Polygamy, Pedophilia and the Law
Frankly,
this is about the religious sect and their compound just outside of San Angelo, Texas. There's a lot I just don't understand about this and I consider myself fairly intelligent.
This group, the FLDS (or Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), was apparently infiltrated by an informant and apparently had a member (a 16 year old girl who has yet to be located) who called complaining of being raped and beaten by her "husband" (which relationship might or might not be legal). There were 416 children taken from the group's "compound" (really a small town which hasn't been incorporated or otherwise recognized as a political entity) outside of Eldorado, Texas. Those children are being kept at the San Angelo Coliseum (in a sports venue?). The complications which follow from such actions affecting so many people have understandably strained the governmental infrastructure and will likely cost the people of the state a lot of money.
Before I continue, I should note that the "leader" of the group,
Warren Jeffs, has been convicted of criminal activity resulting from acts he committed as leader of this group.
Without going into a lot of theocratic detail, the FLDS is an off-shoot of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints popularly referred to as Mormons. Once upon a time, polygamy was a practice accepted by Mormons. At that time it was not uncommon in society at large for 15 year old women (girls we call them now) to marry men aged 22 or more. Polygamy was not the usual thing and several sects of that time were attacked for their support of polygamy or a variation known as "plural marriage".
Any genealogist will find evidence of young women aged 13-15 marrying in most families although there is some greater likelihood of it happening in relatively isolated rural communities with lower population density. There are many instances of girls as young as 12 years of age being married even into the 1880s. (
A recent (well, for us old farts) incident that is well known is the marriage of Jerry Lee Lewis to his 2nd cousin (twice removed) when she was 13.) However, this has now been labeled as
pedophilia and it has been legislated against with age standards varying state-by-state.
The FLDS women dress "funny" in distinctive "pioneer" dresses and with an outdated hair style. All members seem to have taken to segregating themselves from society at large both physically by literally living apart from society at large in separate communities and by cutting off broadcast influences such as television and radio within those communities. The "compound" near Eldorado is one such place.
So, I have to get to my questions which I'm hoping somebody can actually answer...
#1 - Where is the informant/infiltrator and why, if conditions were so bad within the community, the government authorities didn't move to correct this earlier?
#2 - Where is the complainant? They say they can't find her? Did she exist? Was she a fraud? How can the warrants issued stand in such a situation?
#3 - What has happened within our society that we have defined (many of us) our ancestors as pedophiles for marrying 13-16 year old girls? (
Are you afraid to look at your family tree?) Indeed, we now commonly refer to those in the 21-25 year age group as children. It is even held to be so in law and official statistical computations. How far will this redefinition of childhood go?
#4 - Why, if the women were victimized, is it that the children removed from their care? In other words, why weren't the MEN (
as they are supposedly the ones committing the criminal acts) removed from the "compound"? Why weren't they arrested?
#5 - How, if the state is willing to act in this way and the FLDS is so bad, does the FLDS continue to exist? I mean, why haven't the various state governments gone after them and why hasn't the federal government gone after them for moving women across state lines (and international borders) for the purpose of prostitution or some such?
#6 - Why aren't other religious groups, with different standards of child rearing, thoughts on polygamy and polyandry, or health care similarly pursued?
Labels: Culture
