Ok...it appears this polygamist bust is escalating in Texas

[kevinbgoode]

But you know, that isn't what is bothering me. Are my eyes just too blurry, or am I seeing the two buses that took people out of that fundy Mormon compound covered with "FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH" on the front of them? (there is a pic at the story link).

Ok...maybe I'm being picky here, but if an extremist religious group is already pissed off, why would you use buses from ANOTHER religious group which openly condemns the religious group being busted?

I know...I know...maybe they didn't have any other buses available, but I'm sorry. . .no public school buses? No county buses of any kind? It says right here in the same ABC News story:

If no agreement is reached with sect leaders, authorities will forcibly remove the sect's followers "as peaceably as possible," Allison Palmer, a prosecutor in Tom Green County, told the San Angelo Standard-Times.

Medical workers are being sent "in case this were to a go in a way that no one wants," Palmer said. Law enforcers are "preparing for the worst," she said.

"Within the religion that we have encountered, their place of worship is very special to them," Palmer said. "It appears to be of great concern to them if a person from outside their congregation even attempts to step inside their place of worship."

A search warrant authorized troopers to enter the retreat, run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They are looking for evidence of a marriage between the girl and a 50-year-old man.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=4595141

Now don't get me wrong here...if their activity is criminal, it's criminal, but I also know parts of Texas are nearly married to the Baptist churches - and it just strikes me as very wrong that they'd use buses from a denomination which spews open disgust at Mormons to transport people out of that isolated compound.

[Heidi]

1. I could see how school districts might want to distance themselves

from anything remotely related to the evuation of a religious compound. :shrug:

[Drunken Irishman]

2. I'm just thankful it ain't happening here in Utah.

I am fucking tired of all the bullshit polygamist stories in the state that dominate national news.

[MADem]

3. My first thought was "Faith Based Initiative" courtesy of GWB.

You know, the church maintains the buses and uses them, and the state can borrow them if they need 'em. Kinda like Delta and United and American and US Air are commercial carriers, but We, The People pay them a little subsidy to get blocks of military seats on their planes, and we can also grab one of their planes, rip out the seats, and reconfigure it as a troop transport or cargo A/C if need be.

I don't know the actual reason why they used those buses, but that is what crossed my mind.

[Bolo Boffin]

4. Yes, wasn't that just special?

Have no fear, the Baptists are here!

Perhaps the First Baptist Church was giving the girls temporary homes or something, and that's why those buses were used. But I agree that it was a bit jarring to see that on the television.

[kevinbgoode]

5. Well, I'm impressed by some of the discussion about this at ABC.com

Partially because some people are wondering why certain "religious" beliefs are acceptable and others are not. . .but also what those limitations are and why. . .a good discussion. I even posted a story I was told last week from a woman who attended a local church where the minister told the congregation that, if a husband comes home from work and wants chicken for the suppah, the wife better damn well be fryin' up the chicken toot sweet. . .and it doesn't matter if she spent all afternoon makin' a special meatloaf.

haha. . .I asked if that was an example of gender discrimination and spousal abuse - and shouldn't the children be removed from that church for being taught that slavery to their husbands was not only acceptable but expected?

I'm still peeved about seeing those church buses at that FLDS compound. . .how many want to bet some of these children get placed in good "Baptist" homes for re-indoctrination into the kinder, gentler form of being beholden to a man?