ELDORADO, Texas (ABP) — A raid on a polygamist Mormon splinter group in rural Texas has resulted in Baptists helping hundreds of children seized from the sect's compound on suspicion of abuse.
As of April 9, state officials had removed 416 children from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, near Eldorado, Texas. They were accompanied by 139 adult women who voluntarily left the compound.
Texas Baptist churches, agencies and missions organizations have responded by offering ministry to the relocated — and sometimes traumatized — former residents of the compound. It is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
First Baptist Church in Eldorado was one of the first Baptist institutions involved, making its facilities available to house between 70 and 80 women and children removed in the first wave of the raid April 4-6.
The church also allowed state agencies to use two 25-seat church buses to transport more than 180 women and children from the 1,619-acre compound to the church building and to another shelter at the town's civic center.
Tommy Speed, director of the Baptist-affiliated Buckner Children and Family Services programs in West Texas, worked as a consultant and first responder as the investigation began and relocation occurred.
“We had Texas Rangers, a SWAT team, [Texas] Highway Patrol and volunteers from the community. But they weren't in need of humanitarian aid, and it was too early to tell whether they'd need us to take some people into Buckner care,” Speed said. “So, I ended up helping with breakfast, transporting people to the civic center and First Baptist Church of Eldorado and running errands.”
Until the women and children were relocated to the nearby city of San Angelo, Community Baptist Church in Eldorado — along with a local Methodist and Church of Christ congregations — provided food and volunteers to serve meals at First Baptist and the civic center.
Once the children were in San Angelo, Baptist Child and Family Services took the lead role in the massive, multi-site shelter operation there.
Officials with the San Antonio-based agency and its incident-management team supervised the shelters in San Angelo at the request of the Texas Governor's Division of
Emergency Management. By April 8, seven shelters were operating on the grounds of Fort Concho — a historic frontier outpost — and another shelter was planned several miles away.
Fifty Baptist Child and Family Services staff members served onsite at the San Angelo shelters, working 12-to-16-hour shifts, and the agency spent about $200,000 on the effort.
Baptist Child and Family Services also provided a mobile food-service unit in San Angelo, staffed by Texas Baptist Men disaster relief volunteers. TBM made available three portable shower and laundry units for the shelters.
“We are in San Angelo purely and simply to take care of women and children,” said Baptist Child and Family Services President Kevin Dinnin, who was named onsite incident commander of the shelters.
“We were not part of the circumstances that brought them here and have no input in what will happen in the future. We're here to make sure they have safe, clean places to sleep, access to medical care, healthy food and people who care about them.”
Shelter operations are complicated by the group's religious beliefs, officials with Dinnan's organization noted. FLDS adherents eat only organic, non-processed foods and do not allow their children to play with certain toys.
Cultural briefings for state investigators and caseworkers, quoting individuals who have left the FLDS group, warned that the color red is offensive to members since it represents evil. Another explanation is that the color is reserved for Jesus, since sect members believe Christ will wear a red cloak when he returns to usher in the apocalypse.
Albert Reyes, president of Buckner Children and Family Services, said he is unsure how the state will serve the displaced women and children.
“We have made an inventory of available beds in our system, and we are ready to receive them at different locations if needed,” Reyes said. “For Buckner, our core mission is to improve the lives of children and families. So, so as a Baptist institution, this is consistent with our mission and history, and we remain ready to help in any way that we can.”
Baptist Child and Family Services and Children at Heart Ministries — another Baptist institution — also have made their systems available to receive any individuals placed by the state.
Buckner International President Ken Hall noted Baptists across the state have demonstrated a great willingness to offer their services in support of the displaced women and children of YFZ Ranch.
“This situation is a good example of how Texas Baptist ministries have made themselves available to First Baptist Church of Eldorado to serve the needs of these children,” Hall said. “This is a testimony to how sister groups like Buckner, Baptist Child & Family Services and Texas Baptist Men have been there to serve the needs of the local church, which in this case has served as a fantastic first-responder.”
— Craig Bird and Russ Dilday contributed to this story.