Issue – The FLDS Raid in Texas

Many LDS blogs and forums have expressed anger or resentment towards the government for raiding the FLDS compound in Texas and removing all 416 children from their homes and families.

I will spare the details, but basically a 16 year old girl called and reported that she was being sexually and physically abused by her 50 year old husband, which led to the search of the compound and removal of children therein. Google it to find out more…

As LDS ourselves, I am sure many of us are compelled to have sympathy for the families. How could they take ALL the children? As a reminder, the FLDS aren’t considered part of our church. Many non-members generalize and assume all Mormons take part in lifestyles like this. However, this post is meant to describe my utter disgust and disappointment in current church members, as well as those who are members of the FLDS church who are against the Texas raid and support the children being put back into their previous lifestyles.

We like to look the other way, and hope that everything going on in these compounds is inspired of God, or harmless. Or we bite our tongues because of religious rights. No matter how you look at it, there are girls under 15 being forced (albeit brainwashed) to marry 50 year old men, their cousins, men with five other wives, etc… Many men, including leaders in the FLDS church, have been convicted of serious sex crimes. Young women at the prime of the sexual confusion are seduced by men as old as their grandfathers. Young men are weeded out to eliminate the competition for the older men. We all generally know what acts these people hide behind “religion.”

Taking every single child is completely justified and necessary. How are we to determine who was forced into marriage? How are we to know who is being raped? There is no way to know. There is also no way to determine if this single phone call had any merit. However, many people are forgetting that the raid of this compound wasn’t based on one phone call, rather instigated by it. The many illegal acts committed here, protected by the veil of the United States’ legal technicality of “religious freedom” were more than enough to justify it.

So what about the mothers and children? I am sure all the children want to be back with their families – even the abused ones. No child wants to be ripped away like that. I am sure there are plenty of teenage girls who are wishing they could be back with their husbands/fathers even. But what about the ones who aren’t? What about the young girls who are forced to be mothers at 13? What about those who suffer every day watching the husband they love have sex with other women? What about all the others? Will the children readily admit that they want out? No, of course not. Who wants to be ripped away from their family, and persecuted by the only people they know and love. These children are coached by their parents, and therefore even when they want out, won’t admit it to authorities. What about the ones who want to escape, but can’t? We need to give all these children a chance to realize that the only thing they know is illegal.

I am fully in support of the freedom of plural marriage for consenting adults. There’s really nothing we as a country can do about that. However, children are too young to know right from wrong, especially if their parents can’t even tell the difference. Allowing this behavior to go on is simply irrational. We need to give these kids a chance to realize that they don’t have to do this. Taking them all away was the only solution, and will hopefully trigger more investigation.