[Ninong]

Warren Jeffs, self-proclaimed prophet, with underage girls!

Warren & Loretta, First Anniversary, January 26, 2005

Warren & Merrianne, age 12, July 2006

More photos of Warren & 12-yr-old Merrianne

These photos were introduced as exhibits by the state in a child custody hearing in Texas. The 52-year-old Jeffs is currently in prison after being convicted of rape by accomplice for forcing a 14-year-old girl to have sex with her 19-year-old cousin against her will.

This is a very sad situation over there in Texas but CNN's Larry King is presenting a one-sided view that is overly sympathetic to the parents. The truth is that these people (the adults) are willing to allow their children to be forced into sex with older men at a very young age. It's not up to the girl or her parents to choose the man she will marry. Her husband will be chosen for her by the prophet. And these parents allow this practice. All of the residents of the Yearning For Zion Ranch were personally chosen by Warren Jeffs. They were considered the purest of the pure among his flock -- the most devoted of his devoted followers.

They also allow the prophet to expel their sons once they reach the age of 18 or 19 unless they are among the chosen few allowed to remain. That's necessary because otherwise you would have too many men and not enough wives. Each man is supposed to have at least four wives and some of the higherups have more than a dozen wives. Warren Jeffs and his father fathered dozens of children by dozens of wives.

I cannot imagine the unbelievable cruelty of forcing your young teenage daughter to marry a 40- or 50-year-old man as his fourth or fifth wife. How could any parent do something like that? And, just as unbelievably cruel, how could any parent kick out an 18-year-old son and tell him that he can never see his brothers and sisters or his parents ever again.

Should such parents be allowed to continue these cruel and abusive practices? Should they be allowed to raise children teaching the girls from earliest childhood that the only way for them to get into heaven is through plural marriage to a much older man chosen by the prophet? Isn't it unbelievably cruel to allow such parents to raise sons knowing that one day they will expel some of them from their homes and cut them off from their entire family?

Should religious crackpots like these be allowed to continue their cruel and abusive ways? Why should the state of Texas allow children to be abused by the FLDS cult like this without doing something to stop it?

Why have states like Utah, Arizona and Texas allowed polygamy to continue into the 21st century? It's against the law in every state and against federal law and yet it's still going on.

[Ninong]

Texas Alleges Jeffs Had Four Underage Wives, Ages 12 to 15.

Texas authorities, meanwhile, collected DNA swabs Thursday from sect leader Warren Jeffs in an ongoing criminal investigation separate from the custody dispute.

A search warrant for the DNA alleges that Jeffs had "spiritual" marriages with four girls, ages 12 to 15.

As I wrote in my previous post, it has been reported that both Warren Jeffs and his late father, Rulon Jeffs, fathered dozens of children by dozens of wives. This has been reported by former members of the FLDS cult who broke away, including one of Jeffs' own brothers. Jeffs was the subject of a British documentary on Channel 4 that aired July 19, 2006, titled "The Man With 80 Wives."

Apparently the state is out to prove that Warren Jeffs fathered the children of four mothers who were underage at the time they gave birth.