WCMessenger.com: No child left behind at Mormon sect's ranch

Perhaps someday, the removal of 416 children from an offshoot Mormon sect's compound may be known as "The Eldorado Incident," though its Biblical proportions certainly qualify it to be called something larger than an incident.

The sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, five years ago established a compound on 1,691 acres that had been a hunting preserve near the West Texas town of El Dorado.

Much of what they did out there was OK, even impressive. They raised much of their own food. They built their own temple, using rock quarried on the property. And a cheese factory. And a water treatment plant. And several other buildings.

The Yearning For Zion Ranch became the fourth-largest taxpayer in Schleicher County, and reportedly paid taxes in cash. The group was bankrolled partly by federal military contracts.

So far, so good. But what troubled onlookers from a distance for quite some time was the group's tendency to disregard laws against multiple marriages, and against what amounts to rape of underage girls.

The ranch was an outpost of a group that split from the main Mormon church when they renounced polygamy in 1890. Warren Jeffs, the leader of that group in adjoining towns on the border between Utah and Arizona, had handpicked the people - including children - to go to Texas back in 2003, when legal attention was picking up back home.

Since then, Jeffs has been imprisoned, convicted in Utah on charges involving marriages that he allegedly arranged between early-teen girls and older men. He faces similar charges in Arizona.

Still, the local sheriff said he didn't go in and raid the YFZ Ranch, because there was no obvious probable cause.

Finally, a 16-year-old girl called a family violence center and complained that she had been forced to marry and was physically and sexually abused.

That was the trigger that the authorities needed. Within several days, there were 416 children and 139 women taken from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, as the place is called. (Though it's hard to tell whether some of the girls are women or vice versa, because authorities found they would switch names or several would use the same name. Confusing.)

The Texas Child Protective Services housed them initially at the Fort Concho National Historical Landmark, but more recently they've been moved - 392 to the San Angelo Coliseum, and 24 teenaged boys to an undisclosed residential facility outside the San Angelo area.

Some of the mothers have returned to the compound. Some have stayed with the children. A half dozen chose to be taken to a secret location, provided by the state.

The girl who made the phone call that set off the raid hasn't been found. An attorney for Jeffs, Michael Piccarreta, told The Arizona Republic that he thinks the call may have been a ruse, perpetrated by some enemy of the group.

The State Bar of Texas put out a call for attorneys to represent each of the children, and more than 350 from around the state have volunteered.

Predictions are the legal dealings will go on for years, enough to fill a few bar journals.

Some people get from the Bible that priests shouldn't marry and that women shouldn't be priests. Some think it calls for having church on Saturday, others Sunday.

Some think people are consecrated by drops of water on their head, while others believe it requires full immersion. Some eat bread with grape juice, others with wine.

Some believe in handling snakes. Some think homosexuals shouldn't be ordained as ministers. Others think they can.

None of those are criminal violations.

But there's one sect near Eldorado that seems to think it's OK, to the point of having beds in their temple to consecrate the practice, to force marriages and sex on underage girls. That is a criminal violation.

Of course, if you're an older guy, why not? It certainly beats being a terrorist, where to be promised sex with a bunch of young virgins, you first have to blow up some other people, and yourself.

The Eldorado Incident does make one wonder: What Would Jesus Do?

Which may focus attention on why some on the State Board of Education insist public schools should have a course on the Bible.

Only question is, whose interpretation?

Contact McNeely at dmcneely@austin.rr.com or (512) 458-2963.