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After an exhaustive slew of child custody proceedings with the children from the polygamist Yearning For Zion ranch, the state of Texas has determined that eight of the over four hundred children from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints enclave should be put in foster care. According to the AP the state reportedly wants these eight children, ranging in age from 5 to 17, in foster care "because their mothers allegedly have refused to limit their contact with men accused of being involved in underage marriages." FLDS brass says that this potential ruling is further religious persecution. Sect spokesman Rod Parker says that the issue is "whether the children are in any immediate danger simply because their parents choose to raise them in this religion... The substance of what they're doing here is fundamentally the same." [AP via CBS News] More »
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Here we are, worried about the sexualization of 15-year-old Miley Cyrus, when 31 out of 53 girls from the ages of 14-17 from the Yearning For Zion ranch are pregnant or already have children. Although the polygamist Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints have been claiming that they do not marry off 13 and 14 year old girls to older men, the number of very young yet pregnant girls seems to refute these claims. What's more, there are 53 girls ages 14-17 who were taken from the ranch, while only 17 boys in that age group were living with the sect. (The gender divisions in children under 14 were about 50/50.) This gives credence to the tales of "lost boys" of the FDLS: adolescent males who were exiled from the sect to keep the gender imbalance favorable for polygamous unions. More »
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