I have been researching and reading about the FLDS at Colorado City and Hilldale for several years. I have read every book, gone to every website and I even have had a friend in AZ mail me copies of every newspaper article she can find about the FLDS for a few years now. I'm obsessed. Problem is, most people know nothing about this cult. Just lurking on this thread, I have seen a few people immediately jump to the religious freedom and/or government trampling the rights of its citizens to live as they choose arguments, stating that what CPS and the State of Texas has done is overkill, or that the rights of the many adults in YFZ should come before the rights of children who are merely suspected of being abused, because it is only suspected. And this from members of a site that advocates for children and knows more about child abuse than most! I have noticed that as people on the thread become more educated about the FLDS and what is going on in Eldorado and why Jeffs built this compound there, the people here who jumped to the defense of the cult have sort of quieted. For example, I remember one poster agreeing she had heard of the Lost Boys but that she would disregard "biased" reports. After more info about these boys came out on the thread and the eveidence became overwhelming that they acutally exist (they have filed lawsuits against the FLDS and have cooperated with the attorney general in Utah against the FLDS), the poster did not repeat her scepticism about this form of abuse. The problem is, out there in the larger world, people will not educate themselves. They will not read this thread. They will only see the pictures and videos of sweetly smiling women who seem to be crying for their beloved children and who seem to live a wholesome life from a better time, and the public may begin to really side with these nuts. That scares me, because I have seen what public pressure can do in a situation like this. I am so afraid that Texas will cave in as the PR campaign of the FLDS heats up. And make no mistake, these people are wacky but they are not stupid. They have fought for years to preserve their fiefdom and have largely succeeded for the most part, even despite the latest pushes form the AZ and UT governments to reign them in. These people are scary. Sexual and horrific physical abuse of small children is rampant in the FLDS. It is part of the culture. I believe it was Warren Jeffs' brother who tied a cow down in front of a group of school children and slowly cut off its head in front of a group of small school children to teach them obedience. One of a few displays of animal torture he thought would be good to show the kids. Here's a couple of quotes from God's Brothel by Andrea Moore Emmett: "The high prevelance of pedophile behavior dominates the culture while the victims are forced to revere their abusers. 'It would be difficult to pull a girl out of Colorado City who hasn't been sexually assulted...I know girls as young as 12 years old who have been forced to marry their stepfathers.' When Laura was four, one of her stepbrothers tied her to a bedpost and attmepted to rape her. 'Afterward, I was crying. My father told me he would slap me until I stopped crying, which he proceeded to do...My mother made herself busy in the kiichen so she wouldn't have to watch.' Besides the sexual abuse endured by girls, they're also condemned to a life of virutal slavery..." Pg. 93.