Authorities questioning children at Texas polygamist compound...

[HappyMomma]

From what I've read the concern is that children are being forced to "wed" older men of the compound and expected to engage in sex, as well as physical abuse from these same men. Interesting thing is that they actually the mothers stay with children under the age of 4, which is unusual when an abuse allegation has been made.

The thing that sparked this whole raid was an outcry made by a 16 year old girl that lived in the compound:

<I>In the documents, a local family violence shelter says it received a call from a 16-year-old girl on March 29 and 30. The girl said she was the seventh wife of a male resident at the ranch, believed to be 50-year-old Dale Barlow. Barlow is named in an arrest warrant on possible abuse charges, but is not specifically named in the documents as the girl's husband.</I>
<I>Dale Barlow is believed to be in Arizona.
</I>
<I>According to the documents, the girl told authorities her husband hit her in the chest and choked her while another woman held her infant child. The girl also claimed that at one point, her husband beat her so badly that he broke several of her ribs.
</I>
<I>She also told investigators that she has an 8-month-old child and is currently pregnant.</I>
<I>Describing how she came to live at the ranch, the girl told authorities her parents took her there three years ago. Two years later, when she was 15, she said, she was "spiritually married" to an adult male member of the church. She said he would beat her when he was angry. The last time he did so, she claimed, was on Easter Sunday. </I>
<I>The girl also told investigators she and other girls at the ranch were not allowed to leave the property unless it was to receive medical care. When they were allowed to leave, she said, they were accompanied by a man from the ranch and other women, as well.</I>

Crazy thing is... they still have not located this particular girl.

 

[jtee]

Happymamma, since this story has grabbed your interest, consider reading Jon Krakauer's book "Under the banner of Heaven". It deals with the same issues of fundamentalists who practice Polygamy. Key being "fundamentalists". Polygamy itself is not about arranged marriages to young girls, it is the men involved that want the pleasure of having sex with underage girls. There are men who get involved in fundamentalists Polygamy primarily so they have access to sex with girls.

 

[jtee]

Crazy thing is... they still have not located this particular girl.

From what I know about these kinds of fringe groups, they have "emergancy" plans in place to deal with outside inteference from goverment and/or law enforcement. Such as they may have a safe house located in another state where they can move people to make it more difficult for authorities to determine what is going on.

 

[HappyMomma]

Thanks Jtee, just ordered it from Amazon.

Yeah, these people give regular polygamists a bad name. I think fundamentalist anything is dangerous.

Awhile back, I had seen a documentary on a group that was simalar to this, but to even more extremes. I wish for the life of me I could think of the name of the group. Those people were actually sending children out to bars and such to use sex to entice more followers into their cult.

EDIT: I googled and found the group:

Children of God - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[HappyMomma]

From what I know about these kinds of fringe groups, they have "emergancy" plans in place to deal with outside inteference from goverment and/or law enforcement. Such as they may have a safe house located in another state where they can move people to make it more difficult for authorities to determine what is going on.

Could be, but at the same time, I keep having this nagging feeling that the call may have actually been a way for CPS and the Attorney Generals office to get in there. They have been watching them for quite some time now and haven't been able to find a way to legally enter the compound.

 

[jtee]

You could be right, but that would be undermine their efforts. In Krakauers book, a girl in a similar situation ran away (I think) but later returned. When investigated the girl couldn't be located or refused to talk.

And let's not forget Elizabeth Smart who was kidnapped at 13 and brainwashed into becoming a second wife. A huge factor is isolation, and when a group isolate themselves from society, and then further isolates members with the group, individuals struggle to think independently. This is why people who can walk out the front door to freedom, don't even consider it as an option.

 

[HappyMomma]

Good point.

Stockholm Syndrome, basically.

I keep thinking about all those poor children that have lived that way most of or their entire life, now they are being interviewed and examined in ways that have to feel like a total invasion of privacy while they are being exposed to a world they essentially have never even seen before. So sad.

 

[gr8mom]

I've seen this on the early show a couple of times. If the husband isn't named in the documents, how do they even have a guess as to who it is? What if the girl was discovered making the phone call, is it possible she could have been murdered? I don't know about all this, I think the fact that several teenage girls were pregnant proves that they became sexually active at a young age but there's no way to prove it was with older men without DNA tests.

 

[HappyMomma]

Just read this and said to myself "What???!"

<I>State prosecutors have argued that the </I><I>FLDS</I>[/URL]<I> church encourages underage marriages and births, subjecting children to sexual abuse or the imminent risk of abuse. "Rulan" said sect members are reconsidering whether girls under 18 should have sex with adult men.</I>

<I>"Many of us perhaps were not even aware of such a law," he said. "And we do reconsider, yes. We teach our children to abide the law."</I>

DNA testing to determine parents, sex abuse - CNN.com

 

[fallon]

wow

 

[gr8mom]

I saw that interview.

 

[budnkota]

Good point.

Stockholm Syndrome, basically.

I keep thinking about all those poor children that have lived that way most of or their entire life, now they are being interviewed and examined in ways that have to feel like a total invasion of privacy while they are being exposed to a world they essentially have never even seen before. So sad.

I haven't followed this case - but that is so true. These poor kids are being left with the message that everything they knew was unsavory. That could leave some devestating effects on their psyches///

 

[spankys3304]

This is plainly religious persecution. Leave them alone! Watch out because anyone can now submit a report that you are abusing your children, and they will instantly be taken away with no questions whatsoever! Stop persecuting religion in the name of protecting children. Any church will contend that children of another church are not being raised right.

When the accusation comes from a child living it on a daily basis, you would still say leave them alone. Are you saying that it's ok to abuse children if it in the name of religion?

 

[gr8mom]

I haven't heard about this story in a while, does anyone know what became of these children and/or if any of them are going to be given back to their parents? What about the teen mothers, are they being allowed to keep their children?