The YFZ Children are Being Abused . . . by Texas
I posted the following comments today on the Wake Up America blog in response to their recent article:
http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2008/04/documents-detail-abuse-at-yfz-ranch.html
I think the following newspaper article should help some of us God Fearing (Loving) Christians to be a little bit more humble:
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Headline: "Former pastor charged with attempted rape may be close to resolving case"
By Stephen Hunt
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 04/16/2008 12:28:30 PM MDT
Posted: 12:29 PM- The former pastor of the First Baptist Church of Salt Lake City - charged with attempting to sexually assault a woman at his Midvale home - on Tuesday waived his right to a preliminary hearing in anticipation of resolving the case.
Scott Weisser, 52, is charged with attempted rape, a first-degree felony, and class B misdemeanor assault in connection with the alleged March 16 attack.
Weisser could settle the case during a hearing scheduled for May 1, prosecutors said.
Also on Tuesday, 3rd District Judge Stephen Roth released Weisser to the supervision of Pre-Trial Services. Weisser had been held at the Salt Lake County jail in lieu of $150,000 bail.
Weisser - who resigned as pastor following his arrest - entered a bedroom in the home and attempted to have sex with an adult relative, who repeatedly told him no and fought him off, according to charges.
Weisser also dragged the woman into a door jamb, causing slight abrasions to her hip, court documents said. The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not name alleged sexual-assault victims.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_8946309
Hey wannabe, this has nothing to do with the topic at hand. When those cases are in the news we report it, READ THE RULES and stick to the topic or you won't be commenting for long.
Susan
Dear Susan,
Please forgive me if I have broken a site rule. I promise that it was not my intention to do so. And, just so that I do not mess up in the future, could you please tell me what rule exactly that I have broken? Because, with all due respect, I sincerely believe that the newspaper article I quoted related very much to the issue we are currently discussing -- and was actually one of the more respectful comments I had read here.
You see, the Texas authorities tell us that they found three pregnant teenage girls on that YFZ Ranch. (Only 3 out of 416 kids) If that is true, and assuming that at least half the children on that ranch are girls, then the teenage pregnancy rate in that supposedly "crazy polygamist" community is actually much lower than the teenage pregnancy rate for girls in the rest of the state of Texas! To put it bluntly -- that ranch full of "nut jobs" is actually a much safer place for protecting the virtue of teenage girls than most other places in the state.
QUESTION: So, then, why did the Texas authorities raid the YFZ Ranch and not, let's say, Grand Prairie?
ANSWER: Because, it's okay to violate the Constitutional rights of people we don't like, people of another culture, people who practice a different religion than our own. Then, suddenly, due process can simply be ignored. Parental rights can be ignored. The natural bond between a parent and child can simply be thrown out the window.
Whatever very real abuse was suffered by SOME OF THE GIRLS on that ranch by certain tyrannical jerks, it can't be too much worse than the abuse -- THE VERY REAL ABUSE -- being inflicted upon ALL OF THE CHILDREN from that community by the tyranny of the state of Texas.
SUGGESTION: Find the actual men who married and impregnated those under-aged girls. Present the evidence in a court of law. And, then, throw the bums in jail. That is the American way. But, do not rip innocent children out of the arms of their mothers and kid yourself that you are doing anything but being EXTREMELY CRUEL. You are not helping the children. Rather, you are consigning them to foster care Hell, seemingly endless nights of crying themselves to sleep, and scarring them for the rest of their lives. If there is a just God in Heaven -- and I know that there is -- then the day will come when everyone involved in this massive tragedy (on both sides) will have to give an accounting. Until then, I pray that mercy and wisdom will prevail, but I have not seen too much of that so far.
SUMMARY: So, how does the recent newspaper article that I quoted relate to this issue? It relates in this way: When the police in Utah were alerted to the fact that a local Baptist minister had attempted to rape a relative, they did not use that as a provocation for raiding all of the Baptist homes within his congregation in order to remove all the Baptist children from their parents and put them in foster care. Why? Because it would been against the law, and more importantly, doing so would have been immoral. Hopefully, enough good folks in Texas will come to this realization too.
