrying the girls off at a young age to much older men, what happens to the boys?

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Its sad to say - but they are probably waiting for their right to marry (age wise) so they too can have many wives.

Plus..... I have heard that some of the younger children taken from the site have shown many old broken bones on them - it is to sad to hear that these young people are being both sexually & phyicaly abused.

These are the times that makes one wonder about state of our Humanity - or the decline of it.

I feel really bad for the children in all of this. Yes it's not a great enviromonment to be brought up in, but I can't imagine the trauma of being taken away from your mother and community.

We have a branch of the same sect up here in BC. and so far the gov't doesn't seem to want to do anything about it. Makes me mad.

--splitimage

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In an interview for "20/20," Hawkins' former wife Kay says he began to preach polygamy after he was caught having an affair with a church secretary.

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From: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/st...4862997&page=1

It's very sad. Everyone just wants what is best for the children.

My p-doc and T told me that if anyone had ever walked into my house when I was a kid and saw what the living conditions were like, they would've had me out of there and in foster care in a flash.

Given the circumstances at the time,I honestly think that would've traumatized me even more.

I'm concerned that the children are feeling the same way. How scared they all must be.

This isn't about the polygamy aspect, but in regards to the young boys. There hasn't been much news coverage about it, but the young boys are showing up as being abused also.

It is very difficult for all involved, especially the children since they know nothing else and have been scared about the outsiders (normal society.) But children are resilient and while they will have to work through this abuse that's happened in their lives, they can begin to have good lives now without the abuse. I think there was at least one mother who also "left" the compound (meaning she stayed out, with her child, though not in the same place physically as her child.)

There have been many others who have come out from brainwashing compounds, indeed I can recall a time when it was in the news all the time of parents having a PI kidnap their child from a cult following and take them to a specialist etc for "normalization" so to speak.

We can legislate what is best for the country as a whole, for the people. There will always be those who think otherwise. It's one thing for people to honestly, truly choose what they get themselves into, and still another when they are taken or convinced by perverts as to what they "want."

It might also be more shocking to us, this event, because we assume that Americans have free will and freedom to choose... and it obvious that these people just didn't?

A friend of mine grew up in this kind of cult. She is quite a mess as her father raped and tortured her for many years, was a minister, etc. It saddens me that this kind of thing goes on all the time in these cults...

News about the broken bones.

Child welfare official testifies about YFZ Ranch kids at Texas Senate hearing

09:24 AM CDT on Thursday, May 1, 2008

By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com

AUSTIN – Dozens of youngsters swept by the state from a polygamist sect suffered broken or fractured bones in the past, some when children were "very young," Texas' top protective services official said today.

Carey Cockerell, head of the Department of Family and Protective Services, the parent agency of Child Protective Services, told a Senate panel that medical exams of the 463 youngsters removed from the sect discovered that 41 had previous bone breaks or fractures.
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"Several of these fractures have been found in very young children," Mr. Cockerell testified before the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. He did not specify their ages.

Mr. Cockerell said some individual youngsters experienced more than one bone break or fracture. He did not elaborate. At least initially, senators heeded Committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson's request they not ask questions about the April 4 raid and child removals so as not to jeopardize the ongoing legal investigation.

It was not clear whether the youngsters' rustic lifestyle at the Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado might include work or recreational activity that could cause broken bones.

Willie Jessop, a defacto spokesman for the YFZ ranch, called the broken bones testimony outrageous, and said it's "propaganda to make a case that cannot be proved."

Of course there are children who have had a broken arm or a broken leg, he said. "But to this magnitude – the picture they’re painting is very misleading," Mr. Jessop said. "It will never be able to be backed up with any facts."

According to the Web site of the Seattle Children’s Hospital, about half of all boys and a quarter of all girls break a bone sometime during childhood.

Mr. Cockerell also disclosed new details about difficulties the state had in keeping track of the children at makeshift shelters it set up in San Angelo this month.

He said it tried three different times to have each youngster and mother wear a wristband but some were tampered with. Also, he said some mothers switched children, and some exchanged clothes with one another, changing their own and the children's appearances. He said the sect’s mothers are use to "sharing motherly duties, including breast feeding."

Mr. Cockerell said CPS continues to investigate underage pregnancies among the 463 children removed from ranch owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He said a 464th child was born to a minor girl on Tuesday.

The state says more than half of the 53 girls ages 14 to 17 are pregnant or already have children. The sect says CPS is incorrectly including in that count 26 females who are actually 18 or older. Mr. Cockerell acknowledged there are "disputed minors."

But he said CPS has been presented with "no proof any … will ultimately be determined to be an adult."

CPS said it had to remove the children because the sect had a "pervasive" practice of arranging "spiritual marriages" between underage girls and older men, who are encouraged to have multiple wives. The sect's leaders, mothers of the children and some of their court-appointed lawyers have accused the state of overstepping its bounds.

Mr. Cockerell said the sect's children are "doing remarkably well" in state care, despite an earlier outbreak of chicken pox. Most are being kept in shelters and other group home-like settings. A few have been placed with traditional foster families.

"I want to assure you that every decision that I made … was predicated on ensuring the safety of these children," Mr. Cockerell said. "That was foremost in our minds every step of the way."

Ms. Nelson, R-Flower Mound, said all Texans worry about the children.

"Every child removed from that compound is now our responsibility," she said.

The last news I heard about this, they were getting ready to start evaluating individual cases. I bet none of this is easy for anyone.

Having lived in Southern Utah, I did come into contact with some of the polygamists there. A few of the children were enrolled in public education programs. Maybe it was mostly the ones who were least connected to the strict following of the FLDS church. I also know what happens to some of the boys. They kick them out. They will excommunicate boys over offenses like listening to music, playing video games, or looking at a girl. I met at least one man who had been kicked out as a boy. That's a difficult adjustment too, especially being cut off from their families and everything they have known.

In the past, I had met polygamous families who seemed to have relatively well-adjusted children and were only a little bit suspicious of outsiders. There was a girl, about 17 at the time, who showed goats at the state fair, and spent some time with a group of other exhibitors, and talked with us. She seemed to have options, and didn't seem to be under too much pressure to get married right away. My sense of the whole situation is that it has gotten worse over the last few years. I don't think they used to push marrying off the girls so young, or do so much brainwashing, as they seem to do now.

They now have 2 other compounds, of another sect, where they have witnesses of worse abuse.