Yet Another Minefield

Since I've already stepped on toes by mentioning the Land Run, I thought I might as well go ahead and share my thoughts on the whole polygamy drama in Texas. I mean, at this point, why not?

I will admit that I'm a little irritated at all the "As a MORMON, what do you think?" questions. As the media has been kind enough to clarify, we Mormons have very little to do with the FLDS church. This is not surprising as we parted company with them when the church abolished polygamy in 1890. In fact, the one tenant of the original church that they embrace most fervently is the one that would have been a deal-breaker for me had I been approached by the missionaries in the 1880's. I would even go so far as to say that the principal of polygamy is the only thing Joseph Smith ever did that I have had to seriously question and to reconcile myself to in the 15 years that I've been a member of the church. (And I remain a member, in short, because I've yet to receive a negative response to my prayers when it comes to the promise found in Moroni 10:3-5.) And so, I don't feel that I have much in common with those who have disavowed the church that I belong to in order to engage in such a practice, and if you ask them they will say that they feel disconnected from us in a similar fashion. Watching this media coverage has been akin to how Jimmy Carter must have felt when the spotlight shone on his brother Billy or how Bill Clinton felt when everyone was watching Roger. It's basically having to deal with the whole world watching the antics of your most backwoodsy 2nd cousins...and yet, as the coverage rolls on, I can't help but feel that kinship with them.

I'm not sure if the common denominator is the shared origin of our very different faiths, or if it's as a wife and mother, or even just as a fellow human being. But I have to admit that knowing that government agents acting on a tip of very dubious nature have been allowed and encouraged to storm into homes and split up families by force and to have their actions sanctioned by the court system is a little disturbing to me. This is not because I support or even condone the practice of polygamy, nor am I ever in support of underage marriages be it to younger OR older men; it's just that I feel this sets a dangerous precedent. Let's face it, the raid wasn't really over the phone call-that was just the pre-text. This compound has been an irritant to the citizens of El Dorado for quite some time. They were just waiting for an excuse to pounce. And isn't declaring superiority in the face of a lifestyle and culture that we don't understand and doing our best to show it who's boss is a time-honored American tradition? (If I learned anything from yesterday's discourses, it was that.) If I truly believed the raids had been done for any other reason than that kind of bullying, I might feel more positively about them. If I really thought they would make a difference in the grand scheme of things, I might be able to stomach what I've seen on the news. But if my church hasn't been able to convince them to abandon polygamy in the last 100-plus years, why do government officials think that they will fare any better? Instead, I think they *may* have changed the futures of a possible handful of young girls and caused unmeasurable damage to quite a few more young children and their mothers. Not to mention setting a very dangerous precedent in the United States for what it is and isn't OK to do to American citizens.