FIRST, I SUPPOSE YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE for the sake of whom Your Correspondent addresses this memo.

In any case:

I find it rather ironic to the point of stupid your willingness to create all manner of distracting non-issues such as the "danger of homosexuals and homosexuality" upon Impressionable Children in particular ... what you would perceive as "sexual promiscuity" being the price of sex education in the public schools as is based on facts and is taught in an age-approriate context ... and the supposed "moral harm" of real or perceived "pornography or indecency" in films and television, with the obligatory dose of sugarcoated anti-Semitism for good measure.

Let alone crying that rather pathetically singsong-sounding meme of "Christian Persecution! Christian Persecution!" (in the key of "Ring around the collar!") whenever your stories are challenged as lacking factual substantiation, or are otherwise substantiated by anecdotal or otherwise discredited pseudoscience.

BUT:

It seems your ilk is amazingly silent about the revelations of enforced sexual submission among the female members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) in the recent court hearings following the removal of some 420 young women and girls, some of whom are pregnant (yes, you read that right--pregnant!) @ as young as 14 years of age. from their Texas compound.

Read carefully the following extract of an Associated Press dispatch on these same revelations (via Yahoo News):

The state argued it should be allowed to keep the children because the sect's teaching encourages girls younger than 18 to enter spiritual marriages with older men and produce as many children as possible. Its attorneys argued that the culture put all the girls at risk and potentially turned the boys into future predators.

A witness for the parents who was presented by defense lawyers as an expert on the FLDS disputed that the girls have no say in who they marry.

"I believe the girls are given a real choice," said W. John Walsh. "Girls have successfully said, 'No, this is not a good match for me,' and they remained in good standing."

But Dr. Bruce Perry, a psychiatrist who has studied children in cults, testified that the girls will not refuse marriages because they are indoctrinated to believe disobedience will lead to their damnation.

The renegade Mormon sect's belief system "is abusive. The culture is very authoritarian," he said.

Perry acknowledged that many adults at the ranch are loving parents and that the boys seemed emotionally healthy. When asked whether the belief system really endangered the older boys or young children, Perry said, "I have lost sleep over that question."

He also conceded that the children, taught from birth to believe that contact with the outside world will lead to eternal damnation, would suffer if placed in traditional foster care.

"If these children are kept in the custody of the state, there would have to be exceptional and innovative programmatic elements for these children and their families," he said. "The traditional foster care system would be destructive for these children."

CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said the department was pleased with the judge's ruling and believes that the children will now be safe.

It's not clear how quickly the children might be moved from the coliseum and fairgrounds where they are staying on cots into foster homes or other temporary housing, but they could be placed with family members if CPS determines the children will be safe, Meisner said.

Four women testified Friday, and all said they were free to make their own choices. They also said they would do whatever it took to get their children returned to them.

"We're a peaceful people," Lucille Nielson said. Life on their 1,700-acre gated ranch "is very peaceful. You can feel the peace when you are there. Very loving. We raise our children in a loving environment."

But the women also acknowledged that girls get married at ages younger than the state allows.