If their activities can be excused as a religious lifestyle, just about anything can.
They're prison camps, rife with abuse and pedophilia. Shut 'em down.

Nice to see a fair and logical observation of this complex situation from a New Yorker. Thanks for sharing this article in the DNM.

Religious freedom ends at the line where criminal behavior begins. I can't get away with robbery or assault or murder on the grounds that it was my religious duty, so I shouldn't be able to get away with stautory rape either.

The FLDS is a religious lifestyle and it's members should be left alone, so long as nobody is forcing anyone to do something they don't want to. If they're all happy then no harm, no foul I say.

Who are we to impose our beliefs on these people? Why is my version of morality any better than theirs? A lot of people seem to "know" what goes on in this 'secret' society. There may be an ick factor to it but is polygamy legally really that much different from any derivation of the GLBT lifestyle, or of serial adultery by our celebrity athletes, or your neighbor, or your neighbor's kid? Are we really ready to castigate them for following the guidance of their spiritual leader? I so not support nor condone underage marriage but that is just one aspect of polygamy, and the definition very much subject to public mores of the time. Prosecuting an entire community because of something that MIGHT happen is a flagrant violation of any number of constitutional rights (the barely relevant comparison to a drug house aside). TX is way out on the thin ice here. The recent CA ruling on gay marriage is about to blow this whole polygamy situation wide open. Unfortunately, to the detriment of many.

Not excusing underage sex, but there's a real difference between men who have sex with teenagers and "pedophiles." The accepted scientific definition of pedophilia is an abnormal sexual attraction to *prepubescent* children. The FLDS men are statutory rapists, which is bad enough, but they're not pedophiles, strictly speaking.

Language matters. If we label the FLDS "pedophiles," it makes it easier for us just to wash our hands of the whole human-rights thicket this hard case has dragged us into. Same with labeling one's opponents "communists" or "fascists" -- it excuses us from having to address the other side's actual arguments.

No Imposition Inquisition -
There is a monumental difference between consenting adults and old dudes having sex with kids.

I don't believe for a second that Thomas knows exactly what goes on in those sex-cult compounds.
But in time, we all will.

Thank God!

As an attorney and foster parent, the main problem I have with the wholesale round-up is the disregard for parent's rights. In the law, two opposing philosophies govern children's rights. The more predominant - the best interest of the child - completely ignores the inherent rights of parents to be parents and only views a child's bond with the parent in determining placement of the child. The second is parent's rights, i.e., did the parent do something so wrong as to justify losing thier rights to raise their children. In my opinion, no parent should ever lose their children without direct evidence that the parent broke the law, i.e., abuse. In this case, all children have been removed and Texas seems to have no inclination to return any of them anytime soon. Texas should have conducted interviews to determine which children were victims of abuse and which adults perpetrated the abuse and then should have IMMEDIATELY returned all children that weren't abused. That they weren't says volumes. Under Texas' logic, CFC should empty the Dallas ghettos of all children because many children are being abused and neglected. Anyone who cares for parent's rights should be horrified by Texas CPS's actions.