Welcome to the HOME page. Friday 16th of May 2008 1:43:38 pm
Is Your Religion Government-Approved?
By Mike Ferguson
It is all too easy to forget about the rights and freedoms of those outside the mainstream of our culture. It is all too dangerous because in doing so, we sometimes forget that defending our own rights and freedoms are, in many cases, dependent on defending those on the fringe of our culture.
Such is the case of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the breakaway Mormon group in El Dorado, Texas. The religious community is trying to reclaim the rights of the parents in their group to have custody of their children.
As you are likely aware, a couple weeks ago Texas Child Protective Services’ agents raided the community and took possession of over 400 children. Think about that: over 400 children torn from mothers and hundreds of families physically torn apart by government agents.
The reason for the raid is an alleged call from an unknown 16-year-old female who claimed to have been abused by her much older husband. The alleged lone caller has yet to be identified and the claims have yet to be verified. That alleged call, though, was enough of an excuse for the Texas Child Protective Services agency to extract by force every child in the community.
I feel the need to state early on that I do not condone the religious beliefs of the group. I disagree with their views. Frankly, I find those views to be bizarre. I would never choose to subscribe to a system of faith like theirs and do not understand those who do.
The bigger issue is whether or not I have a right to impose my beliefs by the force of government on those in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or anyone else for that matter.
I do not.
If any man physically or sexually abused a woman or child in that community, that man should be held accountable and prosecuted for his actions. If he beat a woman or a child, he should be prosecuted and suffer the consequences for his actions. If he raped a woman or a child, I hope he is prosecuted and placed behind bars for as long as possible. In these tragic circumstances, his faith is irrelevant. His actions forced on another person are what matter.
Teaching a child non-mainstream religious beliefs, though, is not abuse.
According to a recent Associated Press article covering the story, written by a reporter who is attending the court hearings, one of the state’s experts, psychiatrist Dr. Bruce Perry, stated on Friday that the groups belief system “…is abusive. The culture is very authoritarian.” He testified that the young women in the group submit to marriages to older men because they are “indoctrinated” by their church and by their religious parents.
The AP story reported that the state’s “expert” witnesses, under cross examination, though, “…acknowledged that the sect mothers are loving parents and that there were no signs of abuse among younger girls and any of the boys.”
Perry also admitted that state custody and foster care for the children – especially the young children and boys – would be “destructive’ to them because he found them to be emotionally healthy.
AP reporter Michelle Roberts goes on to report: “Under cross-examination, state child-welfare investigator Angie Voss conceded there have been no allegations of abuse against babies, prepubescent girls or any boys.”
Roberts’ report continues: “But her agency, Child Protective Services, contends that the teachings of the FLDS — to marry shortly after puberty, have as many children as possible and obey their fathers or their prophet, imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs — amount to abuse.”
Read that paragraph carefully – the head of Texas’ CPS contends that the teachings of this community’s church amount to abuse.
Dr. Perry admitted that the young women and teen girls involved were not forced to marry. He personally interviewed them as part of the state’s investigation. The AP story reports “Perry testified that the girls he interviewed said they freely chose to marry young. But he said those choices were based on lessons drilled into them from birth.
"’Obedience is a very important element of their belief system,’ he said. ‘Compliance is being godly; it's part of their honoring God.’"
In other words, government bureaucrats in Texas do not like the religious views the children are being taught, so it took action to “protect” them. The details are showing this situation is not about “abuse”, it is about government coveting the power to deem faith dangerous and assert that it, not parents or other family, has the final authority to decide how children should be reared. The recent events in El Dorado are an example of governmental abuse of power at its worst and most dangerous.
Aren’t everyone’s choices based on lessons “drilled” into us, or otherwise learned, from birth? Those lessons could come from the experiences and consequences of previous poor choices. Those lessons could come from the values and experiences of our parents. Those lessons could come from the dictates of teachers and coaches. Those lessons could come from the religious lessons taught in Sunday School, Mass, youth group meetings, AWANA, Vacation Bible School or any other faith-based meetings or services. When did government assume the right to approve those lessons?
Every Sunday and Wednesday, I take my children to church where obedience is a very important part our belief system. My children are taught to obey God and obey me as their father. I hope some child welfare “expert” like Dr. Perry does not decide my Baptist beliefs pose a danger to my two children.
Astonishingly, the judge who is hearing the case, Barbara Walther, seems to have taken the position that the parents involved are guilty until proven innocent because of their community and religion. She declared from the bench "The issue before the court is: Can I give them back?"
How arrogant. “They” are not yours to give, Your Honor. “They” are children who were ripped from their families because your state’s bureaucrats do not like the religion “they” are being taught.
This raid and ongoing legalities are just as bad as the recent court ruling in California that declared parents have no right to home school their children – that the state, not parents, has the final authority regarding what children are taught and who is allowed to teach them.
The El Dorado case should send chills up and down your spine. We Christians should see the long-term danger to us in this series of events.
We may not like the beliefs of those being targeted right now but we should see the precedent this will set for the rest of America if the courts uphold the decision to tear children away from loving parents because the family’s religion is unpopular. Remember that the state of Texas, the so-called “expert” witnesses and the CPS bureaucrats all agree that this case is about the belief system of those involved and if teaching (and following) that belief system constitutes “abuse”.
Had the state chosen the route of indicting individuals with specific crimes, this would be a matter of the judicial system dealing with the accused individuals by confronting them with evidence and giving them a trial with the burden of proof being guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The State of Texas has not chosen that route. Instead, the faith of a close-knit community is on trial. More specifically, the community members’ right to live by the religious values they choose is on trial.
The state’s witnesses agree and admit that they have found no one who was forced into a marriage or sexual activity. They admit there are no documented signs of physical or sexual abuse on the young children or on any boys.
The assertion of abuse stems from the fact that post pubescent teen girls and young women, as a result of the religious views they are being taught, have chosen to enter into marriages with adult men and that children come from those marriages.
Moral? Not in my eyes. Creepy? Absolutely. Cause for the government to assume the right to declare a religion dangerous enough to send in the agents? Hardly.
For those of us who are Christians, and for everyone else as well, the legal events in question should be watched closely. We are watching legal precedent being set in America. We should be praying that the families of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints prevail in court, despite their strange beliefs. In our disgust for what we know of their beliefs and lifestyle choices, it is easy to lose track of the big picture – the government’s role in our personal and familial religious beliefs.
If the government at any level assumes the authority to declare even a fringe, bizarre religion too dangerous for people to choose it assumes the authority to declare any religion – including mainstream Christianity – off limits.
We should be praying for their victory in court not because this case is about their rights and freedoms…but because, ultimately, it is about our rights and freedoms.
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