Is anyone else following this? Opinions?
Watching a report on CNN, it was a bit disturbing to see the women and their children being driven away from the compound in a Baptist Church vehicle.
The Texas authorities should prosecute statutory rape cases but, removing 400 children for one allegation is overreaching.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/07/texas.ranch/index.html
AWKWARD.
Seriously, I take no issue with polygamy, but sex with children and slavery are right out. I feel badly for the victims and I can't help but think that had they been atheists they'd all be happy and not insane.
From reading that article, I'm sure many things which are not moral by most people's standards are going on at that place.
But, if you are married at 15 how is that statutory rape? (note: I'm not defending the guy...just don't see how a married person would be unable to legally consent to sex)
From what I understand, they get around laws on polygamy by only legally marrying one of their wives. He was around 50, she was 15.
It seems their search was very broad, they still don't have the two people from the original complaint.
I'm thinking from a legal standpoint. Being weird, creepy, and having a lot of children isn't a crime.
Yeah, it is kinda ironic that these kids are being hauled off in Baptist buses. That is like an insult to the LDS. I wonder if this has something to do with the reason this whole mess started out anyway. No matter, the prosecutor is in deep doo-doo if he can't produce any evidence.
Children don't have the emotional facilities to consent to sex the way an adult does, therefore it's rape.
I agree with Will. On one hand it's frightening to consider that my own children could be taken away based on a prank phone call accusing me of abuse but on the other hand it's better safe than sorry.
Consenting adults choosing to live a life of polygamy is not of concern to me, but the pedophilia is. These aren't high school girls having sex with their high school boyfriends, these are young, uneducated teens being assigned to 50 year old men. I have a 12 year old daughter and I can vouch for the fact that she has neither the emotional or intellectual faculties to make decisions about marriage, sex and babies.
The fact that the women and children in that community are also denied the right to an education is also unethical and morally reprehensible. We all know that the uneducated are easier to control.