The Crime

A few weeks ago a phone call was made to Child Protective Services. The caller on the phone said in hushed whispers that she was a teenage girl being physically abused and sexually assaulted by her polygamist husband 20 years her senior. She identified herself as a “new” wife of one of the men who was publicly prosecuted for statutory rape in Arizona.

You may think I am speaking about Texas, where a huge raid occurred on the YFZ ranch owned by members of the FLDS church. The place where little children were ripped from their loving parents, and their sacred homes and sacred temple were broken into because of the phone call. But I am not. I am speaking of the same female making the same call to CPS in Arizona ; only the officials in Arizona treated them like human beings.

Having been subject to these numberless hosts of accusations and allegations by bitter ex-members of the FLDS church (and the media toadies who think everything they say is God’s truth) for years, and having done meticulous investigations into abuse, forced marriage, welfare fraud, school funds fraud, etc. that they (the bitter ex-members) claim to be rampant, the state of Arizona has only brought charges of under age marriage and polygamy, because these are the only “crimes” that have ever occurred with sanction of church leaders.

I do not ask anyone to ever turn a blind eye to a phone call where someone may be being abused, NEVER! I would not ask you to do something I would never do. But I do ask, with all sincerity, for you to realize the level of hatred that some former members have of the church most of their own family loves, and know without blinking as I do, that they are obviously behind this. You have probably seen those behind these phone calls on television railing against the "abuses" within the church, she has likely become the star witness against the church. Rozita Swinton, the 33 year old woman in Colorado who made the phone calls did not act alone. She was on the phone with one of the "expert" ex members for over forty hours before the raid, and only when they traced her to Colorado, did this “expert” turn her in to authorities, or even report the abuse she was alledging. Much worse abuse than what was reported to CPS.

As a child I loved to sit at my grandmother’s feet while she told us about her life. The stories she told and the life she lived inspired all of us, and most of my sisters decided to do just like she did. Despite what you hear of overwhelming forced marriage of young girls, I have over a dozen married sisters, and only one was under 18 when she married her sweetheart. The others did not wait because they did not want to get married sooner, but my father, the protective softy that he is, did not want to let them to get married any sooner than he had to.

The life of a lady is not over when she gets married. Marriage is not slavery to my mothers, who both went to College and had jobs after they married my father. They did it because they wanted to, and they only had the children that they wanted to. I am very glad they wanted me.

I ask all of you mothers, is there a greater relationship in your life that the one between you and your child? It should be the greatest, because it is for your child. For me, my mother was second only to God. She represented God to me. She taught me who God was. She taught me how to pray. She taught me to look to my honorable father for direction in my life. She was my first and most favorite teacher. She still is the greatest woman on this earth to me; when I think about the word love, I think about my mother. Every day is Mothers Day to me.

I ask sincerely, should I have not been born? Should I not exist? Should I not have the father and mother that I do? Would the world be a better place had I not been born? Do you not want me to exist? Am I a crime?

You see, my mother was a teenager when I was born. And my father is as good a man as there is on this earth. He is as good or better than yours. Yes we were on food stamps sometimes, yes the government paid for much of our medical care, but is the government wrong for doing it? Am I a fraud? Am I a crime?

CPS would have taken me from my mother and father if this would have happened when I was small. Do you think I would have appreciated it? I would not have been able to grow up with my wonderful family. I would not have been able to sit at my grandmothers feet. I would not have graduated from a highschool where there was no drugs or guns. I would not have been given the choice whether to stay in the Church or leave as I have. Does anyone on the planet think I would be better off now? GOOD HEAVENS NO!