Yearning for Zion Ranch

The State of Texas was handed a stinging reprimand in the Yearning for Zion Ranch case this week. The Third Court of Appeals ruled that the state offered "legally and factually insufficient" grounds for the "extreme" measure of removing all children from the ranch, from babies to teenagers. The state never provided evidence that the children were in any immediate danger, the only grounds in Texas law for taking children from their parents without court approval, the appeals court said. Footnotes in this sad case of “protecting the children” will include the acknowledgement that the phone call received indicating abuse did not come from anyone on the ranch and most likely was placed by a woman in Colorado. The State charged that as many as 33 children were either pregnant or had already given birth only to admit this week that one third had been reclassified as adults including one 27 year old woman and the balance “would probably be reclassified as not minors” shortly. The State CPS investigators said that women on the ranch, simply look young because they do not wear makeup and their all natural diet keeps their skin healthy. They avoid almost all processed foods and all of their dairy products come from their own cows – cheese, butter and unpasteurized milk. Oops! Let us hope that this farce ends quickly and these families are reunited.