even after repeated refusals by witnesses to testify, instead choosing to plea the fifth, the grand jury handed down indictments against 6 flds members, including warren jeffs, their “prophet”.  5 of the members were charged with sexual assault of a child and the 6th member was charged with failure to report child abuse.  one of the 5 was also charged with bigamy.

Jeffs has married girls as young as 11, according to evidence entered in court since the raid.

While the group acknowledges that unions between underage girls and men exist, they have stressed that such unions are rare and are the girl’s choice.

i hope they throw the book at the lot of them. 

from the bbc, “Court overrules Texas sect raid”:

An appeal court has ruled that US officials had no right to seize 463 children from a polygamist sect in western Texas last month.

The court said that the reasons given for the children’s removal were “legally and factually insufficient”.

But it did not immediately order the return of the children to the ranch.

the court’s actual ruling is here: 3rd Court.pdf

personally, i think it’s a shame that a cult, whose beliefs are such that “there is no age at which a girl is too young to be married”, can exist.  colour this a victory for pedophiles everywhere. :(  if you want to be a pedophile, just start a church…. or join the flds.

a telling “cartoon” straight off the flds site, http://www.truthwillprevail.org.  (blech)

update: 09/30/08 - it appears that the flds site is trying to ~clean up their act~, as the image is no longer available on their site.  they won’t get off that easy, though, the intarwebs came through:

you created it, don’t go gettin’ all shy now, flds.

i am hearing some really disturbing arguments in defense of the flds compound and it’s practices.  the arguments seem to revolve around:

1) “freedom from religious persecution”—as if our first amendment’s purpose was to allow for ~any~ behaviour under a guise of religion.

The Belief-Conduct Distinction—While the Court has consistently affirmed that the Free Exercise Clause protects religious beliefs, protection for religiously motivated conduct has waxed and waned over the years. The Free Exercise Clause ‘‘embraces two concepts—freedom to believe and freedom to act. The first is absolute, but in the nature of things, the second cannot be.’’

thus, you’ve the right to believe whatever loony thing you want to believe.  acting on those beliefs is an entirely different matter.  the state CAN and WILL step in if you are breaking the law.

2) “individual liberty”—this strikes me as extremely bizarre, as the children and women of this compound have had NO liberty whatsoever.  they aren’t given a choice.  it is not ~choice~ when you are told that if you go against the wishes of the prophet, you are worthy of death.

3) saudi arabia do it, it’s a ~cultural~ issue. —why people consistently want to turn us into places like saudi arabia, i cannot imagine.  and again, you are back to there being no liberty, no real choice for these women and children.

to see people defend the likes of warren jeffs is more disturbing and offensive than i can even say.  i question the motives of those who have.  there must be serious issues there.

for more information on the flds: