Written by Deborah Levine, Editor of the American Diversity Report

The raid on the Yearning for Zion ranch raises competing issues of public interest. Many condemn the raid on the YFZ ranch and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They see the raid and break up families as unconstitutional. Groups such as Principle Voices, a multiple marriage advocacy group that “builds bridges” with the mainstream, are disappointed and disheartened. Others wonder why law enforcement waited so long to shut down the polygamous cult with its underage marriages. The Texas Supreme Court order to return of the ranch's children further confuses public policy in a story which turns on the question 'dangerous cult or religious freedom?'

In my work in interreligious affairs, few topics are as inflammatory as the issue of cults. No one wants to be branded a cult, treated like a cult or denied the basic American right to privacy and religious freedom. The title of cult is a very different category than off-shoot or sect and gets into the realm of extremism. The existence of cults throughout our history is one of the reasons that there are laws governing religious behavior. The combination of secretive or seemingly anti-social behavior and traditions that endangers its members has been anathema to the American public. For example, many years ago a law banned a religious group using poisonous snakes in their worship. The public good was seen to outweigh the religious claims by a cult to privileged action.

Does the public good outweigh religious claims on behalf of FLDS? Polygamy is outlawed and remains, at least, technically, subject to prosecution. Certainly, the average bigamist cannot expect protection from the law. Is there a pressing religious reason that outweighs the interest of the law? Or does the level of endangerment of the group’s traditions reach cult status.

The FLDS is a fundamentalist off-shoot of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints that disagreed with its renunciation of polygamy in 1890 under pressure from the federal government. The FLDS members are cloistered and live a pioneer existence with the apparent exception of amenities like cars and cell phones. The main stream Mormon Church has no connection with the FLDS and excommunicates practitioners of polygamy. Members of the Mormon Church can be seen in American public life everywhere from U.S. Congress to television's Dancing with the Stars.

Previous raids on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1935, 1944 and 1953 were unsuccessful in stamping out the movement. Children went to foster care, their parents to jail but the families came back even more committed, isolated and hostile to the outside world.

Some make the argument that efforts to break up these cult are futile. The behavior is so entrenched in the group that members will simply relocate to other communes within the group’s constellation. The cult members know nothing else and law enforcement is being inhumane in breaking up families. There is certainly a humane treatment issue involved in this situation. These women and children should be subject to the “If you break it, you own it” rule. What happens to the men at the YFZ ranch without their families and a vital part of the workforce that maintained the compound? Time, effort and resources must be part of the disbanding of this community to ensure their transition to the outside world. Such a commitment is long-term, perhaps an entire generation, and the results may be disappointing.

These fundamentalist polygamous enclaves pose difficult public policy challenges. The FLDS is the largest but not the only of its kind. These groups apparently grow in number when surrounding communities and law enforcement tolerate their self-contained presence. The growth and visibility of these groups appears to have reached a critical mass where their invisibility is difficult to maintain. The recent trial of FLDS leader Warren Jessup can attest to the increasingly unwillingness to turn a blind eye.

The recent raid of the FYZ ranch raises a number of difficult policy issues. The most obvious is the designing of a law enforcement response that avoids another Branch Davidian situation where an entire compound went up in flames. Also, the question of access to welfare and tax dollars for these large, polygamous families has been posed many times. But what about access to gun permits? Drivers licenses? Investigation of finances? Arizona took control of public funds for communal schools and Utah gave a private administrator charge over a communal FLDS trust that Jeffs had controlled. Should law enforcement condemn buildings and seize land under eminent domain? Should the sects be treated as felons similar to drug dealers whose property is confiscated? Should those who serve convicted felons such as FLDS leader, Warren Jeffs, be prosecuted for aiding and abetting criminal behavior? Judging from the child custody decision and state imposed control over some FLDS funds, it appears that the law has decided to respond to the FLDS as a cult whose traditions are a source of public endangerment. With the recent Texas Supreme Court decision to return these children, we will have to think through to what extent the law should be enforced.