Women of polygamist retreat speak out

From http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080415/ap_on_re_us/polygamist_retreat:

This is one of those cases where I allow personal prejudice to flow freely. I regard polygamy, as the 1856 GOP platform put it, as one of the "twin relics of barbarism" (the other being slavery) and would stamp it out wherever I could if I had the ability to do so. I don't feel the damndest ounce of sympathy for these freaks; I hope they have their kids taken away forever and that they themselves get tossed in jail.

Likewise for Mormonism, which I view as a creepy, heretical ethnocentric cult built up around a palpable charlatan, all the more deplorable for the fact that everything written about it has been thoroughly discredited. I'd stamp it out wherever I could, too (although I wouldn't endorse the government doing that). It is, itself, a remnant of the old recalcitrant tribalism of medieval Europe in which every country viewed themselves as God's Chosen.

Every American should burn with shame that these ossified primitives still lurk among them.

 

What do you have against polygamy?

One of the big things to remember about the Mormons is that the mainstream Latter Day Saints renounced, amongst other things, polygamy more than one hundred years ago. Sure, they're a little odd, but in a country that plays host to both the Church of Scientology and the Westboro Baptist Church I really wouldn't complain about the Mormons.

Fundamentalists are, of course, a different matter, especially if they're hurting children. They can all go to jail see how they like "marrying" a six-foot-eight Hell's Angel named Beefcake for all I care if they're molesting children. But don't point the finger at all Mormons. I've known a few, they're mostly good people.

Funny, the antisemites say the same thing about the Jews, almost word for word.

I guess I just don't understand (yet) what you have against polygamy - or mainstream Mormons, who don't even practice polygamy.

 

I can only speak for myself, so please don't apply his statements to me, or mine to him.

My issue is that from a moral perspective, I believe that God designed the marriage relationship to be specifically one man and one woman. As such I believe that it works best only in that form. This is the idea that in a marriage relationship, each person deserves and should receive the full devotion of the other. In polygamy, neither gets the full devotion from anyone.

From a practical standpoint, no human that I know of can completely and equally split their time, love, attention, affection, between multiple wives. So without question one wife will get the largest portion of the relationship, while the other(s) will receive the scraps.

From a historical standpoint, very little good comes from polygamy. Family strife, half brothers and half sisters fighting over the family attention, each wife demanding their own due, while none receiving it in full. I can not sight many good examples of polygamy.

However, my largest beef with Mormonism has more to due with false belief. I have a huge issue with people who say they believe something, and then don't act like it. Specifically when they say they believe the Bible, and then act completely contrary to it's teaching, I have a problem.

I met a nice CoLS girl a while back, and thought to learn more about her. She was a beauty no doubt. Then I learned alot about her. She was sleeping around (no sex before marriage) and had child with a married man (adultery) had racked up tens of thousands of dollars in debt and refused to pay it (pay back all that you can) and smoked (your body is a temple to God) she was flat broke, but went out on the weekend drinking (just sign of bad character), and she asked me once what I thought about her life style. I happen to mention perhaps it was more important what God thought. She looked at my like I was crazy, which tells me that never crossed her mind.

Now, I oddly still like the girl, but only as a nice friend. Any chance of being anything more died after I learned all this real quick. Point being, what am I supposed to think about the CoLS? How, when they believe these actions are acceptable, yet the Bible so explicitly states it is not? How? Because it's a cult. They do not follow the words of the God they claim to believe in. It's just a cult.

The only reason I dislike them more than scientology, is because when people judge Christians, these cult followers are lumped in with me, which I am against. I have nothing in common with a Moromon, yet they claim to be a Christian, which I am.

 

A family services thugocracy disrupts the lives of hundreds of people based on one girl's claims - it's as if Janet Reno were back in power!

 

You sound like my father. Which, quite frankly, scares the hell out of me.

 

Please explain to me how polygamy is on par with slavery.

 

All religions - at their fundamentalist levels - can be accurately described as "creepy, heretical ethnocentric cult built up around a palpable charlatan". The only reason they don't refer to Jesus or Mohammed as charlatans is too many centuries have passed for an accurate history.

I'm indifferent to polygamy - I could care less as long as it's adults. So what exactly is wrong with it?

 

Am I really that creepy to you?

 

Funny listing to some argue against it saying God says X or Y....Guess what God told them to do it. But you clearly have the better God I am sure, because you know he is real...they must just be faking it because they cant know there God is Real .

Fact is while I think its screwed up , the idea of even one wife scares me lol, its none of our damn business what as adults they want to do....its only a matter of the stuff that happens with the kids to me.

 

You want to bring up Janet Reno about a Texas state matter?

It is the law they have to investigate. I am not there on the ground to say if they are acting heavy handed or not, but certainly this would be wise to get to the bottom of.

 

It is often times where the girls are forced into marraige usually at a very young age with a much older man and are part of a concubine, of which they cannot willingly leave and become property of the "husband"

 

They assault a religious community with dozens of police officers and an armored vehicle, and haul off hundreds of people, because they received one anonymous call. It's amazing what people in this country will tolerate as long as it's against minority christian religious communities. Would anybody complain if, say, someone in a normal small town complained to state police that someone had assaulted him, and the state police came in and arrested everyone in town and carted them off?

 

What did you want them to show up with? Do you remember what set off the Waco situation? I wonder what hell would be raised if they showed up light and got shot to pieces.

But your right they did raid a religious compound and with armed people. They got a tip that some abuse was happening. They showed up, and guess what? you have people in violation of the law. Including polygamy, sexual abuse of a minor, we are talking serious felonies here.
Did you not want them to respond to a reported crime?
Do you suggest we leave the children in place to possibly be further victimized or manipulated in terms of trial?

 

A $200 tax issue and the monumental ego of someone at F-troop.

 

Thats not all polygamy. If lots of adults willingly choose to practice it, who are we to stop them?

Only people who can't get off their own religious high horse call it a sin in that context.

Of coure with little girls who don't have a say and are not mature enough to make the decision anway, it is despicable.