Texas, CPS, FLDS and Carolyn Jessop, still

Another excerpt of the sensational and provocative Carolyn Jessop bestseller raised some questions for me.

Ms. Jessop claims she witnessed child abuse while she lived in the FLDS community in Arizona. Abuse of children. Why didn't she report it?

Ok. Ok. . .she was brainwashed. She was controlled. She couldn't. Hmm.....

But. . .she went to college. She had an outside job. Access to phones and non-FLDS people. She didn't report the child abuse. Why?

When she escaped her conditioning and her home, she still didn't report the child abuse. Why not?

Perhaps she didn't make a timely report because she needed to hoard the sensationalism for her book, or

Perhaps the child abuse wasn't as bad as she wrote about in her book and she exercised a bit too much literary license in dramatizing her story.

Gee, either excuse looks really self-serving. One excuse exploits the children, the other sacrifices the children.

Now that worldwide attention is focused on the FLDS raid, Ms. Jessop stands outside the FLDS ranch in front of cameras and condemns the women of this community for doing exactly what she did. How hypocritical is that?

She says they need psychological evaluations. Wrong. Even if they had psych evals, there is no way that any reputable psychiatrist will diagnose any of their religious beliefs as being abnormal or delusional. That would open the door for any religious belief to be classified as abnormal, including bread and wine turning into the body and blood of Christ, or the Virgin Birth of Jesus, miracles, healing, speaking in tongues, praying, believing in angels or Satan, or reincarnation, or worshiping cows, idols, trees. . . .

Don't get me wrong, I think believing in any one man as spiritually infallible, or as a prophet is absurd. But when you have a religion based on dogma created by a man--especially when the man can change the dogma at his own whim--the potential for abuse of that kind of power is historically well documented. Yet, we do have freedom of religion in this country, don't we? I don't think so, at least not in Texas.

As for the alleged child abuse, even taking Ms. Jessop's allegations at face value, this doesn't appear to be an institutionalized part of the FLDS doctrine. It appears that, like any other community in this country, there are some abusers intermingled with non-abusers.

Which is why it is so shocking that the innocent parents are presumed guilty just because it is in the best interests of the children. . .naw, it's in the best interests of the $tate.

I'm still waiting to see Texas CPS swoop in on all parents whose children dress up in funny school uniforms to attend a Catholic school, especially any church or school where any priest was accused of molesting the children. The law grants that authority because the parents placed their children in danger and failed to protect them from the church's abuse of their children. Well?