Where are the Protestors

Where Are the Protests? We as a society protest injustices all the time, but we no nothing about the Texas courts decision towards the children of the FLDS?

The children of the FLDS are being sent back home to their compound in Texas. They’re being sent back home into a closed off society that’s core tenants dictate the subjugation and physical and mental abuse of its members. They are being sent back into a cult where they are brainwashed from birth that it is OK for a creepy old man with 10 other wives to rape little girls continually for the rest of their lives, and not is it only OK, but it is their only way to heaven.
Now there are a whole bunch of arguments about the immediacy of danger to these children, etc., that the courts in Texas used to make this decision under, which concentrated on the rights of the parents.

We somehow view this as an issue solely of the rights of the parents. How could we take away these parents children? (These parents that wouldn’t admit which kids were theirs). These parents that live in a society pretty much based on breaking the law (last time I checked, polygamy and child rape were still crimes). Somehow these parents’ rights reign paramount.
But what of the rights of the child? We as a society would not leave a little girl with her mother and father after we knew the father had abused her older sister, but this is what we seem to be doing with the FLDS children. There is not simply one mother and one father. There is a father and many mothers. The mothers have very little control over the futures’ of their children. Instead, the father’s will dictates the course for his children. When he decides to marry wife A’s little girl off, this reflects on the safety of wife B’s little girl. We seem to forget this. This is not a normal family structure on one father and one mother. This is a society based on the subjugation and dehumanization of its female populous. And let us not forget the underlying tenant of corrupted control. The man controls his household and his many wives and the religious leader in this community holds ultimate sway to marry of little girls and kick out little boys so he has more little girls to go around for his fellow old men to “marry” and rape. This is not a normal family structure, unless you are thinking of family in terms of a mafia family, where the don reigns supreme to abuse his underlings as he sees fit (Of course, even the mafia seemed to have some honor code that is completely lacking from the FLDS).

We know girls are married off at ridiculously young ages. To claim otherwise is to just completely break with reality. We have women who have fled this community and have spoken of their ordeals, yet we ignore them. We have a religious leader in jail for assisting of the rape of a 14 year old girl, and facing future prosecution on the same matter, but still we ignore the true threats that these children face every day.

And it is not just the known physical threat that every girls faces that she will be married off as a child to some older man who will be able to rape her according to his whim. There is also the constant emotional and mental threat that is quite imminent and harmful. These children are taught from birth that women are chattel and that it is only through these “spiritual marriages” that they can reach heaven. They are taught that it is only through subjugation and acceptance of abuse that God will somehow accept them into heaven. The boys are taught to abuse. They are pulled into the hold of the corrupted power that men wield over their “wives.” They are taught that the objectification and degradation of women is necessary for them to attain heaven.
Let us be honest with ourselves. Setting aside the relativist view that we are taught in modern society that all cultures have value and should be treated with respect, the type of system built into the FLDS teachings thrives on inequity and corruption. It is a society that mut kick boys out so men can have enough wives. It is a society where men must shut off any desire for a marriage based on equality and respect and partnership, for such a thing cannot be had in a polygamous marriage. Polygamy inherently puts women at a disadvantage and in an inferior position of power, particularly in a society that so curtails a woman’s rights to control her life. To claim otherwise, is to simply lie to yourself.

But perhaps that is what we as a society are doing in regards to the FLDS community. If we were to pass judgment on them, would we have to pass judgment on other religions? What kind of slippery slope would we find ourselves on?

Let us simply step back into reality and look at the facts. This is not a religion, it is a cult. It maintains its power by continual brainwashing and seclusion from outside society. It maintains itself by lying to authorities and intentionally trying to hide what they are doing from outsiders. They know society views their actions as wrong. I think some part of themselves probably tells them that what they do is wrong. But the men ignore it, getting drunk off the corrupted power they wield over the women in their lives.

I have discussed this topic with many people and I continually hear similar responses. “But there really isn’t proof that all these girls would be married off under age.” There is ample evidence of underage marriages. After all, isn’t that why Warren Jeff’s is in jail? “Our constitution guarantees us freedom of religion.” Any individual who studies constitutional law will tell there are limits to freedom of religion. The breaking of laws designed to protect the innocence and safety of children clearly falls into the realm of what is not protected. “As long as it involves two consenting adults, it is completely fine, and we don’t know for sure that they really are married off young.” These types of responses allow us to ignore reality and allow us to cloak our inaction in terms of tried and true phrases that really do not apply in this instance. To consent to something requires choice. When an individual is brainwashed from birth that they must marry into these polygamous marriages, their ability to choose has been removed. Instead, they are coerced through continual mental abuse that there really is no other option. This is not choice, this is learned slavery. And again, the evidence is pretty overwhelming that underaged marriages occur. “Young girls get pregnant all the time, how are these girls so different?” Well, for one, we as a society tend to view any underage pregnancy is bad and there are many groups out that make concerted efforts to prevent it. And most of these under aged pregnancies usually involve some choice by the under aged girl (Now, whether there was coercion involved is an entirely other matter). So when you step back and look back at the reality of it, there really is no reason we as a society shouldn’t be working to actively break up these FLDS groups and integrate its children into society.

But still we as a society do nothing. Where is the uproar? Where are the women’s groups that protest the right to abortion on the grounds of personal autonomy? Do the rights of these little girls not matter to them? Do these little girls’ freedom to choose what to do with their own body’s not matter? Why are they not in the streets protesting? Why are they not working to get civil rights lawyers to defend these children?

Where are the religious groups that so strenuously protest abortion or gay marriage or any other action they view as bad for the moral fabric of society? Isn’t the systematic abuse and brainwashing of women and children bad for society? I would think so. For those of the Christian bent, Christ remarked that it a sin to even lust after another man’s woman. Some religious scholars have hypothesized, and I tend to agree, that the point of this admonishment rests on the objectification of the women involved that results from this lust. Where is the What Would Jesus Do movement? I am pretty sure he wouldn’t be saying, yeah its cool to rape little girls and brainwash them into believing that the fate of their immortal souls rests on a polygamous marriage (especially as his teachings tend to run counter to polygamy, what with the whole two become one thing, not eight become one). Instead, Jesus would be advocating to protect the little children.

And what about the Church of the Latter Day Saints? Why are the Mormon’s not stepping forward to protest? I know they disavow any connection to the FLDS, but they share a common history. The modern Mormon church may not practice polygamy, but they did in the past and what we see in the FLDS is the corruptive nature of that practice. How do they not feel some responsibility for these children? Do they somehow fear being tied in society’s eyes to FLDS if they speak up? Honestly, I would disconnect you more if you actively worked to remove the children from any FLDS member and worked to end the FLDS all together. Instead, the FLDS sits out there like a skeleton in the LDS closet that’s door has been open for the world to see.

Where are the political leaders? The men and women that we have instilled with the authority to oversee the protection of the citizenry? I know we as a society have become pretty jaded about politicians, but shouldn’t we require that our politicians at least make a token effort to protect children? Where is Obama with his pretty speeches on change? Why isn’t he talking of this injustice that needs to be changed? Where is Hillary with history of women’s rights and having a village raise the child? Are we just going to ignore these children? Where is McCain and his speeches on all of us being the children of God? Are these children somehow not the children of God? Do they fear rocking the boat? How can we ever trust a politician to lead this country if he or she cannot even speak out against such an obvious and horrible wrong?
And where are you? Why aren’t you educating yourself on what happens in these FLDS compounds and cities and why aren’t you telling your friends that it just wrong to idly sit by and do nothing, that instead, we as a society should just say that it wrong.