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In April 2008, state police and child protection authorities raided Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado, Texas, a community of 800 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a polygamist branch of the Mormons. State officials claimed that the raid, which was triggered by anonymous phone calls from an underage girl to a domestic violence hotline, was based on evidence of widespread child sexual abuse. In a high-risk paramilitary operation, 439 children were removed from the custody of their parents and held until the Third Court of Appeals found that the state had overreached. Not only did the state fail to corroborate the authenticity of the hoax calls, but evidence reveals that Texas officials had targeted the FLDS from the outset, planning and preparing for a confrontation. Saints under Siege provides a thorough, theoretically grounded critical examination of the Texas state raid on the FLDS while situating this event in a broader sociological context. The volume considers the raid as an exemplar case of a larger pattern of state actions against minority religions, offering comparative analyses to other government raids both historically and across cultures. In its look beyond the Texas raid, it provides compelling evidence of social intolerance and state repression of unpopular minority faiths in general, and the FLDS in particular.

Church and state --- Christianity and state --- Separation of church and state --- State and church --- History --- Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints --- FLDS --- Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints --- Iglesia Fundamentalista de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días --- Eldorado (Texas) --- Church history --- State, The --- 21st century. --- Eldorado Region (Tex.) --- 21st century --- Eldorado Region (Texas) --- Church and state - Texas - Eldorado Region - History - 21st century --- Eldorado Region (Tex.) - Church history - 21st century --- Short Creek raid --- children --- government raids --- child abuse --- the LDS --- the Salt lake Tribune --- the Deseret News --- the Texas State raid on the FLDS --- the Branch Davidian raid --- FLDS raids --- the Twelve Tribes --- the Appeal Court --- the FLDS children --- Eldorado polygamy raid --- the Yearning for Zion Ranch raid --- crime control theater