So here's what I know, or think I know:
The Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints has, institutionally, perpetrated a lot of abuses against its members, particularly against teenage boys and girls, particularly in the arrangement of marriages between older men and teenage girls, but also in the exiling of boys from their homes to decrease competition for multiple wives. It is clearly an abusive organization.
At the YFZ Ranch in Texas we have about 400 children separated from their parents, many against their probably-legally-incompetent wills, and only one underage pregnant bride in custody. We have a bunch of families (families in a perpetually abusive system, but nonetheless I imagine at the least the mother-child bonds mean something) and they have been torn apart.
Based on a phone call from someone claiming to be a pregnant 16-year-old girl whom the authorities can't find. There are even suspicions that this girl is really a thirtysomething woman from out of state. They have some evidence now for the abuses they're accusing the FLDS of at this ranch, but it seems there may not have been enough to go in in the first place. I believe that the FLDS is an abusive church and that anyone involved in the essential rape of teenage girls or the exile of teenage boys should be prosecuted.
Does anything about this seem it's been handled in maybe a slightly un-Christian fashion? It's my personal opinion that in a Christian ethic both ends and means must be considered, and I'm fairly sure that the means have been violated in this case, and quite possibly the ends, too.
Parents, don't fret. This information has been stewing in my brain for quite awhile, and it's coming out now. But I am interested in what you have to say on the matter.
Back to liberation theology.
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2 comments:
I'm pretty much on the same page with you on this situation. I don't like to see any organization perpetrate and perpetuate abuse. I do sympathize, though, with children who are separated from family even though it may be necessary to prevent continued abuse. In this case, I'm a little surprised to see such whole hog removal of children and youth. On the other hand, my experience reminds me that what I know about this situation from the media is likely much less, in some regards, and much more, in others, than what is really going on.
Gee, if only the people at the ranch were allowed to marry...oops,sorry.
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