From RNB, Town Springing Up on Compound reveals that the 1500 acre FLDS ranch located about 45 miles south of San Angelo, Texas, is now the site of a compound, surrounded by 8-foot high fences, inside which a small town is presently springing to life. Dimes to donuts that Under the Banner of Heaven is a bestseller these days in nearby towns. But Texas isn't like sympathetic Utah. I'll bet, in a few months, when some teenage FLDS runaway spills her guts to the local sheriff, he and a dozen cousins march right on in there with a small arsenel and, uh, welcome the polygamists to the neighborhood.



...and the FBI and ATF.
Posted by: J. Stapley | Feb 14, 2005 at 11:16 AM
Smells like armageddon if you ask me. Looks like the FLDS are trying to set up a scenario for a showdown. I just hope that cooler heads (cooler than the FLDS leadership) prevail.
Posted by: APJ | Feb 14, 2005 at 12:28 PM
Not to blatantly plug my own site, but here is a blatant plug: http://www.mormon-news.com/results-filter.asp?Location=Texas
or http://www.mormon-news.com/results-type.asp?TypeFLDS=Yes.
Trouble a-brewin' for sure. But at least they have been buying a bit of
homestead in Colorado in case the Texan's have an ole' showdown.
Posted by: Darren | Feb 14, 2005 at 03:21 PM
The FLDS have sure picked the wrong location to do this--right in the heart of the Evangelicals' Zion (i.e. TX). I agree that this cannot end nicely. . . . My heart goes out to the innocent FLDS children, but I have little or no sympathy for the FLDS men who are perpetrating polygamy more than 100 years after the revocation of that practice through God's prophet.
Posted by: john fowles | Feb 14, 2005 at 03:47 PM
Thanks for the update Dave.
While I agree that this will not end happily ever after, I do not necessarily agree that West/Central Texas will be any more "hostile". Texas may be full of evangelicals, but that part of the state is conservative in the get-off-my-lawn sense of the word. West Texans respect property rights like you would not believe.
Posted by: Ian | Feb 15, 2005 at 12:29 PM
They are also rapidly building a Navuoo-like temple, with Warren Jeffs predicting the end of the world on the church's 175th anniversary, April 6th. Scary stuff.
KSL
Posted by: Darren | Feb 18, 2005 at 10:53 PM