The young girls in the FLDS Yearning for Zion compound have been brainwashed from a very young age to accept the idea of having sex, when barely out of puberty, with older men. This indoctrination is done with the tacit approval and through the efforts of the entire community, including the mothers of these children. That makes them all, not just the men, accomplices to what are basically sex crimes.

The fact that any quasi-religious plural "marriages" might be performed does not excuse or legitimatize any of this. Nor do the mothers' claims that "no member does anything against their will" have any validity. A trained seal has more ingrained psychological autonomy than these kids have, after their short lifetimes of disinformation. The mothers are nothing more than the enablers of the molesters of their own children, and to have any compassion for these so-called mothers is despicable.

This compassion may be based on feelings of local religious affinity, but it shows a shocking lack of humanity.

Mikel Covey

Salt Lake City