The Arkansas Department of Human Services continues to violate the rights of parents and children whose only "crime" is that they attended and/or were members of the church that Tony Alamo pastored.
At this point I am not interested in whether or not Tony Alamo was guilty of the crimes that a jury said he was guilty of. I have neither the time nor the resources to review the entire case. Furthermore, my focus as a writer is on child protective services and family court.
And that is where I can and already have said unequivocally that the police and child protective services are always wrong when they seize all of the children that are part of a particular religious community, simply because the pastor or leader of that ministry has been charged with abuse. Throughout the long history of our federal and state governments raiding religious communities and seizing children, including children that have not been abused, only one judge has ruled against the government, and unfortunately he has died and justice seems to have been buried with him.
What is ironic is that when a pastor or priest from a mainline denomination gets charged with abuse, the state does not raid their church and parochial school and take all of the children. But I am getting ahead of myself. I will write more about that next week.
What disturbs me about the Tony Alamo case is that not only are more than thirty some children being held in an unconstitutional way by the Arkansas Department of Human Services, while they hunt for another 100 children, but the members of Tony Alamo Ministries have been told they cannot talk about the case to anyone.
Not only is there a gag order, but DHS won't even let the children talk to their parents about the case. The above photo makes the DHS position clear. I doubt that the sign in the photo would pass constitutional muster, but when the state is holding your children hostage, and their release depends upon your obedience to the state, it is difficult for parents to violate such arbitrary rules.
It's incredible that DHS refuses to allow parents and children to whisper or to pass notes. And if they do pass notes, therapists and foster parents have to review the notes. So now DHS believes that foster parents and therapists are constitutional scholars who have the ability to review and approve of written communications between parents and children.
Don't forget these parents and children are not criminals. The State of Arkansas is treating them as criminals simply because of their association with Tony Alamo.
The gag order that was issued by Judge Griffin, was issued after the following video was leaked to the internet.
The video shows a supposedly abused teen telling an Arkansas child protective services worker that she was not abused, never saw anyone abused and didn't believe that Tony Alamo had abused anyone.
Apparently, Arkansas Department of Human Services petitioned the judge for a gag order following the leaking of this video. There was no compelling reason for the judge to issue the gag order, but he did it anyway. Why doesn't this allegedly abused child have the right to let the world know her side of the story? Why is the Arkansas Department of Human Services so afraid of the truth?
When the Arkansas Department of Human Services raided the Tony Alamo Ministries community, the media was given prior warning, and allowed to cover the raid as it unfolded. The Department did not ask for a gag order then. Neither did the Department ask for a gag order when the media covered the case during the following months, getting most of their information from the Arkansas Department of Human Services and the police.
Even before the gag order took effect, most of the members of the community where effectively gagged already. Some were hiding out with their children, unable to speak up for themselves because they did not want to disclose their location. Others were gagged out of fear that they would not get their children back if they spoke up.
Members of the community were also effectively gagged by the media. The media paid much more attention to what the state had to say rather than what the parents whose children were unconstitutionally seized by the State of Arkansas had to say. And it appears than few in the media actually analyzed the issues involved. Rather they were little more than spokespersons for the state.
We have heard plenty from the State of Arkansas about the parents and children of Tony Alamo Ministries. From the day of the raid to the Judge Griffin's gag order, the state dominated the narrative.
It's time the gag order was lifted.
It time the parents were allowed to have the same amount of time as the Department of Human Services has had to tell their stories to the public.
It's time the children were allowed to speak.
But the State of Arkansas, on behalf of children who they claim are neglected or abused, has stuffed socks in the children's mouths, and like evil stepmothers have told the children to shut up.
So what we are left with is a silence that is anything but golden--a silence that we can only call the silence of the lambs.
Comments
"..............the State admits that there is not a single piece of evidence in the material submitted that documents a single act of abuse or neglect with regard to any of the 112 children."
This case is so far removed from the Alamo Cult case in every way, it is laughable that you didn't investigate the FACTS first.
1) The State had evidence that every adult's 'religious belief' support: a) physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, emotional abuse. b) severely neglected educational, medical, dental needs as well as starvation and beatings with a board as corporal punishment. c) children SHOULD be 'married to older men' at the minimal age of 'puberty' which they contend begins as young as EIGHT (8) years of age.
You sir, are an alarmist AFTER the fact. Your report is not only antiquated, but proven by a court of FEDERAL law to be ERRONEOUS.
Don't you think that if Judge Mahady's decision in *1984* applied to this case in the least it would have been thrown out?
The Federal Laws concerning a child's welfare have evolved THROUGH the Supreme Court in the past 25 years. Update your files.
