Familienpolitik

I’ve been following this issue closely since it first was reported. You can see a copy of the original affidavit here. Now the Texas Supreme Court has ruled that Child Protective Services had no right to remove the children from the YFZ ranch, upholding a lower court’s ruling. This CNN.com article goes into detail about the history of the case and presents some of the different viewpoints.

Willie Jessop, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said:

Put these families back. There has been a catastrophic emotional and physical trauma to these families, permanent damage that will be left on them for a lifetime. Two wrongs do not make a right, and the court has the ability to load these children up and return them

Texas CPS says:

We are disappointed, but we understand and respect the court’s decision and will take immediate steps to comply….Child Protective Services has one purpose in this case — to protect the children. Our goal is to reunite families whenever we can do so and make sure the children will be safe.

Barbara Elias-Perciful, who supported the state in her filing and is the director of Texas Lawyers for Children said:

This case involves the systematic rape of minor children — conduct that is institutionalized and euphemistically called ’spiritual marriage,’” she wrote. “Typically, there is no media coverage of the horrific acts sexual predators commit against children … if the media showed the actual events of adult males demanding sex with 11-year-old girls, there would be no one questioning the graphic danger of returning these children to their home at this time

Tags: family policy, Polygamy, Underage marriage, YFZ