My Two Cents

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), I should (finally) weigh in with what my feelings are about the situation regarding the Fundementalist (FLDS) Church and the raids going on in Texas.

My first thought is that ... I don't know much about the situation. However, being a slave to the internet (the first step in overcoming an addiction is to admit you have a problem. ^_^), it's not a truly valid excuse.

The LDS church does not practice polygamy. Doing so would get one excommunicated. Even if one were in a culture where having more than one spouse is not illegal (like in the Middle East or something).

Yes, our church did practice polygamy ... over 150 years ago. As did many of the prophets and leaders in the Bible.

BUT, the main point is that we (the LDS church) do NOT practice polygamy. And have not done so for generations.

My second thought is (because I am a bit of a lactivist) that the foster care system has screwed up in the case of separating nursing children from their mothers. For a country that prides itself on tolerance ... Well ... Let's just put it this way: We (as a nation) don't mind showing sex and violence. We tolerate prostitution and pornography. But don't ask us, as a nation, to allow mistreated adults and children to remain together. Because to allow this would be going too far. We can't show compassion and sympathy towards people. Oh, no.

Another thought I have is that the original call made to report the going-ons in Texas was made falsely. I do agree that if there's child molestation going on that, yes, this should be checked out. BUT if a neighbor called the cops on you for something they made up ... and that ended up in your family being split up for months and nurslings taken from their mother ... well, I don't think that you (nor the court system) would be too happy about it.

...

Well, I suppose that to sum up my opinion, it'd be something like this:

The LDS church and the FLDS church are VERY different (Try comparing Baptists and Methodists ... I mean, hey! On the one hand, they're BOTH Protestant Christian religions, right? They should be JUST THE SAME!!! But they're NOT. Same thing for us and the Fundamentalists. There are some total and complete differences.

At the same time, we are all children of God. I think that we should all treat each other with a little more kindness.

Also, I do NOT support a foster care system that takes nurslings from mothers who are not mistreating them. I think this is a total overreaction ... and I also think that it would not be going above and beyond for these social workers to provide a living area for these women and their children to heal and remain together.

...

Do I agree with the beliefs of the FLDS church? No. That's why I'm not a member of their faith.

Do I think that they are a terrible bunch of people? No. I think that many of them may be in a bad situation. It's not outside the realm of possibility that there is abuse and mistreatment in their community.
I say that because, at this point, there appears to be that evil in every community.
Which often makes it hard to trust people (as a whole).

Do I think this situation could be handled more effectively? Hell, YES.
One - don't split up families without good reason.
Two - It would help if the families cooperated with the authorities. (Yes, the fathers and husbands are in a slew of trouble. But there's nothing that I can see to be gained by wasting everyone's time during the investigation.)
Three - I haven't come up with a third. Maybe you all can help me with this.

So, yeah. That's what's going through my mind.