About the only thing that has held up, of all the accusations against the FLDS that I’ve read, is that when a man breaks the rules, his wives and children are reassigned to another man. I haven’t heard any specific denials of this practice, and have encountered evidence that leads me to believe this probably is the case. That’s so weird!
In normal Christian cultures, when a man breaks the rules, his wife or girlfriend and their children are stigmatized and left to starve.
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8 Responses:
April 21st, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I know right?
Part of me thinks, what’s worse..a teenage girl getting pregnant and roped into early marriage with an irresponsible teen boy (or abandoned by one), or a teen girl taken in by an already economically stable family that can provide a support system of other children and infrastructure?
The families I see at HEB on welfare look considerably less healthy and happy than the FLDS families. But that’s just my opinion, having grown up near inner city of Oakland and seeing single 15 year old moms of 2+ kids considerably less positive of environments surrounding them.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:58 pm
What’s sadder, is that these kids are now going to be split up, “absorbed” into the TX Foster Care system, end up in poverty, in prisons, and on psychiatric medications.
Yay Texas.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Let’s see if I have this straight:
In the FLDS society, the women and children actually belong to the prophet and/or the elders, and not to the individual men. Disobedience, real or imagined, can cause the offender’s family to be reassigned by the Power(s) That Be.
In the Texas society, the children belong to the State, and not to the individuals referred to as “parents.” Disobedience, real or imagined, can cause the offender’s minor family members to be reassigned by the Power(s) That Be.
In “normal” Christian cultures, there is a residue of the Roman attitude that the family is the extension of the man. If a Roman soldier was convicted of cowardice, for example, not only would he be executed, but his entire family would be turned out into the street and basically ostracized and left to starve. “Sins of the father” and all that jazz.
I can’t se that there’s a hell of a lot of difference in them.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:38 pm
In normal Christian cultures, there’s a roughly 1-1 gender ratio of adults.
For FLDS, they specifically want more women and less men, so that worthy men can have the 3+ wives that are necessary in order to enter heaven.
If Christians didn’t have comparatively excess nubmers of women, the now-husbandless-women (of hypothetical rule-breaking men) would be recycled to new marriages, helping SOMEone(male) get closer to heaven.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Entrance to heaven is a mighty attractive carrot. Makes ya wonder where the driver is leading that cart.
In any case, for any small group of humans wanting to become a large group of humans in a short span of time, polygamous marriage is a highly efficient strategy.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:38 pm
except for the wastefulness of dumping unwanted males at age 18 (no training, no mainstream culture readiness, etc.)
That and the voluntarily limited gene pool do seem to be something of a drawback to efficiency (serious handicapped children drain resources, whether from the extended family, or from State support systems).
April 21st, 2008 at 4:40 pm
The only real difference is their rationale. The state’s control is exerted in the name of the “children”, the sect’s control in the name of “God”.