There is a somewhat interesting discussion going on at the post I put up yesterday about the FLDS. It has to do with the government interfering with religion, which is actually a constitutional issue and putting the safety of people that can’t fend for themselves over other people’s rights.
Don’t get me wrong here. Number one, I don’t have a religious bone in my body. I don’t believe in organized religion and think it’s a waste of time. That being said, it’s not my job, nor do I have the right to question someone else’s faith whether they believe in God, Allah, Buddha or the Great Spaghetti Monster. How you choose to celebrate your religion is also your own business, so long as it’s not interfering with other people’s rights. For millions of people how they choose to worship also dictates how they live. Again, what you do in the privacy of your own home or with other’s that believe in the same things is your own business. Provided that it doesn’t harm anyone or disturb their rights.
There are certain things in life that are just wrong no matter how you look at it. Murder, stealing from other people, abuse of others whether mental or physical, and imprisoning people for a few examples. Just because you, your parents and grandparents have always slept with children and see nothing wrong with it doesn’t make it right any more than growing up thinking that being a suicide bomber and going to meet the virgins is right.
Anyhow, just had to interject my opinion in there.
From what I have been reading it may be that they (the police) were called in falsely, which may be a sticking point. The problem is that they still have not located the 16-year-old girl that supposedly called them twice. According to the call for help the girl was being held against her will at the ranch, she already had a child and might be pregnant. She said that she was beaten several times by her 50-year-old husband. The problem is that they cannot find her and the man police have been searching for, Dale Barlow, may be living in a different state.
Of course the FLDS is pretty sneaky and underhanded and it certainly wouldn’t be beyond the scope of them to get rid of the girl and have Barlow moved elsewhere if they were tipped to the raid. I doubt they expected for all of the children to be taken into custody like they were. Once investigators arrived they witnessed several pregnant minors as well as others with infants.
Attorneys for the FLDS are challenging the search, saying that police and social workers overstepped their authority. As much as it pains me to say it, they probably did. It’s a quandary that I would hate to have to decide as a judge. To what lengths are we willing to go to protect people and how many laws are we going to ignore and trample to keep other people safe.
CBS did a report earlier today on Polygamy and how prevalent it is. The quandary I spoke of above is mentioned. Some people are saying the raid is unconstitutional, and while I tend to agree with that statement, some of the sects supposedly condone sexual abuse.
It’s only a matter of time before we hear from some of the hundred odd women that have left the ranch voluntarily. Did they leave to be with their children (most likely) or did some of them leave in order to escape being held prisoner against their will? I guess the developing story will let us know eventually.
CNN has gotten a copy of the affidavit that was made public late yesterday. I have a copy on my server unless traffic gets too high. You can check it out here.
The feds have been out to get the FLDS for some time now. The depth of their dislike, or is it fear of, this group is now being displayed in the total trampling of laws and rights to get to them. Oh I’m sure they will come up with someone whom they will say made the “call” they got asking for help. These poor people have now been uprooted from their society and thrust into a world they obviously didn’t feel was fit to live in. The real “trauma” to those poor kids won’t be the life they have been ripped from, it will be the countless hours of “therapy” to get them to conform to how “normal” society wants them to think. With that will come a realization that everything they believed in and everything they have known thus far is scorned by their “rescuers”. Left alone to live their lives in the FLDS society they wouldn’t have known any different, and now they must go through the trauma of realizing they don’t fit in with the rest of the world. I ask you, how is that a good thing? I also ask you, what does it matter to you what these people believe in, even if it runs counter to what you believe in? And finally, how does what they do in their society impact you in any way, shape or form – where they personally bothering you in some way? Perhaps it would have been best to simply leave them alone.
So the fact that they don’t know any better makes child rape OK? That’s pretty fucked up logic.
State of Texas a Danger to Children?
The mothers of all children five and older were separated from them on Monday. FLDS members say that the mothers returned to the compound but child protective services is saying that six women had gone to the safe house. They also moved the kids to a l…