I'm getting a bad feeling about this

Now, I agree that Uncle Warren is a nasty piece of work, and I wouldn't be sorry to see him locked away somewhere far away from the rest of us. But this isn't how it should be done.

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs has been handed over to Arizona authorities to face charges related to performing more child-bride marriages.

Jeffs was being transported to the Mohave County Jail in Kingman, Ariz...

Jeffs, 52, was serving two 5-to-life sentences in prison following his conviction last year on two counts of rape as an accomplice, a first-degree felony. He performed a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.

In Arizona, Jeffs is facing criminal charges including sexual misconduct with a minor, conspiracy to commit sexual misconduct with a minor and incest as an accomplice. Jeffs' criminal defense attorney in Arizona has sought to get the case there transferred to another jurisdiction, fearful that the pre-trial publicity would harm Jeffs' right to a fair trial.

In addition to the Arizona charges, Utah's Attorney General has been conducting investigations into Jeffs and the Fundamentalist LDS Church. A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City has also indicted him on charges of unlawful flight to avoid prosection, stemming from Jeffs' time on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.

The first time Jeffs was brought to trial, I mentioned I had misgivings. This current trial doesn't do much to ease them.

We don't have a lot of details about the charges in this trial, but if there were minors (below the age of consent, that is) involved and incest, then maybe there's some reason to prosecute. But in the last case, he was on trial simply for his religious leadership. His crime was counseling (and yes, pressuring) members of his congregation to follow the tenets of their religion. He didn't urge them to commit any crime; merely to do something that they were later sorry for.

By that logic, how long will it be before other clergymen are held to the same standard? The health-and-wealth preachers who encourage giving more than you can afford? Are they to be held responsible for bankruptcies? Yeah, nobody's going to cry about them, are they?

How about the Fundamentalist preacher who counsels a homosexual to either change or remain celibate? Do we hold him liable for the guy's emotional problems? Some gay people have killed themselves in that situation. Is the preacher his murderer?

How about the Catholic priest who stands behind the church's ban on abortion? If a woman in his parish dies in childbirth, do we put the priest on trial?

Stretching it farther, how about a Mormon bishop who urges observation of the Word of Wisdom? If a Mormon trucker falls asleep at the wheel, is the bishop to blame for the resulting collision?

Okay, so we're getting progressively more strained interpretations of the precedent. But can you absolutely guarantee where the cycle will stop? Me neither.

In all the cases above the clergymen were merely reiterating the tenets of the faith they profess, to members of the same faith. Tenets, remember, that were in place before the individual situations arose. In the same way, Jeffs counseled two members of his flock to follow the established customs of better than a century in their religion. He didn't invent those customs. He didn't hold a gun to anybody's head and force them to marry. All he did was to tell them they were in danger of hell if they disobeyed God. He advocated to them those standards of right and wrong which their religion maintained. Which is the duty of any clergyman.

No matter how much I may loathe him or his religion, he was performing his priestly duties. When that in and of itself becomes grounds for prosecution, then nobody's religious freedom is secure.