Texas officials are trying hard to keep the focus on child abuse – and away

from religion – in the custody battle involving 437 children seized from a

polygamist religious sect this month.

If only it were so simple.

Like it or not, this conflict is about far more than the issue of older men

having sex with under-age girls in violation of Texas law. It’s also about

religion – specifically the religious culture of the Fundamentalist Church

of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS).

Defenders of the church argue that the raid was an overreaction to one

telephone call (that may have been a hoax) and was motivated by

long-standing animus toward the FLDS community. The state counters that

dramatic measures are justified when evidence points to children trapped in