Injured Indiana Teen Rescued from Remote Religious Compound

The only reason people cared about this story, the only reason the grandmother was able to rescue this kid, was because of the father's involvement in professional sportsball.   I wish they cared about it because of the dangers posed to the children involved.  And there are others.

Look at the Manson lamps on the man in the thumbnail -- who is innocent of all charges until proven guilty in a court of law.  Look at that gigantic man, and imagine being punched repeatedly in the head by him as a 14-year-old, sweet Jesus.

But young Bryson Muir's maternal grandmother became concerned when she saw that he had a black eye and split lip.  Bryson told her his father, former NFL player Daniel Muir, had done it to him. 

The grandmother was unable to convince Bryson to stay with her.  He went back to his parents, who took him to the premises of the high-demand religion they belong to, Straitway.

The father was accusing Bryson of sexual abuse of other children.  He said that if they were living "in his religious homeland," that Bryson would have been "put to death" for what he had done.  All of that is obviously extremely disturbing.

Bryson is 14 years old.  If he did sexually abuse other kids in the compound -- WHICH IS A BIG "IF" --  that's wouldn't be surprising based on the life he appears to be living.  As Plato once said, "Shit rolls downhill."  Kids who have no control in their own environment are likely to abuse younger kids.  And high-demand religions in general are notoriously full of sexual abusers preying on the children, who in turn may harm younger children.

The part about wanting to be in a religious homeland where he could put Bryson to death for having allegedly been sexually inappropriate as a 14-year old is res ipsa loquitur, the thing speaks for itself.  Hopefully he's never allowed around children again.  There is a photo of Bryson's face.

About the "church" Daniel Muir belongs to, Straitway, back in 2020 Sports Illustrated did a story calling it a cult.  It takes a long time for the sportsball people to think stuff is rapey, at least compared to me.  'Nuff said there.

But the Muirs and others had apparently pooled a lot of their personal wealth and property into the Straitway religion.  It all reminds me of what Jodi Hildebrandt had in mind with looking for property out in Arizona.  She had a huge sack of cash money when she was arrested, which belonged to the emaciated children according to their father.  That was intended to buy some land out in Arizona.  The area where she lived out in Jesus' Armpit,  Utah wasn't quite remote enough for that level of alleged child abuse,  obviously.

The way Bryson wouldn't stay with his grandmother harkens back to the way Ruby's daughter was afraid to leave with her rescuers.   It also reminded me of the deeply Christian Turpin family, specifically the victim impact statements at their sentencing.  They belonged to the fundamentalist, high-demand Quiverfull movement and kept their children isolated.  They did every vile thing to those kids. 

And at the victim impact statement part of the sentencing hearing, the children's mindsets went the full gamut from Jordan, the oldest one who had escaped and gotten them rescued, to the younger ones who still empathized with the parents and didn't understand they had been abused.   Jordan realized there was a better world outside, that life wasn't all just being zip tied to her bedposts, when she saw Justin Bieber videos.

I remember one of the younger making excuses like, "Father needed the food so he could work."  People who grew up in reasonable families can't imagine.  It's not fair to expect the children to escape and get help.  What Ruby Franke's son did in getting help was an inestimable act of bravery.  He was turning himself in for arrest, actually.  That's what he thought would happen.  He'd rather just go to prison and face their consequences, than live with whatever Ruby and Jodi were dishing out.

God bless this grandmother who called.  I don't know what there is to be done about the other kids in that place.