Susan 12/01/2008 12:04:00 AM
Excellent opinion piece that I enjoyed reading. I also worried about the children being taken from mothers, how can this happen when no abuse has been documented? I also worried about claims made by the State that never were supported with facts like the "marriage bed". If true it is disgusting, but if true surely the State would have already released some kind of documents.
On the other hand, I clearly see how the community can be treated as one big family. What is proclaimed by the leader is law to the entire community, no dissenters. For example, Warren Jeffs issued a statement that the color red could no longer be worn because of some reason or other. So the entire community does just that, does that make sense? What would be next? People blindly following a leader, never questioning his authority or doctrine, these are a community of sheep. So I have no problem considering the FLDS is one big family.
I do have a large problem with the idea of polygamy or a faith because of traditions or because it is "natural". If you follow that reasoning then women should continue having babies squatting in the woods, why take modern medicines, we managed to survive without penicillin. Why have dental care or take look after our elderly, its natural to have rotten teeth and die by 50?
And my last concern is with men having broods of babies with young girls then allowing the government to pay them with food stamps and welfare checks. Why is this allowed to happen?
We live in an open society, and no group should be allowed to lock themselves away from the public eye when children are involved. If they feel this strong about their faith then they can move to another society where I'm sure their right to practice their religion will be tolerated, maybe the Middle East will accept them. Texas was afraid for this Sarah child, and also afraid there would be another Waco, the fact that there was no shoot-outs and the children were mostly returned with only a few tears speaks highly of our society and our government.
I feel for the writer of this piece, he is struggling with leaving his church, if he does he will loose most of his family, and possibly his wife and children. Is it any wonder why people continue to "pretend" to believe? And if he feels persecuted as a Mormon, try life as an atheist. Actually once you get past all the hatred aimed towards you it is quite freeing.
John 11/06/2008 5:03:00 PM
I appreciated your story. I grow up the FLDS community and I just wanted to share a couple of my thoughts, if you didn�t mind.
About the point where Willy Jessop said, �you can kill us, but we will not stop living our religion.�
That is a very different approach then most American parents would take, but the basic story of Mormonism is about a family that was willing to give it all up to live God�s commandments.
As Americans, we have lost perspective about God is, �Life.� We think giving our children toys and education is more important then providing opportunities for Life. Personally, I think God is less concerned about someone�s Master Degree then he is about another child on Earth.
I�m not knocking education and betterment of ourselves, but polygamy is a tool of LIFE. It has been the Tool by which God has started almost every culture on the planet. In fact, you would be hard pressed to show me any culture on earth that does find its roots in polygamy.
Polygamists are sort of like colonists, or engineers that lay the foundation for what is to come. These particular polygamists believe that God has set them apart to do a special work.
So many modern Americans look at the past and wonder, �How could there possibly be a God, look how ignorant His followers are.� Yet, when I look at the circumstances of modern life . . . . I stutter. How fragile we are, how quickly our cities could burn, how quickly the population could starve, etc. And some where out there is a people living the principles of �early life.�
What if there is a God? What if polygamy is His, �Start-a-new-culture� tool? No one in polygamy claims that it is easy, they claim that they believe they were called to a work. And I like your point. Would the LDS church excommunicate Joseph Smith if he returned? Would Joseph Smith be proud of his church, or would he go looking for fundies?
The truth, the whole world is in your shoes, and my shoes. None of us would be here without polygamy.
The planet is 4.5 billion years old. Life has existed here approximately 2.5 billion of those years. Humans, if you go back to our earliest known parent, has been here about 3 million year. Modern man really didn�t evolve until perhaps the last 150,000 thousand years. The last 15,000 years has been significant. So in the 1/166667 fraction of time that man has been here and in the last 1500 years, we�ve decided that we knew how to manage Life better then God.
I don�t want to make excuses for bad behavior. Warren Jeffs deserves what he has as far as I am concerned. But polygamy is a tool for Life. Perhaps not for you or other educated Americans, but perhaps God still sees a need for it.
Frankly, with our new President Elect, I�m suddenly scared. Polygamists have been prophesying a color war in American. Things could go well over the next few years, or some Redneck could do something stupid and trigger an event that could shake the world. They�ve been told to look for certain signs . . . and well, those signs are appearing.
I suppose that the best thing American can hope is that these polygamists are a bunch of crazy loons. But what if they are . . . not? What if God does have a need for them? What if he sees a need for His trusty ole tools for re-establishing life?
I�m not really into the whole dooms-day thing, but it doesn�t even have to be that. 100 years ago, this group could meet in a small living room. They have faith, they know how to multiple, (at least in children, if not actual mathematics.)
Even if you got rid of 99% of them, it wouldn�t be enough. They�re faith is in God, and for the most part, (God being no respecter of persons) hasn�t really let them down.
