The proverbial lid seems to have not just been blown off of incidents surrounding the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, but to have undergone violent explosive decompression.
There has been a second arrest since police raided the compound under warrant issued regarding a complaint by a 16 year old girl alleging abuse, and now there are sworn affidavits by girls taken from the compound that back up the initial complaints.
In the initial complain, a 16 year old girl called a family violence shelter, alleging that she had been repeatedly beaten and abused after her family arrived at the ranch three years ago. Documents released today by authorities show the girl stating that the man she was "married" to "beat and hurt her" whenever she was angry, alleging that another woman who was "married" to the man would hold her infant child while she was being beaten by her husband. Her husband is a 50 year old man, to whom she was married "in a spiritual union through the church," and that he was no longer on the compound, having left the ranch for unknown reasons. She is his seventh current wife.
She reported that the last time he beat her was on Easter Sunday 2008. The report also indicated that, on a previous occasion, the man had beaten her so severely that it resulted in her having several broken ribs, for which she was taken to the hospital. She reported that the doctor wrapped her torso in an ace bandage and gold her to "take it easy for a few days." She also indicated that the man would hurt her, explaining that he would force himself on her sexually. She also indicated that she is several weeks pregnant.
She also stated that she was not allowed to leave the YFZ ranch for any reason other than to receive medical attention, at which point she would be driven by her husband and another woman from the ranch.
Makes you want to run right out and join up with this church, doesn't it? Polygamy, pedophilia, rape, abuse, probably some torture there that hasn't come to light yet. Yup, sign me UP, I'm in like Flint.
Up until the middle of the last century, it was not uncommon for rural girls to be married by the time they were 15 or 16. The difference then was that these young women were not entering into a situation where they were joining a harem. There's no other word that can be applied to it, these girls were (are) being kept in harems. We do not live in the same world that we lived in 60 plus years ago, our society has progressed. Obviously, there are some who can not, or will not, accept this.
Religion is another factor that plays in to this situation. There is nothing wrong with religious faith. There are those who need it, want it, and make for themselves better lives following the teachings of certain religious doctrines and philosophies. That being said, there is no excuse for hiding behind a religion to commit despicable acts against other human beings. Any religion.
I see no justification in the Bible for rape, and I don't think I have ever seen any justification for it in the Book of Mormon, either. There is no justification for child abuse.
The fallout from Warren Jeffs and his followers seems to be just starting. I fully expect that there will be more indictments to come from this latest incident involving the Jeffs sect. And if there is a just God watching over us, they won't be long in coming.
Earlier posts on this developing story can be found here.
Once and Always, an American Fighting Man
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