On April 3rd, an unidentified 16-year old girl called Texas police officials to report that her 50-year old husband had raped and abused her. She led authorities to a 1700-acre property called the Yearning for Zion ranch that housed hundreds of polygamist Mormons.

Monday’s raid of the compound yielded some 416 children and 136 women in what Texas officials are calling the “largest child-welfare operation in Texas’ history”. The women were dressed in homemade pioneer era clothing and many of them were pregnant.

It’s important to point out here that this particular sect of Mormonism is not indicative of Mormonism as a whole. It is a deviant sect, a radically fundamentalist sect that is reinforcing stereotypes Mormons and even more functional polygamists have long been trying to discourage. Warren Jeffs,the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the man who built the compound, hasn’t been making things easy. Read More »