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242 | 10 Pyrrhic Victory? An Analysis of the Appeal Court Opinions Concerning the FLDS Children Tamatha L. Schreinert and James T. Richardson The 2008 Texas raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) at the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch that resulted in more than four hundred children being taken into custody by the state was not an anomalous event, as the chapters in this volume make clear. New religious movements (NRMs) and other minority faiths often find themselves subject to efforts of social control by authorities of the dominant society, and sometimes those efforts are couched in terms of concern about children (Homer 1999; Palmer, this volume; Palmer and Hardeman 1999; Richardson 1999; Swantko 2004). New or unconventional religious groups, with their seemingly strange practices and ideas, may offend the values and beliefs of those in power in a society. A number of new or minority religious groups have arisen indigenously or have immigrated to the United States over the past decades and sometimes they attract considerable attention, as the recent raid in Texas demonstrated. Some new religions such as the Children of God, the Hare Krishna, and the Unification Church that came to public consciousness in the 1960s and 1970s exacerbated this tendency by attempting to recruit some of the “brightest and best” young people from American society. When the mostly legal-age children of relatively highstatus families in American society decided to forego typical education and career paths to join these new movements, calls for action were heard across the land (Barker 1984; Bromley and Shupe 1979; Robbins 1988). The focus on control of strange religions is nothing new, however, as similar calls for action to limit the activities of new or minority faiths in American society have been made before. Miller (1983) describes anti-Catholic sentiments that developed in Protestant America in the early and mid-1800s. Societal leaders and others reacted quite negatively to the flood of hundreds Pyrrhic Victory? | 243 of thousands of Catholics from southern Europe (see also Roy 1999). This nativist Anti-Catholic movement gave impetus to many efforts, both legal and extra-legal, to exert control over the newcomers to America. Violence was a part of this nativist movement, with convents being burned in Charleston , and Catholic Churches and homes being burned in Philadelphia in riots that left thirteen people dead and more than fifty wounded. The Shakers, whose rise to prominence in the late 1700s and early 1800s, also caused alarm in some quarters (Miller 1983; Foster 1984; Stein 1994). Detractors and opponents trumpeted familiar claims of child abuse and issued demands for social control. The Shakers were accused of “stealing children” in a series of well-publicized custody cases involving children of couples who had been involved in the Shaker movement but had divorced. When one of the divorced parties left the community, child-stealing claims were used in court by the former member to effectively obtain custody of the children. The New York State Legislature even considered a bill that would automatically dissolve a marriage if one member of a couple wanted to leave the Shakers, with the departing parent essentially allowed to retain all personal possessions, as well as the children. The Shakers also were accused of harming children in other ways, and even beating at least one to death. Miller states that comparable claims were made about other new or exotic religious groups of the time, such as the Oneida Community (1983, 27). After comparing the familiar kinds of accusations made about these earlier groups, he concludes, that “behind these attempts at discreditation is undoubtedly the perception that the way of life of the dominant culture is being threatened .” This theme may underpin more recent actions taken to exert social control over minority faiths, including efforts based on concern for children. Contemporary Concern about Children in Minority Religious Groups Initial concern about children in the wave of NRMs that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s was not evident because most converts were young adults. As public awareness of the movements grew, studies of NRMs revealed that most members were college-age youth. Some controversy arose over the participation of a few who were underage, and some significant legal cases developed out of battles over adolescent members.1 To the extent that new religious movements of this period were accused of “stealing children” in something of a “Pied Piper” effect, it was because many of those joining were offspring of...

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