Thoughts on the FLDS Situation

My aunt asked my opinion on the FLDS situation a while back. I've been watching coverage of it and reading news stories about it with interest, but had not taken time to really organize my thoughts to have an opinion that was worthy of writing about.

Stimulating my thoughts, a lady at work asked me about the LDS connection to FLDS. She asked if LDS people secretly approve of the FLDS's polygamy just as many muslims outwardly oppose terrorism but secretly support and fund the actions of the extremists. I thought it was a brave question and a good one. My answer was that the FLDS are in no way connected to the LDS Church and that the practice of polygamy is currently not sanctioned by God. I also made it clear that Mormons do not tolerate any form of child molestation or child rape.

I fully support government intervention in religions when it comes to prosecuting those associated with child rape, whether they are polygamists or whatever type of -ists they are... they are still rapists.

I feel, as the courts have now ruled, that pulling all those kids away from their mothers was the wrong action to take. The justification for the invasion of the Texas compound seems pretty flimsy...a phone call from someone they could not confirm was in the compound or not. Any person off the street could have made that phone call. The lawmen in that area seemed so ready and willing to pounce that any shred of information would trigger their zealousness to bring down that crazy religious community, which seems to be the true motive. If they really wanted to "protect the children" from rapists, they would have pulled out all the men. They would have had a more valid reason to arrest all the men...conspiracy to commit rape of a child...because we know that all the men there sustain their leaders and freely give their children over to their fellow rapists.

I admit that I am curious and anxiously concerned about how the government intervenes with the FLDS people. My concern is soley based on the principles of freedom of worship. That line of freedom of worship seems to be crossed by the goverment with too much frequency. Every religion should be concerned and on high alert.

I find it interesting that the government is not interested in upholding the anit-polygamy laws, just as the government doesn't enforce laws against homosexuality and fornication. Now that gay marriage is sanctioned in Massachusetts and California, logic follows the polygamy should then be acceptable too.

When it comes to arranged marriages in the FLDS community...I don't know if I have a problem with that or not. In the early Salt Lake days, daughters were often "given" to church leaders in pre-arranged marriages. I read in Wilford Woodruff's journal that in a meeting of the leaders someone joked that there wouldn't be a 14 year old girl left in the valley, to which Brigham Young rebuked the men and told them that they were violating God's will. He reiterated that although the men could be wed to these teenage girls, that intimate relations should wait until the girls were 18.

My problem with arranged marriages, especially those where the bride and groom are forced together by civic/religious leaders under threat, is the violation of the most important principle of agency. Any tenet that contradicts the principle of agency is not of God. Submition of one's will to that of God's must always be the freewill and choice of that individual.