Saints under siege
Subtitle: the Texas State raid on the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints
By: edited by Stuart A. Wright and James T. Richardson
Series: The new and alternative religions series; New and alternative religions series
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 270
ISBN-13: 9780814795286; 9780814795293; 9780814795309
Subjects: Church and state; Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; History; 21st century; Church history
Description: In April 2008, state police and child protection authorities raided Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado, Texas, a community of 800 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a polygamist branch of the Mormons. State officials claimed that the raid, which was triggered by anonymous phone calls from an underage girl to a domestic violence hotline, was based on evidence of widespread child sexual abuse. In a high-risk paramilitary operation, 439 children were removed from the custody of their parents and held until the Third Court of Appeals found that the state had overreached. Not only did the state fail to corroborate the authenticity of the hoax calls, but evidence reveals that Texas officials had targeted the FLDS from the outset, planning and preparing for a confrontation. Saints under Siege provides a thorough, theoretically grounded critical examination of the Texas state raid on the FLDS while situating this event in a broader sociological context. The volume considers the raid as an exemplar case of a larger pattern of state actions against minority religions, offering comparative analyses to other government raids both historically and across cultures. In its look beyond the Texas raid, it provides compelling evidence of social intolerance and state repression of unpopular minority faiths in general, and the FLDS in particular.--Amazon.com.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The past as prologue : a comparison of the Short Creek and Eldorado polygamy raids / Martha Bradley Evans; title: Rescuing children? : government raids and child abuse allegations in historical and cross-cultural perspective / Susan J. Palmer; title: The struggle for legitimacy : tensions between the LDS and FLDS / Ryan T. Cragun, Michael Nielsen and Heather Clingenpeel; title: Reader responses to the yearning for Zion Ranch raid and its aftermath on the websites of the Salt Lake tribune and the Desert news / Michael William Hamilton; title: Deconstructing official rationales for the Texas State raid on the FLDS / Stuart A. Wright; title: Texas redux : a comparative analysis of the FLDS and Branch Davidian raids / Stuart A. Wright and Jennifer Lara Fagen; title: Large scale FLDS raids : the dangers and appeal of crime control theater / Camille Brown and Carlene Gonzales; title: Strategic dissolution and the politics of opposition : parallels in the state raids on the Twelve Tribes and the FLDS / Jean Swantko Wiseman; title: Political and legislative context of the FLDS raid in Texas / James T. Richardson and Tamatha L. Scheinert; title: Pyrrhic victory? : an analysis of the appeal court opinions concerning the FLDS children / Tamatha L. Schreinert and James T. Richardson.