Whoa! Polygamist solution is frightening...

[ChristopherHall]

Originally Posted by Kae

Your perception of what goes on in this group I think is a little idealistic. This isn't like the Amish where they don't want to go forward, but want to stay back in time due to preserving family values. What you have described reminds me of the Amish community I used to live in. What is going on in that compound is totally different.

I'm sure that life inside this compound is different from the Amish. However, I don't think that things are so bad that I'm willing to believe everything people are saying. Some have argued that these people have killed and buried babies.

These children are brought up by different women not just their mothers

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And? Many kids of grandmothers as primary guardians for quite a while, sometimes aunts and older sisters help raise children. You might say, "But they're blood." True, however these children don't have any extended family but these women. Most children in America are also raised in daycare (with multiple care givers) and have babysitters. I don't see this as a major issue as long as these children are still in the primary care and supervision of their own mothers. In my opinion it's simply an issue of communal living. We'd see similar parenting strategies in some African villages.

They don't have a family life that is normal.

LOL Define "normal". Normal according to whom? As I said before some communities in Africa would use communal parenting strategies. In addition this was even common in biblical times.

If a women decides to leave this compound she can do so, but can't take her children with her.

This is a valid issue concerning their religious culture that you and I agree upon as being over the top.

There is no love in this type of lifestyle it is fear and control. This is a cult that people are kept out of for a reason.

I do believe that there is excessive fear and control going on here. However, these are grown women who are willingly submitting to this. There is a degree of personal responsibility here. If they wanted to leave they have to know that they could. They also have to know that they could file suit in court to regain their children. Yes, there is a degree of control, but personal responsibility has to be a factor. My grandmother said that the church I attended when I was first saved was void of love and functioned on cultic fear and control.

I don't doubt that some young women were abused. I believe the police need to take action in these cases. They have no reason to take children from parents who committed no crime. It' not a crime for consenting adults to choose whatever living arrangement they prefer. It's also not a crime to engage in communal living. Also it isn't a crime to share parenting responsibilities. We have to address those specific cases where a crime was committed...but we can't use this as justification to persecute an entire community just because we don't agree with their religion, parenting styles, chosen living arrangements, or think their ways are abnormal as compared to our own.

Some people are so excited over using government to police these people, I'm surprised they haven't even been accused of cannibalism yet.