What's really going on in the southwest

With these polygamous sects getting raided and their inbreeding hitting an all time high. Do you think it's time to truly look at the power of religion?

It's very scary to see this on the news. These women and children are abused, brainwashed, and lost. And a good chunk of it revolves around religion or the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...and what is that anyway.

Well, The FLDS practices plural marriage, a spiritual ritual that is arranged by the group's prophet through what the church teaches are revelations from God. Having multiple wives, members believe, gives them access to the highest level in heaven, the Celestial Kingdom. Today, the fundamentalists claim a membership of 10,000 to 12,000, most of them living in the twin cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., where they run their own schools, police departments and businesses and boast families that include dozens of wives and dozens of children. In other words, foolishness, that's what it is.

Check out some of the issues with this sect:

• Up to 1,000 teenage boys have been separated from their parents and thrown out of their communities by a polygamous sect to make more young women available for older men. Many of these "Lost Boys", some as young as 13, have simply been dumped on the side of the road in Arizona and Utah, by the leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), and told they will never see their families again or go to heaven.

• Laurene Jessop, a member of an isolated polygamous sect in Arizona, says she was sexually abused by her father, who had four wives and 56 children, and mistreated by her husband, who was already married to Laurene's sister.

• Authorities raided the alleged polygamist sect's Eldorado, Texas, compound in early April after a 16-year-old girl allegedly called a hotline claiming of abuse. The girl, who authorities still have not found, reportedly claimed she was beaten and raped by her 50-year-old husband. Members of the sect deny the children were abused. They claim they are being persecuted for their faith.

• A Phoenix, Arizona woman, who was once a member of the sect in Colorado City, escaped the night before she was to be married to an older man. She was 14 at the time. Pennie Petersen, at age 14, found out she was to be married to a 48-year-old man who she said had previously molested her. She ran from the sect and has become an advocate for the under-age brides in Colorado City.

This is really happening, this is really happening. And the sad thing is, this is a product of male privilege and abuse of religious beliefs. I hope that the women and children can recover from the years of this mess. The madness has to be erased and thrown away, as well as those hideous dresses and hair styles.