I see on the news that Texas authorities have raided the compound of a polygamist cult, removing the women and children. Evidently, last week one of the children called the police and claimed they were being sexually abused.  

As someone who has libertarian leanings, I think the government would do better just to leave polygamists alone. In my mind, Polygamy isn't any more immoral than a man who starts a family, divorces his wife, and then starts another family.

That said, in general there is tremendous abuse in these cults, and at some point the state has to step in and remove the children (mostly young females) who are being forced into marriages and sexually abused.

It is also a well known fact that there are many other such compounds scattered all throughout the Southwest. Jon Krakauer documents one such compound in Arizona, in his book Under the Banner of Heaven.

I guess I wonder why these compounds are allowed to exist. I understand the administrative nightmare of tearing apart families. But at some point aren't we just endorsing child abuse. We seem to permit these cults to exist as long as they function far from the rest of society and operate under the guise of religious freedoms.