The situation involving the children of the Fundamental Latter Day Saints has captured my attention for the past month, and its been rolling around in my head as I’ve been trying to get my thoughts sorted out on it.
Its a timely topic around here for several reasons.
First, I live in Salt Lake City, and no matter how much the mainstream church wants to deny association with its renegade counterpart, its impossible. Just like Salt Lake City is synonymous with the LDS church… the LDS Church has not been able to shed the image of the FLDS church and the questions of polygamy that follow. Notice all the lawyers for the sect are based in SLC? Plus, it seems that our local media , some of which is LDS church owned, has decided to camp down there. Secondly, I have read volumes on the LDS religion. Third, my professional and educational background involve Child Protective Services.
Back in 2004/2005, just after we moved to Utah, the news was full of footage showing the speed with which the big white temple was being built in the area outside of El Dorado, TX. The locals that were interviewed showed all kinds of shock and skepticism about what exactly was happening in their little corner of big old Texas. In 2006, Warren Jeffs was captured and later on tried and convicted of rape as an accomplice- for his part in marrying off underage girls to much older men. Being in Utah means that stories of women who have escaped from the polygamous towns and those boys referred to as the “Lost Boys” are regular features on the news and in the papers. So, what of it now?
Cries that first amendment rights are being trampled and sympathy ploys from women whose children have been separated from there are all over the place.
My thoughts? I’m not buying it.
Who’s protecting the rights of those teenage girls who are married off at 13 and have one, two, or more children by age 19? Who’s protecting the rights of the boys that are turned out of the sect and into the desert by age 15? Certainly not the mothers who believe that its their duty to obey. With obedience to their husband, they may be invited by him to join him in the Celestial Kingdom in the afterlife.
As a parent, you have a duty to protect your children. With rights, come responsibility.
What about the stories that have come from the women who have left the FLDS sect? The stories of the methods that the fathers of these children use to instill fear and respect chill me to the bone. One woman told of her husband holding tiny babies under water until they went limp so that the baby would learn to fear his father. Its disgusting.
As for the first amendment rights being trounced on? There are all kinds of “fringe” religious sects. Scientology, Amish & Mennonite communities, etc. I don’t see Arnold Schwarzenegger knocking on Tom Cruise’s door. And, if the FLDS adult members want to practice polygamy, great. As long as the tax payers aren’t paying for it and there aren’t underage kids messed up in it, let them do it hanging from the chandeliers in that temple. Whatever.
I do have sympathy for those women. These women are taught from an early age that their lifelong duties will revolve around childbearing and rearing and to have that taken away must be devastating. It would be terrible to not know where and by whom your child is being cared for.
But, these women are going to have to make some kind of choice, and I hope that they choose safety for their children.
I have a lot more to say about all this, but this is it for now.
