tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7559789.post692718368767821244..comments2023-04-02T05:29:21.355-04:00Comments on Herding Kittens: Religious persecution verses child protectionKitten Herderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15723615036218488946noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7559789.post-8018591421144088192008-04-29T15:14:00.000-04:002008-04-29T15:14:00.000-04:00I'd like to expand on this sentence:>>If fully gro...I'd like to expand on this sentence:<BR/>>><BR/>If fully grown adult women have such a low opinion of themselves that they are willing to commit themselves to second-class citizenhood in a polygamous marriage, so be it.<BR/><<<BR/><BR/>You're imputing to these women a worldview similar to yours, which I can assure you, they do not share. It isn't as though they came from mainstream families and decided to run off and join a cult one day. They've been raised all their lives to believe that women should be obedient to the will of men, because that's what god wants. They're isolated from opposing viewpoints, and any woman who might argue--a rarity, if her parents have raised her "right"--is ostracized.<BR/><BR/>My mother is Mormon, and my sister and I attended her church throughout childhood. Even the mainstream Mormons have a very strong view of women as subordinates (indeed, children in Sunday School are separated by gender around age 8: The boys start learning how to be church "elders," and the girls are taught homemaking skills). I'm sure that this isolated little community was an order of magnitude more oppressive.<BR/><BR/>Even though I think this sect's teachings are abhorrent, I don't think the government is right in separating the children from their mothers. Experts who have examined the kids have commented that they seem both physically and emotionally healthy, and this enforced separation has got to be traumatic for both them and their mothers.<BR/><BR/>Think back to when your son was four or five; what if the government announced one day that, even though he was healthy and happy, you weren't raising him "properly" and placed him in foster care?<BR/><BR/>What the church leaders were doing is unquestionably illegal, and they should be punished, but the government should be providing these women with therapy and education instead of taking their children away from them.<BR/><BR/>This kind of crapola is a big part of the reason I'm agnostic.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com