I made passing comments to my wife and children concerning the subject, however it wasn't until the other day that after seeing five or six daily news stories concerning the removal of the children from their homes that it dawned on me that something seemed to be missing from the equation.

Remembering that a scripture from the Bible reads "Judge not, lest ye be judged", I thought prior to my casting mine it would be prudent to briefly summarize my own religious beliefs, history and where I am now in life regarding a belief in a divine creator.

My father was a Catholic, my mother eventually became so. I attended a Lutheran church as a child. (no Catholic church available) My first wife was a complete mystery. At her request and behind her lead I attended The First Christian Church, The Church of Christ, The Four Square Church, The Pentecostal Church of Christ, The Seventh Day Adventist Church and The Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints. So much for first marriages!

My current wife and I were married in the First United Methodist Church. Our children were baptized there and we attended periodically over the first few years of our marriage. For many years we didn't attend church because as chance would have it, Sunday was my wife's only day off. We did attend once a few years ago, it was a local church on the weekend after the Columbine massacre. However, when the Pastor began to immediately rant on the immoral behavior of then President Bill Clinton, I decided enough was enough.

One thing I've learned about myself after 49 years on this earth is that I am most definitely an agnostic. I do not consider my self an atheist for it would be welcome news to me to discover the truth behind that age old mystical question, "where the hell did I come from"? Having some education in world history, sociology, anthropology and some geo-science course's I only know that most traditional beliefs do not fit me comfortably, nor do they fit me snugly or loosely for that matter. However because of the fact that I claim and believe myself to be an open-minded person, I am quite comfortable calling myself an agnostic. I simply don't know.

Over time I began to believe some cold hard facts. It seemed to me that organized religion was being led by a host of either corrupt crooks, hypocritical bigots or just holier than thou you know what's. Who can forget Jim Bakker being led away in handcuffs. Or Jimmy Swaggert's affair with a fellow parishioner.

Then there was Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson blaming September 11th on the gays and the feminist's. And organized religion has it's share of complete wacko's too. Jim Jones and Jones Town.

David Koresh and the Waco tragedy. Even now we have a host of folks either trying to scare the Social Security Checks right out of the purses of little old widows or those like John Hagee who would love nothing more than to get World War III started so that we can hurry up and get on with Armageddon!

Yes, I would claim all organized religion to be nothing more than a complete tool for the wicked for not for the evidence shown by another group of believers not so very long ago.

Which brings me to my point.

On Tuesday October 3rd, 2006, Charles Carl Roberts walked into an Amish School house in Nickle Mines, Pa. Before killing himself, he murdered five Amish girls ages 6-13. How did the community respond? With forgiveness. Not only did they forgive the man who had so wronged them, they attended his funeral and prayed for his soul and asked god to accept him into his kingdom.

What seems to be missing in Eldorado Texas, is the fact that I have yet to hear one of the FLDS members evoke the name of god during all their malaise. Not one, "God will get us through", not a single, "We're drawing strength from the lord." Not even the subtle "thy will be done".

Something just seems to be missing here. Just a thought.