child abuse stories, child abuse and neglect 

This year Americans were subjected to a spate of child abuse stories stemming from Texas' authorities raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound several months ago. There were no child abuse pictures shown, but some serious allegations were made about under-age girls being forced into marriages with much-older men who were already married, some of them to multiple wives. The members of the FLDS cried foul, but the fact remains that girls in this community, some as young as 12 years old were forced to marry against their will and then have sex with their much older husbands. If tales like these aren't child abuse stories, I don't know what is. The FLDS members like to pretend that they're decent, family oriented people with strong religious values, but the fact is they practice polygamy, which is against the law in every state in the Union, and their culture promotes child abuse and neglect such as forced sex with teenage girls and the abandonment of many of their young men to reduce competition for the pool of available underage girls. The FLDS church may try to hide behind freedom of religion, but I don't acknowledge the rights of any religion to practice multiple types of child abuse. Shame on them. I applaud the Texas legal authorities for acting decisively against their abhorrent practices.