Love, Your Friend and Brother,
Alienated Wannabe
P.S. Please do not think that I am bashing Texans or Baptists. I have strong family ties to both the state of Texas and the Southern Baptist Convention. I know of the goodness inherent in both, and I feel a love and loyalty toward both -- my mother was born in Texas and my great grand daddy was the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas. It is just that I also know all too well the bigotry and ignorance that exists in the region toward Mormons in general, not to mention toward this small group of polygamists that split off from the main Mormon body a century ago. Thus, someone has to remind certain folks in Texas that, as strange as these people may seem, they are not that different from you. They love their kids, and they are usually pretty good parents. The sins of a few misguided men leading them does not justify traumatizing the entire population. Officials in Utah and Arizona learned that a long time ago. (Recently, they arrested their leader Warren Jeffs, but left the families intact.) Their counterparts in Texas still need to figure it out.
For more on this topic, and more eloquently presented, please read the most recent article posted on the website of conservative radio talk show host, Bob Lonsberry, at http://www.lonsberry.com/.
Thank you, and God bless!
Labels: Baptist, Civil Rights, Mormon, Polygamy, Texas, YFZ Ranch
posted by Alienated Wannabe @ 8:01 PM
15 comments
15 Comments:
I agree with you. Mass detentions are fine as long as it's a group that is out of favor.
Thanks, my friend. I knew you would see the same way.
There had to be a way to take care of the illegal segment of what they were doing without ripping the kids away from their moms. I hear ya.
Hi Tristi,
Hopefully, folks in Texas will come to see that and get the kids back with their families as soon as possible.
Thanks for popping bye!
A.W.
Not all foster care is pure hell on the kids. There are a lot of kids who end up in great foster homes.
That having been said, I agree that, in performing the Texas raid, the officers charged with enforcing the law trampled these Americans' Fourth Amendment rights along the way.
Once we sit back and allow that to happen, ours could be next. Who knows when we may find ourselves in the group that is disfavored.
Anyone who defends these sick people needs to rethink this.
Dear Micah,
Saying that there are "some great foster homes" is kind of like saying that there are "some great colostomy bags." While likely true, such are still something most of us wisely seek to avoid except in the most extreme of circumstances.
Everything I have heard and seen convinces me that these kids are being traumatized and abused by the experience being inflicted upon them by the state of Texas -- no matter how "great" the foster home may be wherein they are placed.
I suspect, as a loving father and son, that you understand perfectly that to which I am referring. When I was a young boy, I suffered terribly whenever my parents went on a trip and left us kids with someone else – no matter how “great” they may have been. I suspect that if we were to multiply that normal feeling several times over, then we might find something approaching the agony that these FLDS kids and their parents are experiencing right now.
Thus, I sincerely believe that they are experiencing “foster care Hell.” I think it is wrong. And, I think that I have a moral responsibility to speak out against this injustice.
Your Friend,
A.W.
Dear Chris,
I sense a moral responsibility to raise my voice whenever I see someone being dealt with cruelly and unjustly -- even if I do not agree with the all choices they make.
In this case I agree with neither the FLDS leaders, nor those officials of the state of Texas who are directing the current actions being taken against the rank and file FLDS people. Both are guilty of the same sin in my opinion -- unrighteous dominion. And, I believe that both will eventually be brought before a just God to answers for their crimes.
As to your point, I say this:
Anyone who uniformly paints all of the FLDS people with the same brush, uniformly condemning them all as "sick," and who stands idly bye as they are denied due process and forced to endue some of the cruelest punishment imaginable for a loving family, seriously needs to rethink his or her position.
Sincerely,
A.W.
AW,
I am belaboring a point that misses the point of your article, but in fairness, I must come to the defense of a lot of great, wonderful people I know who have opened their hearts and homes to children who are placed in foster homes. The people I know who are foster parents give a lot to the kids who are placed in their care.
As you stated in your response to Chris, "Anyone who uniformly paints all of the [foster homes] with the same brush, uniformly condemning them all as [hell]" is in need of the same rethinking as you prescribe Chris.
