Sect Parents Slam 'Vague' Custody Plans

Hearings for the biggest child custody case in American history began yesterday and members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints weren't happy with proceedings, the AP reports. Parents of the more than 460 children in state custody complained that the court's recommendations were too generalized and showed them no clear way to get their kids back.

"Every parent is accused of being bad and there's no cure," a church elder complained. The court's plans for the children do not say if they will ever be allowed to return to the sect's ranch and FLDS members believe they are being persecuted for their religion. Furthermore, reports the New York Times, one woman's eight children have been scattered to four different homes hundreds of miles apart. (More Texas stories.)