What A Great Time To Back To The...20th Century? 19th? 16th?

Removing kids from a house of authoritarianism and hate to a world they weren't allowed comprehend

Hell, we can go back all the way to Biblical Times!

"But King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites... And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart." (KJV, Kings 1, verses 1 & 3)

Yeah, this is another post about the FDLS. Yesterday came the ruling from the appeals court that the State of Texas did not have the right to extract the children of the FLDS from the compound:

By LISA SANDBERG and TERRI LANGFORD
San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle

According to the court, "The existence of the FLDS belief system as described by the Department’s witnesses, by itself, does not put children of FLDS parents in physical danger."

It stated, "Removing children from their homes on an emergency basis before fully litigating the issue of whether the parents should continue to have custody of the children is an extreme measure."

"The danger must be to the physical health or safety to the child," the appeals court wrote. "The Department (CPS) did not present any evidence of danger to the physical health or safety of any male children or any female children who had not reached puberty."

One mother responded: "A great day for the families of Texas"

Huh? I'm sorry, but this is where I differ with a lot of people: The State of Texas was right to withdraw the children. Yes, you heard that right: I'm actually saying that Texas did something right for a change!

I guess I have a different slant: notice that the judge said there was no evidence of physical abuse. But what about emotional abuse? What about false imprisonment? The isolation imposed on these children is nothing else. They have no choice in the matter of estrangement to the rest of the world. Remember: what these kids are taught (and not taught) is a matter of extreme importance in this issue. These kids have been taught that the ENTIRE outside world is evil. Most of them (if not all) have never been outside the compound. They are not allowed to mingle with people, lot allowed to read newspapers, not allowed the internet (and in but rare circumstances) not allowed television. Their perception of the world is so damaged that they can ONLY feel secure within the compound.

Then there is the case of the mothers being imprisoned as well. Polygamy as practiced by the FLDS demands that to get to heaven, every man must have at least three wives. Warren Jeffs (former leader of the FLDS now serving time in prison) had 12 wives! That makes Henry VIII look rather anemic in comparison! Let's face it, to have multiple wives, Henry VIII did it the hard way: successively and individually. That's way too hard on a man's psyche. And was very hard on the wives - even the ones who kept their heads!

Escape, by Carolyn Jessop could be the most accurate account of how prison-like the FLDS is. While I haven't read the book yet, I've read the reviews and all of them give the book the highest rating (5 stars). I've yet to see that for any book. According to Jessop: absolute obedience to husbands is stressed from childhood. Formal education for girls is curtailed in the early teens. Wives have no access to bank accounts. Newspapers are never seen. Access to television is often banned and always monitored.

A relative, Flora Jessop said this about the FLDS's compound in Hildale, UT: "What goes on in that place is nothing less than sexual slavery. At 16, after I rebelled, I was given an alternative: a forced marriage or the mental asylum," she claims. "The local police and judges were in cahoots with the church."

BTW: The name of Jessop is extremely common in the FLDS community. Why? This item from Wikipedia says a lot:

The Colorado City/Hildale, Utah area has the world's highest incidence of fumarase deficiency, an extremely rare genetic condition which causes severe mental retardation. Geneticists attribute this to the prevalence of cousin marriage between descendants of two of the town's founders, Joseph Smith Jessop and John Yates Barlow. At least half of the double community's roughly eight-thousand inhabitants are descended from one or both men.

So, I must comment again: even though there was no evidence of physical abuse, wouldn't rape, false imprisonment and incest as tenets of a "religion" force you to extract these kids as quickly as possible?

Solomon wasn't all that wise.

Solomon Receiving the Queen of Sheba