SAN ANGELO, Texas - A day after a Texas judge asked the LDS Church to help monitor prayer sessions of women and children of a fundamentalist polygamous group, a church spokesman said doing so would be inappropriate. Scott Trotter, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said that the church has heard about the judge's request only through news reports and therefore has "no clear understanding of what, if anything, we are being invited to do."
In an e-mail statement, Trotter said it would be "erroneous to base any request for assistance from members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the basis that our beliefs and practices are close to those of this polygamous group because they are not."
He also acknowledged that such a request would not be fair, either to the polygamous FLDS, which "long ago chose a different path from ours. In fact, many in these isolated communities view us with some hostility as part of the outside world they have rejected."
On Monday, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther agreed to let women and children, who are being kept at the San Angelo Coliseum, hold two prayer sessions a day. Attorneys said that Texas Child Protective Services workers were monitoring and disrupting the sessions and asked that the members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints be allowed to meet privately.
Gary Banks, representing the state, said there were concerns that the women might discuss the ongoing investigation or coach the children if allowed to meet privately. Walther then suggested that the state ask a member of the local Mormon community to supervise the sessions.
The issue may be moot now, as state authorities began moving the women and children out of the San Angelo Coliseum this afternoon. - Brooke Adam
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