Follow-up on the polygamists in Texas

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.

Muther's Guesthouse never looked so good!

Idly surfing, I found a link to toolboxtoronto.com and followed it to see if the old Toolbox site might still be lurking somewhere. Instead, it led to one of those cybersquatter sites that gobbles up every expired domain on the Net. Notice the picture, and contrast it with the lovable old rooms of Muther's Guesthouse. ;-)