Once again the Twelve Tribes Communities are in the news. For 25 years now we have honored June 22 as the day that the Community in Island Pond and its 112 children got delivered from the hands of the state in 1984 (yes, it really was “1984”) by Judge Frank Mahady because he followed the Constitution.
This year I have something more to say than simple appreciation for what Frank Mahady did. I want to share with you something that I believe the world needs to give heed to.
It is time for citizens to pay attention to the increasing militarization of law enforcement the world over, from Texas to Tehran. It is a fearsome trend that we should not fail to notice.
I just returned from an international conference of religious scholars where one of the main features was the unlawful raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints at Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, where 469 children were seized on April 3.
Much scholarly research reveals that the plan that was executed in Texas a year ago followed the exact same steps of a plan to “destroy the Church in Island Pond” that anti-cultist Galen Kelly wrote in 1983. I discovered that written proposal in 1999, and although it was diabolical that the state of Vermont adopted and executed this private agenda at state expense and at the cost of human rights violations by the hundreds, at least a member of the state's judiciary stood in the gate against even worse violations. I believed that the Galen Kelly plan, whose purpose was to destroy a non-mainstream religion, had failed and that democracy and freedom had won.
It turns out that since the 1984 raid on the Island Pond Community some 40 more similar raids have been conducted in the U.S. and Europe on minority religions following the same plan!
Scholars Susan Palmer and Stuart Wright are documenting this state-sanctioned violence against such groups in a forthcoming book, Storming Zion. The essence of the point is that these raids are not justified and not based on evidence, but on lies and fearmongering fomented by coalitions who care nothing for religious freedom, constitutional protections, and the rule of law. All of us are in danger when the rule of law is abandoned in the face “moral panic.”
For those of you who have never read Judge Mahady's Island Pond opinion, I urge you to do so or even to read it again. You will learn something important about what it means to live in a democracy and what it takes to protect it.
Judge Mahady's admonitions and challenges really merit study by all sectors: citizenry, students, law enforcement, social services, and all who cherish democratic ideals. Later this year we hope to be able to visit college campuses or even high school classes to teach what happened in 1984 and the current relevance of what Judge Mahady had to say against such a “grossly unconstitutional scheme,” one that apparently is being repeated throughout the world. We need to ask ourselves, “Why?”
On behalf of the children and parents of the Island Pond Community whose rights were safeguarded by Judge Mahady in the summer of 1984, we urge you not to forget what he did and why it is important to stand up for the freedoms of others. They can easily be lost.
We can see how precious they are for the people of Iran who simply want their votes to be counted.