Saturday, April 26, 2008

the polygamist children-what to do?

I have been really uneasy about the raid on the polygamist sect in Texas. I 100% understand the whys of going in, and that there are absolutely gross violations of the law going on. BUT...all of the kids? I think it is over-reaching to take every child, they took newborns from nursing mothers, etc. I think that removing an entire community of children JUST because they belong to a community that MAY have broken the law is a very scary step for us as Americans. That that community is faith-based is even scarier.
I believe that something needed to be done to stop the chain of sexual abuse there, without question. What about little boys 12 and under? They have not been involved yet in any sort of sexual activity, presumably? Very young girls? Babies? I think taking the preteen girls, and perhaps even the teen boys was right and necessary, at least long enough to question them. But as I understand it, there was a great deal of turmoil within the sect, and a lot of people did not believe in marrying off little girls. What of them? The kids were all sucked up into this huge vacuum and taken away..an entire COMMUNITY. The legal system may well not get them back to their parents soon, if ever. Are we really prepared to have guilt by association, or even worse, guilt by religious affiliation? That's pretty scary. My resolution? Return the children and the mothers who are willing to learn a new way back to their homes, take the men up on their offer to leave for now, and sort it out without destroying all of these tiny lives. Throwing these kids into foster care, schools, etc is going to destroy every bit of their identity, and that is wrong.
What do you think?


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