I’ve been trying to ignore this topic, but I can’t seem to let it go. I am a little disturbed by the raid on the Texas ranch. It seems overly aggressive and smacks of a witch hunt. My Mormon persecution complex has been reawakened after the Romney spectacle,* and I suspect that there is more than concern for the welfare of the children motivating
My thoughts on polygyny are a bit convoluted. Up until my early-twenties, I despised polygyny because I was trying to distance myself, as a Mormon, from our polygynist past. I thought all polygynists should be aggressively sought out and arrested, and I did not understand why the
So, back to
I think the raid was over the top and unnecessary. It was motivated, in some part, by religious bigotry. Any Mormon, me included, will tell over and over that Mormons are not polygamists. We’re not. The LDS church officially discontinued that practice over 100 years ago. However, we are intimately connected with the FLDS (polygamist) church because both religions are an outgrowth of the teachings of Joseph Smith. We are triplets. The LDS church is the good triplet, the FLDS church is the bad triplet, and the Community of Christ (RLDS) is the cool triplet. Anyway, because we are connected, I can’t help but feel sympathetic for the women who had their children taken away from them on Monday. They may be crazy religious nut jobs, but I don’t doubt that the majority of the women love their children and provide them with adequate care.
This post is getting really long and rambling, but I have one last thing. I am totally annoyed with the fact that the state rented buses from the Baptists. Seriously? Were there not enough religiously neutral busses available? They had to use Baptist busses? I can just imagine the local Baptist pastor relishing the symbolism of it all. The Baptists busses are leading the crazy polygynists toward spiritual salvation. Nice.
* The media coverage surrounding Romney’s bid for president unearthed major anti-Mormon sentiment. Until then, I was blissfully unaware that Mormons were so despised by so many people.
UPDATE: Here is a great blog post about the affidavit that was used the justify the raid.
ANOTHER UPDATE: I removed the link to the CNN article. I didn't realize that CNN posts a link to all the blogs that link it's articles. I got a handful of interesting comments from strangers, and I had to delete a few that told me I was on my way to hell. I didn't take it personally--I'm sure I'm not the only one.
9 comments:
This shocking Texas story is a reminder that we as a society need to be more vigilant about noticing signs of child abuse and taking action immediately. One detection network that really needs strengthening is our schoolteachers. Many teachers may notice signs of abuse -- which are not necessarily physical -- but then they don't know how to talk to the student about it. So the abuse goes unreported. There's a new online role-playing course that lets teachers practice a conversation with a possible child abuse victim, getting expert feedback after every choice. (It was co-written by a former Minnesota police detective.) There's a free version and a CEU-credit version for teachers. Hopefully it'll help teachers to detect child abuse -- such as in this Texas sect -- much more effectively.
Great post. It's funny just before I checked your blog I was just reading about this. There are a few FLDS blogs that I read a while ago that I was trying to find again to see what they had to say about it all. I didn't find them but I did come across some stuff that made me think of similar thoughts to what you expressed. I am especially thinking about those children and the shock and displacement they are probably feeling. But I think even among other FLDS this group is seen as extreme so maybe it's good to start investigating. But yes they could have gone about it differently.
On an intellectual level, I have no problem with plural marriage of any type. Honestly, I don't care what consenting adults do in the bedroom, as long as they're not doing it in my bedroom. :) However, until there's a "good" example of this occurring between consenting adults in which women don't just marry young and make babies, I have a hard time with it, practically.
I want to comment on the religious bias aspect, but I'm not quite comfortable making statements on behalf of (what is usually called) Mainline Protestantism, because I grew up in the far left of the mainline, and don't subscribe to any religious views now. (And actually, I don't consider Baptists terribly mainstream, theologically speaking, but that's another story.)
Bluntly, mainline churches view the LDS as a cult. A big cult, with a nice choir and some pretty churches, but a cult nonetheless. Anti-Mormon bias is similar to mainline bias to Catholics in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. Anything that smacked of the high church was "popish" and therefore suspicious. Oh, and going to hell. Just ask my Baptist-raised Presbyterian grandmother.
For people like that, the LDS are the new Catholics. The idea of a prophet after Jesus is heretical the way Islam is heretical to the mainline. There was only one Jesus, and he lived, died, and was reborn 2000 years ago.
In my mainline-but-liberally-religious home, there was a respect for different Christian denominations, but subtle and not-so-subtle bias against anything too different. OK to attend a low-church Episcopalian camp, questionable to attend an LDS service. Commendable to refuse to say the pledge with a Jehovah's Witness who didn't, not commendable to think about going to a JW service. And oh, the amusement if someone identified as "Christian" and didn't know about denominations -- how quaint. You see how it goes? I remember being in my early twenties and having an epiphany about the LDS while reading an article in the Atlantic. Why would anyone really dislike Mormons? They're nice, they don't drink or smoke, and they take care of each other. Bully for them. We started telling my dad we were going to sign up just so we would know we'd be looked after. :)
Anyway, this is too long of a comment. I understand that a judge was involved in the removal of the children, and I can't imagine the horror the children and mothers are going through. I hope the situation is resolved, and quickly, and that anyone who has perpetuated abuse against the children will die painfully.
Sad to say, child abusers are something all religious demoninations have in common.
Chelle and Shelley- thanks for your comments.
Chelle, let me know if you find the FLDS blogs again. It would be interesting to read their chatter.
Shelley, there really are less extreme polygamist groups--polygamists that blog, even. So, if Chelle finds the links, I'll send them along. Thanks for your comments about perceptions of mormons.
I think the raid will ultimately be a blessing in the lives of the women and children once they adjust. Hopefully the investigators will treat them gently and give them time to adjust. However, I'm afraid that some of the kids will be stuck with a family that will be hell bent to expose them to pop culture, media, and mainstream religion all at once.
This is an extremely interesting discussion you've started. I hope others comment. You have made some really good and spot-on comments. Although I still have a real problem with polygamy. In any circumstance. Maybe the adults can consent (although I think there is a strong argument that the young women who marry into these situations aren't old enough to "consent") but the children don't have much of a say. It's illegal, it is abuse, it is terrible. I wish I could blame the judge, but it's the men that have created this chaos for the children and their mothers. I don't know if it was handled the best... so I just don't know.
This situation is so sickening to me.
I watched this on the news the other day, and the question that kept popping up in my head was, "where are all the men?" Did the state take the husbands aside for questioning? Why did they only state the number of mothers, around 140, and kids 401?
Just wondering. I know that Nic would be right by my side or in a truck following his kids, and if they took his truck, he'd be on a four wheeler, you get my point. I'm a little curious about the number of fathers. Another disturbing thing they brought up was that they kids names kept changing or many had the same name, and that was one excuse for not being able to find the initial girl who called for help. I really hope the state finds her. I have too big of an imagination to think the worst of this group and what they would do with the whistleblower.
On a side note, I have no idea what polygyny is. Yin?
I think they kept the men behind for questioning. I, too, am worried about the girl who called in. I hope she is lying low and can speak up when she is alone and her safety is assured.
Polygyny means one man with more than one woman. I like to use that word because polygamy is too broad a term for what is happening. There are no examples of one woman with more than one man.
The compound's lawyer has filed some constitutional complaints. I'm interested to see if they will go anywhere. My gut tells me that the state's response to the girl's phone call was too aggressive. But, if a judge issued a warrant to seize and remove all the children, then it probably won't be reversed.
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