Polygamist Ranch Women Give Today Show Interview, Deny Sexual Abuse Claims

Three of the mothers of hundreds of children who were removed from a polygamist compound in West Texas appeared on the Today Show this morning to discuss their plight and efforts to regain custody of their children. Earlier, the women had accused state officials of tricking them into giving up their children.

The women, with their lawyer present, gave a wide-ranging interview to the Today Show's Meredith Vieira. They described having their children taken from them by authorities, and being placed in temporary shelters. Vieira also questioned them about allegations of the children being sexually abused, and teenage girls being forced to marry men decades older than them. The women denied any charges of sexual abuse, but had difficulty answering Vieira's question about marrying older men. They said that no one is ever "forced" to marry a 50-year-old man, but could not answer Vieira's follow-up about the age at which a girl is allowed to marry in their church.

Watch the Today Show interview below:

Comments

[timm]

"how could they love us, if we abuse them?"

they obviously dont know very much about abuse.

[Ariadne]

Or love.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

She obviously has never heard of Stockholm syndrome

[BACbank]

The biggest crimes these women seem to have been subjected to is "coiffure abuse" and the sad FLDS version of the hi-top fade.

[Ariadne]

I am always taken aback when I hear these women speak with their high pitched little girl voices and their vacant eyes. I knew a woman who was born into this group and escaped when she was 16. She died this past January from a drug overdose having never recovered any self-esteem or relief from the abuse she suffered. Someone needs to do something to help these young girls who cannot help that they were born into this group. Her neice , Laurie Allen made a documentary movie called Banking on Heaven about how this group robs the welfare system (and us). It is worth watching and very shocking.

[phansen]

The point about the welfare system is being overlooked. Americans are reacting against the Texas authorities by saying that this is an invasion of a private society by the public system. This "private society" however is funded ENTIRELY by our tax dollars. Recall how when their "prophet" was apprehended, he was driving a Cadillac Escalade through Vegas of all places, with tens of thousands in cash on him.

Then again, maybe the cash wasn't my tax dollars... given that he has God on speed dial, maybe he raked it in at the blackjack tables in Vegas. And yet God didn't tip him off about the fuzz.

[darcy]

These ladies need a stylist. Stacey and Clinton, this will be your greatest challenge ever!

[JudgeCrater]

Brilliant! What Not To Wear's highest rated show ever! High style snarkiness and wit meets a total absence of style and wit. Matter and anti-matter collide and hilarity ensues.

[darcy]

Too funny, Judge!!

[personalpolitical]

I saw this this morning too, it was crazy. They seem like aliens or something greeting humans for the first time. They definitely don't help their argument that they are normal and not brainwashed. Being raised in that environment obviously made them nuttier than squirrels, I feel bad for them. I think the media should just leave them alone.

[Mort]

For 50 years they've shunned society and the press. Convenient timing now, as it was in the 50's, to parade their women in front of the cameras in an attempt to guilt us into giving back their kids. Hint... you ladies might get more sympathy from us if there were any actual tears in your contorted faces. And your denials of child abuse might be a bit more believable if not for all the pregnant little girls.

You're welcome to practice your religion and worship how you please. But when it comes to child abuse and a whole list of other offenses, it's no longer a question of faith. You've enjoyed way too much tolerance. Instead of Big Love, it's time for tough love.

[MikeDu]

I guess its not sexual abuse if God himself was the one to tell your fourteen year old daughter to spread her legs for a horny old church elder.

[WriterGuy]

These women are so creepy -- right out of a bad Twilight Zone episode. They sound brainwashed, almost lobotimized.

While the focus is on the girls forced to marry and have sex with older men, it's interesting that no one ever talks about the boys. I've read reports that hundreds, perhaps more than a thousand teen boys have been kicked out of this cult and dumped onto the streets of Texas. Why? Because the patriarchs of this cult don't want a bunch of single young men around as sexual competitors.

Disgusting. And there ought to be laws against it.

because

[Peddler]

It is always easier to believe than to deny. Sometimes belief in one thing is founded on the blind belief in another.

[wagonjak]

Saw the interview this morning with these sad ladies...they all have large, vacant eyes and the typical piled up hair and gingham Okie dresses.

They look and talk like zombies...which is what they've been turned into by the ruling menfolk.

And these men are nothing but a bunch of pedophiles masquerading as religious leaders.

I have a great deal of sympathy for these poor women, but none at all for the menfolk...they all belong in jail with their leader!

[timm]

Oh man, these women look so drugged out its not even funny.

[wndrwrthg]

I find it difficult to believe the word of someone who seems to dress and act as everyone else in a closed , tightnit, religious sect. I will admit that this could arise from a predudice on my part, but it still raises concerns over whether they are telling the truth or merely reciting that which has been hammered into their thoughts.

[Strywever]

Sadly, they are probably telling the truth as they see it. If you don't know any different, you think whatever environment you were raised in is normal. If you never see or hear anything different, you think everything you are told is the truth. Many of these women grew up in this religion. 5, 10, or 20 years ago, and they were the girls in need of rescue that never came.

I don't doubt their sincere concern for their children. It's just terribly sad that these loving mothers have such a skewed viewpoint that they are aiding those who harm their children.

Heartbreaking.

[sonofsamstone]

What a difficult situation for the Child Welfare dept! On the one hand you've got to get these kids away from this abuse. But to have to tiptoe around the deprogramming of like 400 kids AND THEN place them into some foster care that is able to deal with these extreme emotional problems will be tough!

[JohnFromCensornati]

Imagine that.
Mormon zombies that can only answer the questions that they were pre-programmed to answer.

[Strywever]

They aren't Mormons. You're confusing two very different religions.

[Harinama]

Actually, they ARE Mormons(a split off even more fundy group), and in many ways are closer to what was taught by the church 100 yrs ago.

[phansen]

In fact, they see themselves as MORE Mormon than the modern, Salt Lake-based LDS. The LDS disowned them a long time ago, but if you look at how Mormonism was originally practiced back in the days of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, it was MUCH closer to these guys, the FLDS, than it was to the "modern day" Mormons in Utah.

So actually, these people are Mormons in the truest sense of the word, in that they adhere to the stated guidelines in the Book of Mormon more closely than any other sect.

[oracle99]

This is a wierd cult...what did Mitt Romney have to say about it. I wonder were they wearing their magic undergarments?

[Strywever]

You are confusing them with Mormons. Very different religions.

[Ariadne]

No you're confused Fundamentalist Mormon is still Mormon.