My studies indicate that the Federal Government is going after groups like this left and right to include Mormons, this group and Amish. They are starting with extremists but they won't stop there. It is just the beginning to get the general public used to children being removed for religious beliefs.
I was a member of a church that went sideways and I can tell you that not "every church member" thought the same way. Many of us left and voiced opposition. Thanks for your article.
Dear Ex, Sorry, you're wrong. When the state has evidence of abuse they can come in, but they cannot remove all of the children of a religious community simply because one or more children were abused. Judge Mahady's decision might have been made in 1984, but it is more pertinent today than it was then. It might have been made in Vermont, but it is supported by the United States Constitution as well. What has changed since 1984 is the growth of government and the intrusion of the government into people's lives. I don't need to update my files. However, you might want to brush the dust off of your copy of the constitution and read it for the first time. Wake up. The next time the government decides someone is neglecting or abusing children, it might be you they target. Our civil liberties are being eroded year by year, and people like you are happy to sit back and let it happen. I don't care if people are communists, Christians, atheists, etc, I will defend their civil rights.
The truth is that this ex Alamo member is a liar and there was NO abuse found on any of the 36 children who's lives are a living hell because of people like them.
The only abuse these children have suffered has been from the DHS, CASA, FBI, courts and judges who have made them and their parents lives a living hell on earth. The government loves to use these x members to fuel this hateful, lying slander campaign against innocent bible believing members and their children.
Hitler used the same tactics to cause this kind of hate against the Jews in Germany to justify putting them into ovens...
LET THE CHILDREN GO HOME TO THEIR LOVING, CARING FAMILIES! THEY WERE NOT ABUSED! AND NEED TO BE RETURNED! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! STOP THE HATE AND ABUSE OF CHILDREN LEGALLY KIDNAPPED FOR THROUGH THE GOVERNMENT DHS/CPS FOR PROFIT!
www.alamoministries.com
www.arcticbeacon.com
www.inquisitionupdate.org
Thank you Dan for presenting the truth. This NEEDS to be EXPOSED!
THOSE CHILDREN WAS TOOKEN BY THE DCH GOVERNMENT AGENT, BECAUSE TONY ALAMO PREACHES THE TRUE WORD OF GOD THEY ALSO PUT JOHN THE BAPTIST IN JAIL, JOHN THE REVELATION, ALL GOD GREAT PROPHET INCLUDING TONY ALAMO, JESUS CHRIST THE GREATEST PROPHET OF ALL TIME WENT TO JAIL FOR THE WORD OF GOD, TONY ALAMO IS THE GREATEST PROPHET OF THESE LAST DAYS, ALL HE IS GUILTY OF IS WINNING WINNING SOULS FOR THE LORD HE WON MY SOUL TO THE LORD IN THOSE ON MANY WATERS, THE ONLY PASTOR THAT DO NOT ADD ARE TAKE AWAY FROM GOD WORD TONY ALAMO, THE FED SET HIM UP FRAME HIM AND ALSO BEAR FALSE WITNESSES AGAINST HIM TONY ALAMO AND HIS WHOLE CHRUCH , THEY DEFAME HIM WITH LIES, GOD WILL KEEP THE WHOLE TONY ALAMO CHRISTIAN CHRUCH IN THE SHADOW OF HIS WING!!!!!GLORY ALL BE TO JESUS CHRIST THE FIRST TO BE JAIL IN A UNJUST COURT SYSTEM!!!
American better be watching in praying for the time is at hand JACOB TROUBLE, ALSO WAS DANIEL FORE TOLD US THE MARK OF THE BEAST IS AMONG US WE LIVING IN IT, THIS GENERATION WILL NOT PASS TO ALL BE FULLFILLED BY JESUS CHRIST THE FATHER AND THE SON, THE VERICHIP IS THE MARK OF THE BEAST 666, AND ALSO THE NEW WORLD ORDER IS HERE MARTIAL LAW WILL TAKE EFFECT ANYTIME NOW, WHEN EVER GOD WILL MAY BE, LOOK IN REVELATION IN THE KING JAMES VERSION ORIGINAL TEXT AND SEE WHAT GOD GOING TO DO TO THOSE THAT TAKE THAT MARK OF THE BEAST 666 ON THEIR FOREHEAD ARE RIGHT ARM, GOD WILL DESTROY AND SEND TO THE BOWELS OF HELL WHICH IS SEVEN TIME HOTTER THAN THE SUN, GOD AND HIS SAINTS ALREADY WON, GO TO WWW,ALAMOMINISTRIES.COM SO YOU CAN WIN GET ALL THE SEVEN SPIRIT,
Dan:
I would love to talk to you, please send me an email at lawdoll1@gmail.com and let me know how to get into touch with you....Thanks..
BTW, thanks for doing these articles...
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