Follow-up on the polygamists in Texas

[bigmacbear]

Last night's post, about the Yearning for Zion polygamist debacle in Texas, drew a number of responses explaining a bit more about why it was deemed necessary to interfere with the operations of that particular sect.

Looks like my observation about the children being "introduced too soon to the sexual milieu which their parents inhabit" is in fact the focus of the investigation. What's worse is, and I did not know this until eggwards pointed it out, a number of the young men of the group are forced out -- excommunicated -- simply to reduce the competition and ensure an abundance of possible wives and a shortage of husbands. That is not conducive to loving relationships, polyamorous or otherwise, and the distinction between forced polygamy and polyamory needs to be made, unfortunately.

Still, the younger children, whose innocence has not yet been shattered by the realities of their mothers' early initiation into the mysteries of sexuality, are ill-served by removing them from their mothers. And the mothers are going to need a lot of help too, not to mention the young men so callously discarded by the sect.

Of course, the State of Texas has simply bitten off more than it can chew with regard to the logistics of placing hundreds of children into foster care, and I hope they can straighten this out without doing any more damage to these children than they already have.

Comments

[kevynjacobs.livejournal.com]

This case brought the "Lost Boys" to my attention. Check out this Wikipedia article on the subject.

I believe that polygamy as a social practice is inherently destructive, and this is one of the reasons why. Please understand, though, that I am making a distinction between polygamy and polyamoury, which I am fine with.

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

This thought has been whirling around in my mind as I took my shower a few moments ago and I have no problems with Polymory, ie, the simple triad relationship where all three love each other, more or less equally but to force polygamy upon unsuspecting individuals etc for a self serving gain or purpose, then you have a problem.

[detailbear.livejournal.com]

One of the problems faced with leaving the children with their mothers is that in those cases where underage girls became pregnant and boys were forced out, their mothers were complicit, endangering the children in order to comply with the cult's wishes. Even if one argues that the mothers were conditioned/afraid/coerced, then it would still be unsafe to leave the children with their mothers now, as they could be conditioned/afraid/coerced into returning their children to danger. It will take time to figure out which mothers, if any, are safe to regain custody of their children.