Over 400 children were recently transported by bus away from the isolated Texas commune built by Warren Jeffs (currently in prison for forcing a child to marry an older man) and his brother (currently in charge of all the wives and children back at the ranch)…the brotherly duo being self-acclaimed polygamists and self-anointed heads of their own renegade LDS (Church of the Latter Day Saints– Mormon) temple.
The State of Texas will seek to show, provided one or more of the seeming spellbound and vapid acting women from the renegade group, will testify that the commune is dedicated to bringing children into the world yes, but it appears part of the motive of the commune’s hyper fecundity, is to supply young girls to pedophilic adults, and to supply the Jeffs’ construction companies with free labor of their young boys so the Jeffs can continue to lowball contracts, including contracts with the government.
There may also be misuse of Federal Food Stamp program by the commune to support the high percentage of the commune who appear to live under the poverty line… even though the self-appointed male leaders live in jaw-dropping luxury.
There may be a basis for racketeering charges as well if the Jeffs’ construction company is suspected of kiting and defrauding others in a discernable pattern.
The Two Sides of the Legal Argument Pro and Con, Are Likely to Go Something Like This:
The State will seek to show that returning children to an environs where the order of the day is to prepare very young girls age 12-16 to be ‘spiritually married’ and impregnated by old men, and that dependent boy children are routinely shunned and ejected from the community when they reach mid and late adolescence (and become a seeming threat to the Jeffs’ autocracy)… that this is an abusive environs for underage children.
No doubt the defense (The entire situation is now in the Texas courts, along with– your eyes do not deceive you– over 300 lawyers.) that the State has erred and is violating the Constitutional right to ‘freedom of religion.’
But pedophilia isn’t a religion, neither is breaking child labor laws, neither is casting out dependent children, neither is brainwashing a child to think her only choice is to marry a man 3 and 4 times her age, and to think of motherhood as the only avenue open to her that has ‘highest blessing.”
Motherhood is a high vocation. But, it’s meant to be chosen, not pressed onto a girl by knowingly isolating her while she is a mere child, by keeping her from knowledge of the world and her many talents and opportunities, and by stripping her many choices to only one– marry and produce 6, 8, 10, 12 –and more children, or else be exiled.