I am the father of three children. If my state took them from me without evidence that I had abused them, my outrage would be indescribable.

Thus it was no surprise to me to read that a Texas appeals court ruled last week state authorities had no right to seize more than 460 children in a raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints’ (FLDS) Yearning For Zion (YFZ) Ranch in early April.

The appellate court decision is being hailed as a vindication by members of FLDS who claimed that they were being persecuted for their religious beliefs. Here’s why.

Every child on the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado, Texas was taken from the FLDS based on uncorroborated “tips” from a caller to a family shelter crisis line who claimed to be a pregnant, abused teenage wife at the ranch. The caller has not been found and authorities are investigating whether the calls were a hoax.

But that is not really the starting point. Texas authorities have been investigating the group for the last four years. It seems that the regular Texas Bible thumpers are not particularly tolerant of non-mainstream religions.

In Texas, bigamy is a felony in which a man is legally married to one woman and either marries OR lives with a person other than his spouse “under the appearance of being married.” Thus it would seem that a man with a wife and a “spiritual wife” could be charged with bigamy (but not the women?).

While I believe in the rule of law, in the United States we have seen a number of occasions in which the courts have overturned lifestyle laws involving consenting adults. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Virginia’s ban on interracial marriages (1967) and Texas’s sodomy (2005). Moreover, the supreme courts of Massachusetts and California have ruled in favor of gay marriages. Is polygamy next?

Now follow this logic. The warrant authorizing the Texas’s raid on YFZ Ranch was based on apparently false allegations of child sexual abuse. Nevertheless, the warrant is probably still valid.

However, having sex with a person under the age of 17 years of age who is your spouse is not a crime in Texas. Therefore, if polygamy were legal in Texas, and the men had married their spiritual wives, then there would be no child sexual abuse with respect to girls 16 years of age or over (14 years of age or older prior to 2005), the minimum age for marrying in Texas.

So I am greatly concerned that the Texas raid was really for the purpose of breaking up FLDS, and that protecting children was the state’s cover. This conclusion is tentative, but given Texas’s bizarre claim that the YFZ Ranch constituted a single household so that wrong doing by a few could be imputed to the entire group and the lead investigator in the case alleging that the FLDS belief system facilitates a lifestyle in which “male children are groomed to be perpetrators of sexual abuse and the girls are raised to be victims of sexual abuse,” I do not foresee changing my view.

Texas has appealed the appellate court’s decision to the Texas Supreme Court. Given that the state failed to prove imminent harm to the children — a critical requirement to justify taking children from their parents — it is likely that the appellate court’s decision will be sustained and most of the children returned to their parents (except possible several underage girls who are pregnant or recently gave birth).

The bottom line is that while I am concerned for the welfare of the FLDS children, it is important not forget the right of parents to raise their children free of governmental interference (absent evidence of actual
abuse) and what appears to be a general lack of due process at the trial level.

It’s a pleasure to join the Rant & Reason bloggers, especially on this National Day of Reason. For a blogger, that’s where it’s all at—REASON. Everybody else just has opinions!

If you’re from the Dark Ages, today is also the National Day of Prayer.

Personally, and as church-state lawyer, I think that the National Day of Prayer (36 U.S.C. § 119), established by Congress in 1952, is unconstitutional. Same with President Bush’s proclamation (and those of other presidents). Clearly, these are acts of government favoring religion over non-religion in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

I’m not a conspiracist, but I have to say that there must be a conspiracy going on because the judges on our courts don’t seem to give a hoot about their oath to defend and uphold the Constitution. Whether there is a conspiracy, or just a lot of bad people in public office, I leave that to the readers of Rant & Reason to judge.

But why should I care? After all, I gave up praying a long, long time ago because my prayers for family harmony went unanswered. So did my other prayers. And I’ve been an atheist for over 40 years with no regrets or doubts. In answer to my question, I care because our federal, state and local governments are supposed to serve all of us, not merely the most common religious group. We nontheists should not be made to feel like outsiders.

This brings me back to the National Day of Reason. Reason is one of the pillars of Humanism. Let us enjoy the day by letting reason be our guide throughout today and the years to come. There’s even a website about the National Day of Reason to help out.

And please check an announcement today by the Greater Philadelphia Coalition for Reason (supported by the AHA) of a new billboard greeting outbound Interstate 95 drivers north of Philadelphia with an image of blue sky and the message “Don’t believe in God? . . . You are not alone.”