Question of the Day | 04/08/2008 12:00 am

Are the goings-on within polygamist sects any of our business? Should they be monitored? By whom?

Read more about: Church, Government, Religion, State

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I’d rather shovel dog-doo up on the street for 25 cents an hour and be my own person than enslaved by some soulless male who would do something like that. The notion that there can be emotional security by the side of any knuckle-dragging Neanderthal is absurd. In my experience (and I live in San Francisco) there is no shortage of decent straight men. There is however the urban myth perpetuated by the patriarchy for their own benefit that there is a shortage of available males. But then the patriarchy has fomented many myths to have power over and control the world. Look around! As Dr. Phil says, “How’s that working out for you?” Return to us to matriarchal societies! From our spiritual beliefs we create our world. Punishing fear-based beliefs give us a fearful punished world! Dr. Klein…on guard! We do not want any of that male crap here!

By Buh-Bye Hillary Hillary Buh-Bye on 04/08/2008 12:42 pm

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Sir: You have exposed yourself and the root of your own insecurities.

By iris odonata on 04/08/2008 12:43 pm

Iris, Thanks for the double entendre and the laugh.

By Buh-Bye Hillary Hillary Buh-Bye on 04/08/2008 12:49 pm

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Does M.D. stand for mildly delusional? Reports on these polygamist sects would indicate that the only broken home these women have experienced is the polygamist home into which they were born.

By alice ruth on 04/19/2008 7:53 am

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I’m all for religious freedom as long as it causes no harm. This is no religion they are not worshiping God they are simply reveling in the power they have created for themselves. The men that place themselves in positions of power are clearly sick and border on evil. The people born and raised into these sects don’t know any better. It’s all they’ve ever known and it’s sad. They will have a tough time accepting help or becoming a part of the “normal” world. It seems to me that the authorities should seek the help of people who have successfully left these groups and gone on to productive lives. They would seem to be in a unique position of being about to be liasons. God Bless all those women and children.

By L S on 04/08/2008 9:26 am

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Yes, every American is guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. At least one of the women in that house was unhappy, she placed the call. That deserved investigation.

By Jozie Lee on 04/08/2008 9:34 am

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This is America, why should we even doubt about stepping in? It is sexual abuse, mental abuse, and, brainwashing. They are breaking the law no matter what.

By Diana Galan on 04/08/2008 9:49 am

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Come, now. No one is more in favor of respecting traditional customs than I, nor more in favor of non-interference in private life. But does any decent person think these are excuses for ignoring, and therefore permitting, child abuse?

By Judith Martin on 04/08/2008 9:59 am

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Whatever the religion or sect, if any kind of abuse is suspected, raised, or reported with respect to any human being or animal it should be monitored and handled accordingly. Freedom of religion is not freedom of abuse.

By kat on 04/08/2008 10:05 am

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It was always the government’s problem—the need to protect those who could not protect themselves. It became more important when the girl called and said that she was being abused. The state had every right and obligation to remove the children from those circumstances. To reiterate the quote, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. These sects are all about power and when the power is threatened those in charge become irrational. There are many examples of this from the followers of Jim Jones to the Branch Davidians to the UFO group in Nevada. The women only continue to follow the only life they have known since they were children. They give birth as children and their children enter they cycle of abuse. They fear condemnation to hell for rebelling because they have “been carefully taught”.

By Susan Cuthbertson on 04/08/2008 10:06 am

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I’m not sure that I think polygamy itself should be illegal because that could be construed as infringing on freedom of religion. As long as all parties involved are consenting adults I don’t see why it should concern us. However, as I’m understanding what’s been happening in Texas, it seems tantamount to slavery. No one should be forced into a life that they don’t want and under no circumstances should anybody be allowed to abuse other people and particularly children for any reason.

By Sherrie Crews on 04/08/2008 10:07 am

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The United States is a secular state, which means that the law of the land trumps religious practice that violates the law. You can believe it is your religion, for example, to kill all people with blue eyes, and it can be a part of your “bible”. But if you go around killing blue-eyed people, obviously, the law is obligated to step in. Male-oriented polygamy is institutional sexism, plain and simple. Statutory rape is illegal in the United States. Polygamy is illegal in the United States. End of story. By the way, the missionary position makes for lousy sex and even worse religion.

By Mugsy Peabody on 04/08/2008 12:18 pm

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Mugsy, Very well said. Religion is used to control. Our Founding Father’s separated Church and State to prevent the tyrannies of the past: “The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian doctrine.”-George Washington. “I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of.á My own mind is my own church.” -Thomas Paine. “I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.”-Thomas Jefferson. “The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion.” -Abraham Lincoln

By Buh-Bye Hillary Hillary Buh-Bye on 04/08/2008 12:58 pm

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We not only have the right we have the obligation to protect these children. My heart goes out to the many women who can not protect their own children as I know they have to be brain washed or emotionally dead. When the law of the land had been broken then it is the duty of those who have been chosen to protect the people to do so.

By K B on 04/08/2008 10:14 am

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Physically abusing anyone in any way should be lawbreaking and stopped. Oh my God there are so many ways people abuse each other and if we listed the physical ways we can think of there would still be ways you and I wouldn’t think of. I won’t go into the emotional and psychological ways because measuring the scale of those would require instruments that may not be exact yet. How amazing to look around and see life and then abuse it. The abusers are sick people, we say. But they have to be stopped even if it takes government to do that. It is a subject we should all address together on this site one day but today - 401 children, girls and boys I assume, and 133 women who wanted to leave the polygamist compound in El Dorado - what happens to them now? Abuse changes people from being the people they were to become and in that way it murders them. Abusers are rarely charged with murder. Should they be?

By Mary Wells on 04/08/2008 10:22 am