Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Just Curious


In all the images I've seen from the Texas polygamist compound raid, I've seen only pictures of women and children. WHERE are the men and why weren't any of them taken into custody?
I have a lot of thoughts about this whole issue and I certainly don't think that there are any clear answers but really- WHERE ARE THE MEN?
My basic feeling is that if girls are being given to men as "brides" then this is a clear-cut case of child sexual abuse. Fuck freedom of religion because that's just a bullshit cover for what it really is- the abuse and rape of girls. And from what I hear, the young boys are pushed out of the compound to fend for themselves at an early age to prevent them from competing for the available female children. This too, is abuse, if it is true.
Frankly, I don't care at all how many consenting ADULTS want to enter into a marriage together. But they have to be consenting and they have to be adults.
In a situation like this where religion has obviously been used to brainwash the members, I don't know that "consenting" could actually be possible or proven, but you sure as hell can prove that girls below the age of eighteen are being used as sexual partners for men two and three times their age.
The idea of children being separated from their mothers makes me weep but obviously, these mothers are not protecting their children, whether through ignorance or belief in some sort of fucked-up ideologist brain-washing, so perhaps it is, in this case, the right thing to do.
I don't know, I'm not sure, but again I ask- where are the men?

15 comments:

  1. I dunno, but I agree with you. I'm all for freedom of religion until you start molesting children or performing human sacrifices. I mean, is that so unreasonable?

    The men in charge have basically been breeding and training their own sex slaves. I don't blame women who were raised to "know" that they must marry as soon as they hit puberty, give birth as many times as possible, and change husbands at the whims of their "prophets" at the risk of going straight to hell for all eternity for not protecting their kids. But no, I don't think they should get to raise them, either, until some serious re-education has gone on.

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  2. Good question. I haven't heard much about where they are either. I think the men are still on the compound, aren't they?

    And, I think it's sad on one hand that the kids were taken from the mothers, especially when hearing news reports about what they (the children) have been taught (brainwashed) about the "outside" world. It's disturbing to think of terrified kids being taken away from their mothers. But, then again, like you said, those mothers weren't protecting them from the men who were raping and abusing those kids in so many ways while defending it in the name of "religion." So, on that hand, it's still sad, but those kids needed rescuing.

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  3. Plenty of the men are in custody. Those kids are out of the frying pan and into the fire. Foster care ain't no good place to be, I don't care what State you're in. Trouble ahead for all of them.

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  4. The men ARE in custody? I hadn't heard that. But still I ask- why aren't there any photos of them?
    But Juancho, you are right. Foster care sucks.
    There is such a huge problem with so many levels of wrongness embedded in it.

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  5. I know they picked a few up, but you're right, they are laying might low. Without DNA proof or testimony by the victims they can't do much I guess.

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  6. I would say those men are adept at hiding. They have spent entire lifetimes hiding behind their "teachings."

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  7. Seeing that they're all inbred to a crazy degree, including the kids that don't even have birth certificates, I think it's going to be a matter of to much DNA evidence rather than not enough.

    Foster care is pretty bad, but I'd still rather see the kids there than breeding a whole new set of rape victims and brood mares.

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  8. Have you read "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer?

    Great book.

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  9. The whole thing is messy and complicated, being that religion and state government are intertwined heavily here and there are so many sensitive issues. And even with the situation being as warped as it is, and could get, I think the kids are better off (let's hope) in the foster care system, than being where they were.

    Juancho, looks like a good read.

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  10. Frankly, I don't think religion should play any part in whatever justice comes down.
    You can call whatever you do religion but it doesn't make it right.
    I haven't read that book but will. I have read several books by former "regular" LDS members and they are eye-openers despite the fact that they're only dealing with the "real" Mormons.
    And you know what? It's not just Mormons that do things that are indefensible under the "banner" (yes!) of whatever religion suits the needs of the perpetrators best.
    "Imagine no religion."
    I wish.

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  11. I definitely agree with you on the "You can call whatever you do religion but it doesn't make it right" comment.

    Makes me think of unbelievable actions, biases, opinions and such have been used under the guise of "religion" in history. Beating and raping kids, along with the subservient behavior of the women and the mind control that goes along with that are just a few examples of what can happen when someone in power (like Warren Jeffs) claims it's "of God" and people believe and follow them.

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  12. I wondered what happened to the men who couldn't find wives, because other men had more than one wife, assuming that the same # of boys are born as girls. So some are forced out - but where do they go? It sounds like a pack of elephants fighting over female elephants, then the losers get kicked out of the herd...
    They showed some of the men on the news tonight. I think the ones who have teenaged "wives" are laying low.
    But the thing is - last week one of the stations reported that this all happened 50 years ago with this sect - a local or state gov't. seized all the children, kept them in foster care for 2 years, then the kids went back to their parents.

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  13. What I've heard from several sources is that the young boys are basically dropped off in urban areas to fend for themselves- they get jobs in construction, live together, end up in not very good situations. It's like the rooster in the chicken coop pecking the young males in the flock to death.
    And Nicol- the things that have been done under instruction from popes have been pretty grim, too. But really, it's not just the Catholics, either. Things have been done in the name of many, many gods that are as bad or worse as anything humanity has come up with to do to other human beings.

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  14. Maybe humans believe that God formed us in his image so that we can get away with all the fucked up shit that our complex brains and poisoned hearts come up with. Those children have such a hard road to walk. I want to hold them and love them. I want to give them finger paints and a slip-n-slide and seek nothing from them but their wicked and beautiful childhood smiles. They are motherless children now, and it's gonna rain broken hearts no matter what they do.

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  15. Oh May. You're right. About everything- humans and religion and those poor innocent children.
    Can't human beings just fuck things up?

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