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Judge Seeks To Accommodate Prayer Sessions Of FLDS Mothers and Children

By Howard Friedman

In San Angelo, Texas, state District Court Judge Barbara Walther has ruled that FLDS women and children being held at the San Angelo Coliseum can meet twice a day for prayers without being monitored by state workers. Yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune reports that despite pleas from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-- the mainline Mormon church-- for the media to distinguish it from the polygamous FLDS sect, Judge Walther apparently views the relationship between the two groups differently. She asked asked Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) to find a member of the mainstream LDS Church or some other "appropriate religious person" to monitor prayer sessions of FLDS members in order to avoid state employees "making their service less sacred."

At the same time, Judge Walther refused to issue a temporary restraining order requiring that FLDS nursing mothers be allowed to stay with their children. Instead the judge left the matter to be worked out through informal negotiations between the mothers' attorneys and CPS which, as of now, plans to separate adult mothers from their children once the state finishes collecting DNA samples. In another development, CPS now says that the count of FLDS children in state custody is 437, not the originally reported 416.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on April 23, 2008 (boomark / email).