A frantic call is made to the police at 3am in the morning.  A girl claiming she is sixteen has said that she is being forced to marry a 50 year old man in the morning.  She identifies the area on the phone, and never to be seen again.  The call resulted in a police raid to the area, and removal of 416 children, and lawsuits of abuse and deprivation.

            The place she identifies is the FLDS cult, a desolate ranch that spans between Colorado City in Arizona and Hildale, Utah.  It is a 10,000 strong sect, complete with housing for hundreds of people, three- story temple, and independent water and power grids.  The name of the place is YFZ ranch, and these men, women and children are basically selfsufficient.  Their daily life starts early- try 3:30am.  One mother, Rebecca, states “the kids couldn’t wait to hop out of bed at 4 a.m.- or 3:30 a.m. if I let them!”  Each person, no matter how old, has a role that they play from sun-up to sun-down.  The onlder girls are in charge of getting their younger brothers and sisters up and ready for the say.  There is no need for them to wake their sibilings up, for no one wants to wake up last in the sect.  Their clothing looks similar to the show, Little House on the Prairie.  Minimal skin was shown, if any, as their ‘high-neck dresses’ starched and wrinkle free that met their hightop sneakers made for working with white socks.  The women cannot cut their hair because in when in Heaven, they must use their hair to wash their husband’s feet.  Their food preparation is no different than their oldtime clothing style.  They do not just ‘open a can’ and serve the food, they grind wheat, churn butter and milk the cows for drinks.  Schooling comes secondary to their lifestyle, but they still have time to teach reading, singing, piano lessons and chores.  If one does not do their chores, they will be strictly punished. 

            Bizarre to a ‘normal’ and modern lifestyle, but nothing out of the ordinary- yet.  The leader of their sect, Warren Jeffs, who recently served 10 years, after being convicted of being an accomplice to rape after forcing a 14 year old girl to marry a 50 year old male, preaches “ perfect obediance produces perfect faith.”  In the law of the sect, it is illegal to contact past the confinements of the powergrid, laughing out loud, and no social dances or hangouts.  No movies, TV and no internet.  You must marry who you were told, usually one of your fathers friends, whom has many wives already, and birth whatever children he gives to you.  Jeffs preaches that it is a male dominated world, and when death occurs, the husband gets to decide whether the women can enter Heaven or not.  Strict punishments, such as abuse can occur if a child or wife does not follow these guidelines.

            The police were shocked by this displayed and immediately rescued 416 children from the compound.  The hard decision for the judges is whether these kids are aloud to go back to their mother and fathers, or go into government care because it is not safe for them.  In my opinion, the kids should be as far away from that place as possible.  The kids are strictly controlled, and does not know anything about the outside world and how to survive.  When asked by judges and officials to point out who their mother and father were, some kids pointed to three or four people, other did not know at all.  This is not a safe environment for these kids.  There would be people who would just disappear from the community, and the leaders would say, “they were called on a mission.  The went to Zion” and that would be the last anyone would ever hear from them again.  A childhood without laughter and worldly experience is no childhood at all.  I think these children should have a normal lifestyle and stop being deprived of a childhood, one where they don’t have to wake up at 330 a.m. to do chores and get scolded at if laughing out loud.