Problem: Religious Bigotry and the FLDS Church

It's been all over the news: 400+ children have been removed from their super-sheltered homes because children, particularly young women ages 14 - 17, are reportedly being abused by their parents and friends on a Fundamentalist Latter-day Saint ranch in Texas. Girls in that age group are being required to marry men 3 times their age -- and older -- and consumate their marriages during sacred ceremonies in a so-called temple. Authorities have stepped in. Women and children have been removed from the ranch, and many of those children are in the process of being farmed out to local and willing families who have agreed to foster the children temporarily.

I find it odd that religious freedom is mentioned in the constitution, but fought against at every turn in these United States. According to the First Amendment to the US Constitution, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." According to the Supreme Court, however, the right to free exercise of religion is not absolute, stating "Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices." That makes sense, and I do not argue with this point. After all, Aztecs worshipped their gods via human sacrifice, and in this country, that is completely unacceptable. Practices should be limited.

But let us examine those practices.

First, allow me to make myself clearly understood: I am not defending the practice of polygamy, (particularly as it is forbidden by the laws of the land!) nor the wedding of a 15 year-old girl to a 55 year-old man, nor her immediate bedding post-"I do." I do neither support nor make excuses for child abuse. And I certainly don't encourage teen pregnancy. (See previous blog entries.)

However, in this particular case, the vast majority of these polygamous families seem incredibly content...even happy. (Outside of another woman sleeping with my husband, it would indeed be incredibly convenient to have a few extra hands around the house.) The children are well-mannered to a fault, fed on home-grown, unprocessed foods, taught respect and responsibility and a love for God and man, are modest, clean, sincere and unfailingly polite (as reported by the social workers entering the ranch). And if we are to look back only a century and a half in our own country, girls were getting married and having babies (in that order!) at an age far younger than is the norm today, shorter lifespans or no. Travel further back (by perhaps only another hundred years!) and young girls were marrying MUCH older men. It's not necessary, however, to travel quite that far back to hear stories of wedding nights where everyone sat in on the couple's first sexual experience together, whether watching intently to witness the act for history's sake, or running around the building banging pots and pans, teasing the couple mercilessly. (Talk about performance anxiety!)

And yet here we are, barging into homes, ripping apart families, thrusting innocent (and intensely naive) children into new and terrifying situations because of an antiquated "fundamentalist" belief held by their parents. One could argue the fundamentalism of Seventh Day Adventists, as well, albeit the fundamentalism of one is not as offensive to our modern-day sensabilities as the fundamentalism of the other. We modern Americans don't want the FLDS church to exist, let alone their polygamous practices. And so we blame the Mormon church that the FLDS faith exists at all. We don't blame modern-day Catholics for the Inquisition, of course, but the Mormons? Well, they're fair game.

It doesn't seem to matter, what they teach to their members about Jesus Christ, love, honor, respect, faith, and honesty, the charity the LDS church extends to the world, the traditional and conservative lifestyles oriented around the family that they lead, the service that they offer in their churches or communities, the fact that there are millions of them the world over with only one spouse, or their political leadership (as evidenced by Mitt Romney, well and truly out of the 2008 presidential race thanks primarily to his religious affiliation). They are somehow the enemy, a running joke, and a menace...and it is entirely their fault that a 55 year-old man in Texas bedded his 4th and 15 year-old wife in a "holy" temple. Well, it is, isn't it?

Or perhaps the United States has opted to accept any and all religions -- save one. After all, it's not kosher to joke about Jews or acceptable to slander Allah...the PC police might just come knocking at your door. Worse yet, you might lose your livelihood: say such things at work, and you'll be called into HR for your racist behavior. But make a crack about a Mormon? Talk about those sick old Mormon men and those horrible old women marrying off their screwed up young daughters to the aging perverts, tell a Romney joke, or better yet, elbow your friends and comment on how great it would be to have half a dozen women at your beck and call, and people not only turn a blind eye, but elbow you right back.

Now to the problem's solution: What do we do for the misunderstood Mormon faith? More importantly, what do we do for the 400-and-some children forcibly removed from their families? Well, first and foremost, polygamy is illegal. Send the parents to jail. The fact that a state turns a blind eye in the first place is problematic. Our law enforcement needs to nip this sort of thing in the bud before it ever balloons into a problem of such magnitude, and if you live in AZ, TX, UT or NV, it is your responsibility to expect your law enforcement agencies to do their jobs. If a Jehovah's Witness is drafted and refuses to serve, we send them to jail. Jail the parents of the FLDS children. They are willing participant in lawlessness. Period.

Their children? Americans always think twice before removing children from their parents, but the bottom line, people, is that when a parent has commited a criminal act, they must make amends with their country and have temporarily forefitted the right to possess their children, however fabulous a parent they may be. We cannot, however, just stick them anywhere with any family. The social workers will argue that these children aren't going "just anywhere", but there are so very many children, so few foster parents...many of these children will be exposed to things they are not yet prepared to handle, and should instead be going to live with LDS families. I know very few LDS families who wouldn't immediately volunteer to take in one or more of these kids, helping them to feel secure in the fact that their basic beliefs are in practice in the "modern" world, but also able to introduce them to that modern world with the solid foundation of their religious beliefs still intact. Heck, I'll volunteer.

As for the problem of general Mormon-bashing and religious bigotry? As always, it comes down to self-control and personal reassesment. Rather than born-agains sitting in their meetings on Sundays listening to over-the-pulpit advertisments on "how to convince a Mormon they're wrong," perhaps they may wish to focus on the true gospel of Jesus Christ and His great love for all His children. Rather than standing around the water cooler discussing the less-understood and more fantastical aspects of Mormon - or Muslim or Jewish or Buddhist! - religious beliefs, perhaps a few moments spent studying those beliefs as outlined at http://www.lds.org/ might be appropriate (or any number of other faith's own websites, outlining their own beliefs). And just generally, of course, renewing our personal devotion to less hatred and more bridges of understanding always seems to help.

Problem solved,

A Mormon Mommy