Kat, I have spoken to 3 female former members of the sect as I noted above. Their stories are horrifying. There is a great documentary about it the name of which is on the tip of my tongue right now but I'll have to come back to it later - wait, it's "Banking on Heaven". if you haven't seen it, it's a must. it addresses alot of what I mentioned above about the issue of money keeping this circus on the road.

With regard to the general press - I object to the manner in which only the salacious aspects of their stories are trotted out in the mass media. if you want find out more about why those women couldn't get help locally or why they were afraid to go to police nearby, you won't hear that because it's not "sexy" news that can be diced for easy consumption. I nearly threw a drinking glass at the TV the last time Larry king did a show on this and at the end of listening to real women who escaped he asked "So.. why don't these women just leave?" it was like, DUH LARRY, your guests did leave. But I digress...

I have not read only the general media. I have read two books by a former male member, 1 book by a former female member, another book by an outsider, a medical journal article by a doctor who treated those Fumarase kids, and to numerous other items to delineate. It's a dirty rotten complex mess of strange bedfelloows to say the least but I still don't believe an yone has really been able to articulate the exact beliefs of the group in detail. Personal anecdotes are compelling but hard to poiece together into a coherent story when they contradict eachother so much.

For example - Elaine Jeffs says they kill deformed newborns but several other ex-female members so no no no that is never done, the fumerase kids are treated with care and concern according to the groupsd belief that that disorder is a test from God to highlight one particularly troubling question. SO are there only 20 cases or are their 30 more up there buried in Babyland that we don't klnow about? Depends which escapee you ask. All I know is it makes me want to know why the Health Departments in those 2 counties hasn't exhumed that graveyard. There is legal precedent for it when the fear is babies are being buried without proper death certificates. Again, I digress...

There are a few smaller publications that have sought to highlight the experiences of individual women but that is not the entire story or even the majortiy aspect of the problem these communities have created for their residents or the citeznes of the States where they choose to reside. There are also a number of Utah publications that have a vested interest in portraying the FDLS as being the furthest thing from the LDS as possible and you see some of the more horrifying and contradictory details in their articles.

My point is that if all the public chooses to focus on is the sexual details, nothing will ever be done because frankly, in my view, the sexual abuse and exploitation of women makes for good shock value but no action. There are already laws on the books that in theory protect against this. We should be asking WHY those laws are ignored and who has a financial stake in seeing to it that the FLDS continues business as usual and it IS a business - a miminum guess is it's a 400 Million dollar business just that we know of.

Sadly, all I ever see is earnest looking guys such as Anderson Cooper shaking his pretty head and praising escapees as brave but no coverage of the poltical payoffs that go all the way up the ladder to senators and even a current presidential candidiate. Anderson should perhaps poke his elegant nose into that rats nest and see what he finds. I'd watch.

It's too easy to get outraged about statutory rape, child brides and polygamy. People get sufficiently outraged about to the degree of a raid or two once every generation and a half but little if anything changes. let's hope this time is different. I'm praying that it is and I'm writing some letters as well to State Attorney generals, Congresspeople and Senators. I don't expect John McCain to write me back - he didn't the last time I sent him a letter on this subject two years ago.