...And Then They Came for the Mormons...
Is anyone else bothered by this?
I mean, where's the outrage?
If I understand the story right, a 16 year old girl at a Mormon ranch makes a single phone call alleging abuse (she was forced into a marriage with a man in his 40's) and the government comes to the ranch and takes 413 kids away from their parents.
Based on one phone call.
From a girl no one has actually ever interviewed and whose whereabouts are unknown.
Now don't get me wrong...
1) I have no doubt that this girl was telling the truth and is an absolute victim. She needs justice.
My point is that it cannot be right, just, or good in any way that the government can take kids away from their parents, subject them to cross-examination by biased social workers and invasive probings by gynecologists, traumatize and scar them for life, and destroy their families based on the allegations of a single teenage girl in a single phone call.
But of course these are those freak fundamentalist Mormons, right? I mean, they aren't doing this to Baptists, right? It isn't like they're targeting Black people or Muslims or homosexuals, right?
Just fundamentalists. Those people are dangerous even without the possibility of child abuse, right?
RIGHT?
So nobody says anything. Nobody expresses outrage over the fact that families are being destroyed over a phone call and no live witnesses.
But surely they are guilty of incest and polygamy and child abuse! That's how all those fundamentalists are. So we shouldn't wait for evidence. We shouldn't presume "innocent until proven guilty". We shouldn't give these families due process.
Should we?
I mean, where's the outrage?
If I understand the story right, a 16 year old girl at a Mormon ranch makes a single phone call alleging abuse (she was forced into a marriage with a man in his 40's) and the government comes to the ranch and takes 413 kids away from their parents.
Based on one phone call.
From a girl no one has actually ever interviewed and whose whereabouts are unknown.
Now don't get me wrong...
1) I have no doubt that this girl was telling the truth and is an absolute victim. She needs justice.
2) Child abuse is horrific. I feel no mercy towards its perpetrators.
3) I consider Mormonism a cult religion. Its doctrines are harmful, bizarre, and I would argue Satanic.
4) I consider polygamy a travesty. Just another mockery of God's design for human sexuality.
5) In the final analysis, it may even end up that the taking of these kids was justified.
But none of this is my point.My point is that it cannot be right, just, or good in any way that the government can take kids away from their parents, subject them to cross-examination by biased social workers and invasive probings by gynecologists, traumatize and scar them for life, and destroy their families based on the allegations of a single teenage girl in a single phone call.
But of course these are those freak fundamentalist Mormons, right? I mean, they aren't doing this to Baptists, right? It isn't like they're targeting Black people or Muslims or homosexuals, right?
Just fundamentalists. Those people are dangerous even without the possibility of child abuse, right?
RIGHT?
So nobody says anything. Nobody expresses outrage over the fact that families are being destroyed over a phone call and no live witnesses.
But surely they are guilty of incest and polygamy and child abuse! That's how all those fundamentalists are. So we shouldn't wait for evidence. We shouldn't presume "innocent until proven guilty". We shouldn't give these families due process.
Should we?
Labels: Cults, Government, Orwellian, Waco, Writing on the Wall
posted by Steve at
8:03 AM
8 Comments
