What a hornet's nest got stirred up by the photo of FLDS cult leader Warren Jeffs deeply kissing a little 12-year-old girl! Most people are horrified when they see children being sexually abused, as well we all should be. The key word is "seeing," as in "seeing is believing."
Why do you think the Texas authorities took over 400 children from their homes? It wasn't an excuse to persecute a group of people for their religious beliefs; it is an attempt to prevent further sexual abuse of children by men old enough to be their fathers or even grandfathers.
Most people can't even imagine an old man having sexual relations with a child. Unfortunately, I can imagine it all too well, which is why I've been so adamant about protecting these children. I was twelve when my father STOPPED abusing me sexually. He started when I was much much younger. And then there was Father Fitzgerald, the parish priest, who obviously knew from my father's confessions that he could abuse me as well. So much for church elders being men of God.
For the health and well-being of the FLDS children, I'm counting on the State of Texas.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/us/30raid.html?ref=us
Texas Supreme court sided with the FLDS, CPS was out of line and went too far too fast.
"On the record before us, removal of the children was not warranted," the opinion read.
(Reporting by Jim Forsyth and Anna Driver; writing by Ed Stoddard; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
Once more, in the name of protecting the children, the state over-reaches. How many families have to be broken up, innocent people vilified and children traumatized before people wake up?
Was there abuse going on? Probably, yes. But the law says, you can't break up a home, no matter how far out of the accepted model it might be without proof of immanent harm. Period.
The laws are written to protect all of us, men, women and children.