Abuse or Alternative Lifestyle?

How long until polygamy is another legitimate option? How long until arranged marriages for young girls (to older married men) are okay?

I've not really kept up on the details of the Texas polygamist compound raid, but I hear little tidbits on the radio. I don't watch tv and haven't googled it (yet).

I do have some thoughts though (surprise!)...

I don't think polygamy in itself is an evil. I think it's a poor option; it's in the Bible but never really worked out well for all involved. Over the years I've seen interviews with the wives of Tom Green, docu- and mocumentaries on the FLDS down on the Utah/Arizona border, etc. I've even been known to make the comment, 'honey, maybe we should consider polygamy because I could really use the help around here!'

Forgive me if this only echoes every other blogger out there, but I just want to get it out... I don't think there's anything noble about this sect in Texas. I don't think it's about "family, not sex" and I don't think their leaders are well-intentioned men. I think they are carnal, lustful men who are deceived enough to have wrapped some sort of spirituality around their twistedness to legitimize it (at least in their eyes).

I hear they're now opening their compound to the media, to 'get their side out' and gain some public support. I heard bits like, "lots of construction equipment... totally self-sufficient... pristine.." And that was the media talking.

Self-sufficient? Every last one of these type, insofar as I know, are anything but self-sufficient. Do you suppose one man in the desert is making enough money to support a handful of wives and a dozen or three kids? Do you think each wife is (at the same time) legally married to her husband? No, and no. So what does that amount to? A bunch of "single" mothers... collecting state money. I did hear that this Texas sect sat down and studied the benefits offered in their state and said and did everything necessary to get the maximum amounts allowable. "Bleeding the Beast" they called it. And now they want "public support?" What, from The Beast?

And apparently it's all so pristine. White temple walls and all. I suppose the bed within is draped in white, pristine linens where the 'elders' (the young men are usually run off) have their oh-so-righteous way with young, pristine girls.

This is not love. This is not righteous. Love doesn't defraud the young, or women, or even Beastly governments. This is not holy or devout or pleasing to God.

But, aside from the rape issues and/or abuse, how can any of this be prosecuted? It can't. Extramarital affairs aren't a problem for the law; how could it be worse when a wife knows and consents to her husband's pursuing other women? Some push for homosexuals to be able to adopt, and there are those - married and otherwise - who live and raise children in anything but monogamous households. I wonder if these FLDS men would flinch if the ACLU or NOW or other radical left-wing group known for defending perversions stood up in their defense...

Now, my heart breaks for these mothers separated from their children. Mothers who, while probably deluded or desperate, love their children more than anything, and fear for them in the mouth of the Beast. It scares me to hear the state say, "no, you can't be with your children because they won't 'fess up about the abuse if you're near." I assume they're being as delicate as they can be, but there is probably little about the 'real world' that would incite confidence and trust in a child used to the 'pristine' life within the compound.

I'm praying. I'm praying that the Truth would set them free, that they don't have to leave any semblance of Faith to leave that twisted place. I'm praying that the Lord of Love will heal the hearts of all the victims of this ideology, and that He will show them that He is sufficient, that He is pristine, that He alone is holy.