But again, the point is that these kids are taken from what they know and being subjected to the unknown (always fearful for a child) through hardly legally and certainly immoral means. While the end result may keep them from suffering a much worse fate (I have yet to hear anyone declare they loved being raised in a polygamous family) this is hardly the means to reach that end.
Dear Micah,
My friend, I honestly do not understand where you are getting the idea that I am "condemning foster parents," and that you "must come to their defense." I thought that I had been sufficiently clear, but apparently not.
What I am condemning is the forcing of innocent children into the trauma of foster care when such is not in their best interest.
My sister and her husband have served as foster parents for two children, whom they have eventually adopted. Trust me; I know that there are fine foster parents out there.
Plus, for all practical purposes, I was orphaned myself while I was in my late teens. As a result, I had to live with various individuals who were kind enough to take me in until I could make it on my own. These were all fine people, but at times living with them was hell -- that is just the nature of the experience. Trust me; I honestly do have an inkling as to what these poor kids are going through.
As for your parting statement that "the end result may keep them from suffering a much worse fate" I have serious doubts. In some rare cases, that may be true. But, I have seen no evidence to support such a determination for the majority of these kids.
And, finally, I actually have more than one associate who has grown up in polygamy. One, in particular, is an extremely dear friend, who has tried to counter my attempts to convert him to mainstream Mormonism by trying unsuccessfully to convert me to so-called fundamentalism.
He is one who would definitely tell you that he "loved being raised in a polygamous family." Thus, as you can imagine, I have heard all kinds of reports, both positive and negative.
As for my personal feelings, I consider the various polygamist leaders to be false prophets, who are in rebellion against the Lord's true oracles. I harbor no illusions minimizing what I consider to be their unrighteous dominion. However, I also harbor no illusions as to the depth of evil that exists on the outside world as well.
And, if you took the time to read in its entirety my most recent blog entry quoting a recent newspaper article, then you know the type of evil I am currently trying to counter. If you get it, then I hope that you will assist me in my efforts.
Thank you, my friend. I love you, buddy.
A.W.
AW,
As always, your points are well taken. I simply wanted to point out that your blanket statement of kids being subjected to "foster-home hell" is a misrepresentation and a horribly broad characterization of what foster homes are like.
Obviously, as is demonstrated in your latest blog entry (nice to see you blogging again!) these children are being subjected to horrible treatment. I hope that the State of Texas realizes its mistakes and moves to correct them by returning these children to their parents. However, barring that, I hope that these children end up in homes similar to your sister's or my good friends'.
As for child abuse allegations and people loving polygamy; I think you and I both know that there are different polygamist sects. Some here in the Salt Lake Valley operate in a vastly different manner than the elitist club that was run by Warren Jeffs. Warren Jeffs ran a perverted cult where old men were given their pick of young women to bed. Boys were excluded from the group to avoid competition (and some were subjected to sexual abuse from the same perverts who would rape the young girls). Such a hell is no existence for any child to be raised in.
However, to trample under foot an entire group of individuals' civil rights, to treat people as second-class citizens due to their beliefs, and to completely ignore the 4th Amendment of the Constitution is no method to avert the possibility of such a hellish existence.
As always, I commend your willingness to stand up for what you believe in.
Dear Micah,
I want to ask a favor of you, as a good friend:
Please give me the benefit of the doubt that I was not saying what you think I was saying. I know you cannot see that right now, but I am asking you to please just believe me.
Are you willing to do that for an old sack of dung like me? I would be extremely grateful if you would.
Thanks, bud.
A.W.
AW,
Of course.
I just found your blog, I don't know why America is such a nation of cowards and why so few are willing to stand up against such tyranny. So if you're right in there were only 3 pregnant teens and ONE OR NONE OF THEM WERE TEENS
then the CPS won't be able to cite even one act that violated the law or abused the kids, versus, as you point out, the "neccesary" abuse of the kids and moms at the hands of the state. You should type out the scanned reports of the mental health workers, it's like reading about Nazi concentration camps, worse than the Japanese internment camps.
Hi BlArthurHu,
Thanks for saying hello. It's good to know that other people are trying to get the word out about this.
A.W.
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