Clayton, USA - A member of a northeastern New Mexico religious sect has been removed from the sect’s compound near Clayton by sheriff’s deputies so they can convince her to eat.
According to an entry on the Strong City Web site of The Lord Our Righteousness Church, a woman named Esther was taken by Union County deputies late Wednesday night, a day after they had checked on her condition at the sect’s compound.
Esther, also known as Aquinnah O’Keefe, has been fasting since the sect’s leader, Wayne Bent, was jailed for the sexual molestation of two teenaged girls. Bent, in an open letter in the Web site, pleads to be released from jail so he can convince Esther to eat.
Bent, who has maintained his innocence, is also fasting.
A Web entry reports that Esther was met late Thursday by deputies and an ambulance and said that she was being taken away from Strong City against her will.
“I want to make something clear right now,” the site quotes Esther as saying as she was being led away. “I’m not going with you because I want to. You are taking me against my will. I don’t want to go. I didn’t ask for this.”