I'm really tired of talking about this foolishness. This whole thing is a tangled nest that will unravel for years to come. I think this will be my last post about it.Anyway, the business at the polygamy compound in ElDorado, Texas gets more uncomfortable. The details of the lifestyle of the camp are being made public and it's not a pretty picture:
Teenage girls were required to have sex in the temple immediately after they were married. There's a bed in the temple (yes, one little nasty bed for all those people) where males over 17 are to have sex with girls under 17. Agents report that the bed had disturbed linens and what appeared to be a female hair (I guess the hair was long enough to assume it belonged to a girl). They've found marriage records for girls as young as 12 and 13 to older men. Births among teens. A 16-year old with 4 children. About a dozen children with chicken pox. Kids don't really know who their parents are - claiming multiple mothers or don't know at all. And on top of all that, authorities are still not sure whether they have the girl who made the original call in protective custody.
Now, stepping outside of the obvious tragedy of this situation and my personal beliefs, let me pose a question. Would we be outraged if this scene was taking place in the jungles of South America or the mountains of New Guinea or in the African bush? We all know that polygamy is tradition in other cultures and based on some of the episodes that I've seen on the Discovery Channel and the Travel Channel, not all of the girls are overjoyed about their lifestyle either. Many are forced into marriage with men they have never met. They become young brides and often the victims of abuse and rape. I'm sure if they had access to cell phones and rescue hotlines, they would be trying to get out of there, just like the 16-year old who blew the whistle on the Texas sect. In indigenous cultures, boys become men at puberty and girls become women (and eligible for marriage and childbearing) at puberty. Why are we so comfortable with this way of life in other cultures (even sitting down with family members to watch repeatedly), but outraged by it in Texas? Is it because we consider indigenous cultures uncivilized? Don't throw stones at me, it's just something to think about as we freely toss our morality around. I'm not saying that it's right, just making an observation on our sense of justice.
What do you think?
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