What do you think about the way the Government handled the Polygamist camp in Texas?

Question

Did they violate the rights of the woman and children involved? Many people have stated it was to protect the young women. Your thoughts?

Answer 1

I find the way they treat their children abhorrent but Texas should have handled the case in a less arrogant and cavalier manner and maybe they would have been able to make am impact in these children's lives

On the plus side, i think it may cause the settlement to rethink their whole marrying under aged girls thing

Answer 2

It was a tough decision to make, but we can't let religious extremists gain an upperhand in our modern society... we must live by the rules and enforce the rules.

Answer 3

They are practicing a religion that shuns the outside world and states that when girls reach puberty, they can be married to any eligible male within the hierarchy. Problem is, once married, they are that man's virtual slave. This has been corroborated time and again by the stories of those who have escaped.

Imagine being a scared 12 year old girl who has just gotten her period. Now imagine you live in a repressed, highly religious society that forbids any knowledge of the outside world. Your parents are delighted - now they can marry you off to an eligible man and thus get higher on the totem pole within the religion. You have a lifetime of sexual slavery ahead of you, but since you've been raised within the boundaries of this religion and allowed no outside perspectives since birth, you have no idea that there are other options out there. You have been raised to think that this is right, and just, and fair.

It's child abuse, plain and simple.  

Answer 4

Big brother at its worst.  Taking the unverified word of a stranger and going gung ho to rape a community.  If you polled 100 people, most would only believe the initial media story that these people were sick, yet in fact, if you followed the story, you would have seen the truth.

This is exactly like the Duke Rape case.  Do you see the pattern?

Answer 5

They violated everyones rights not just the women's and childrens.

These people have the right to practice their religion the way they choose.

Why weren't the women arrested for polygamy they were involved in the alleged crime as well.

Answer 6

When they actually do the marriages is one thing - before that as some sort of preemptive strike to avoid potential abuse seems a bit scary to me.

It's troublesome that we would take children away from their parents because their parents believe differently than the majority of people.  

Perhaps if I disagree with the way you raise your kids and feel that it's abusive, I should be able to have your children taken away?

Answer 7

They went about it all wrong, they were trying to make a statement v/s an actual investigation.

Answer 8

It's a tough call to make. Obviously, they needed to get the adolescent girls out of there before they became someone's "wife" (i.e., some religion-addled old man decides he wants to have s*x with nubile teenage girls).

Can you argue that raising other children...younger girls and boys of all ages...around a culture that condones the rape of girls is child endangerment and abuse?

I think so. I felt sorry for the women who had their children taken away, but these same women will willingly give their daughters up to this depravity in a few years, so my sympathy for them starts to dissipate when I think of that.

Answer 9

The only time the children's rights were violated is when they were given back to the mothers.

They should have taken them away permanently, to protect them!

There is no reason to allow a 13 or 14 year old girl "marry" a 30 or 40 year old man. That is not healthy for the child.

I don't care how politically correct it is to be "tolerant" .. when it comes to children being abused.. I side with the children.

Answer 10

Frankly I don't know enough about the details of that whole polygamy business in Texas, but this whole Warren Jess (?sp) business where he was convicted for rape by proxy when he had a cousin of a young teen marry and engage in coitus with this teenager so disturbing that it's beyond words.  I don't get involved in others' issues nor do I have much influence over secular law, but something has to be done to limit that sort of insanity.