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A second FLDS mother gives birth in custody
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If these people are truly followers of Jesus Christ and they have nothing to hide, they would be telling the truth....
Most parents teach their children to tell the truth at a very young age, even if they have to suffer consequences.
Because so many of the women in this sect have given birth when underage, they are told to lie....
hum..... there is something hypocritical about this process.
"We are God's chosen people, however, he doesn't expect us to tell the truth. It is okay for us to lie."
You pointed out something very symbolic of the problems of this cult.
You mentioned that fathers are not on a schedule, so what. Heaven forbid the spontaneity of paternal influence. Visit the school of my children and half do not have ANY paternal influence. And heaven forbid if more than one person acts maternally to a given child. Oh those poor FLDS children are bombarded by too much love. I am personally grateful for the neighbor who my daughter refers to as her other mother.
Just because a schedule is produced does not mean it is followed. I write to be completed tasks on my calendar with only a hope that most can be finished.
I began with the belief that the CPS was a correct and sound one. But, with more information I find that the FLDS are targeted just because they are different. It's a modern day color bar.
It's sad that they can't let their kids be kids.
In spite of the reasons cited for taking the children away, I remain uncomfortable with the state taking a newborn child away from its mother. It seems this could be a precedent for abuse of a seemingly noble deed in other circumstances where a group of people could think, for one reason or another, that any of us should have our children taken away.
This case isn't as straightforward as Texas law authorities would think.
I compare this with the madrassa in Islamic culture, but there at least there is scope for imagination and creativity.
Whatever the rights and wrongs about teenage pregnancies, I have real concerns about the power and control issues these attempts at PR bring to my mind. Personal freedom and expressions of choice don't seem to figure in this lifestyle.
This one is going to run for months, there seems to be a perception from within this group that what they do daily is not an extreme way of life for children. I beg to differ. I can only imagine what a childhood like this must produce and see very clearly what former members have described as the exercise of power and control by some in this kind of setting.
You don`t have to be a genius to conclude that it is a well-thought-out practice developed by the men in the sect to achieve COMPLETE control over the women. IF their own precious children are taught that every "mother" in their home is MOTHER, how very easily the man can rid himself of any disobedient wife and HIS home & children go right on with their other "mothers" and disruption is minimal. Women OBEY their "husbands" not only because they`ve never been allowed an education and any form of financial "ownership", but mostly because they can easily loose their most precious thing in their lives, their CHILDREN........at the whim of the man.
Their screwed-up teachings reduce women to vessles bringing children to earth for the advancement of the father`s life hereafter. Sick.
Not true that these "people" have a right to their beliefs! Not when it enslaves others!!
I know these people personally. I am an outsider with business that gets me a pretty good inside look at how they live and interact with their kids. Most of them are model kids--happy, well adjusted, hard-working and diciplined. The children of the FLDS stand head and shoulders above the children being raised in my upscale neighborhood here in St George.
Thank goodness the news is starting to reflect that. If you haven't seen the recent stories about what the mental health professionals who worked with the captive mothers and children are saying, take a look.
It sounds like you want to interpret "well disciplined" to mean brainwashed. My observations of these kids is anything but...
Saudi Arabia?
Guantanamo Bay?
No, it is Texas.
THIS is why the Founding Fathers so carefully worded the Second Amendment. Now, the government agents have no one to fear. Now, we should all fear them.
Start them down the road as an individual, not a possession.
Yes, it is tragic that the children do not have toys but foster care is likely to expose them to video games and television (huge, addictive time wasters, often with bad messages). I guess this will make them "normal" by someone's standards. Children sitting glued in front of a screen are much better off than children helping with household and farm chores, right?
I've seen "normal" children who are belligerent, disprespectful and lazy. They won't lift a finger to help, contribute to the mess and expect someone else to take care of them, entertain them and buy them the latest electronic gadgets - even cell phones. Think about it.
It seems like all we have done with Doodle's method is raise a spoiled generation of kids. I wish my own kids were as respectful and disciplined as the FLDS. They argue and complain anytime they are asked to do some small chore. It "interfers" with their creative moment in front of the Xbox.
Get real. We missed the boat when we quit raising our kids their way.
If they truly are consistent, let's hear about what Texas and their CPS is doing about all the other teenage mothers in the state. This certainly is not a problem only with FLDS. Yes, there are certainly problems in this community but I hope they are scouring the rest of the state as well. Other teen mothers whose pregnancy resulted from rape, incest and were drug related should also be "helped." Every abortion in a teen girl should be thoroughly investigated (including DNA testing) to see if the father is over age 18 and if so, that girl should be immediately removed and taken to a safe place. If her child is born alive, that child should also be saved, right?
This precedence scares me.
1. Does the state have the right to define abuse outside of the legal definition of abuse?
2.
These comments remind me of an episode of "Wife Swap" I finally got around to watching this past week.
One family had a strict schedule, chores and rules, kids performed in a blue-grass band to earn extra money and no dating was allowed (kids were OK with that). The other family had no rules (parents thought that was too restrictive), no chores (just get money from mom whenever they need it), no schedules, the boy performed rap-music and the parents praised him for his obscene lirics, Son's girl-friend lived with the family and shared a bed with their son, daughter's boy-friend lived with them too and just mooched off the parents.
The Mother of the rapper-kid went to the conservative home and started bawling immediatly saying, "I feel so bad for these children, I JUST WANT TO TAKE THEM AWAY FROM HERE"!
Sounds like she had the same thinking as doodles and Texas CPS. WE don't like...
1. Does the state have the power to define "abuse" more broadly than the legal definitions of physical, sexual and emotional abuse?
2. When abuse, as legally defined, is not present, does the state have the power to keep children in custody based on differences of opinion over child rearing methods?
No matter how "sad", "creepy" or "sick" you think the FLDS's approach to raising their children, if it is not illegal, it should not be used as a reason for justifying their removal from their parents.
Otherwise, we would be placing power in the hands of government agents to take children from parents based on their own personal criteria - which is far more "creepy" an idea than anything the FLDS have done.
If a child has a daily routine and is loved and taught respect and how to help and serve others that is a bad childhood.
If he gets his own breakfast whenever he wakes up, scrambles over masses of toys all over his floor that he never is expected to clean up and watches Sponge Bob and plays Nintendo for hours then that is a better childhood.
Interesting philosophy.
Yeah, maybe stare at a tv or look at a book that depicts something intelligent like talking animals, talking trains, or talking teddy bears that live in the clouds.
Children have been being lovingly taught to be responsible and to have stuctured lives since we crawled out of the caves. Now secular society says that, for some reason, they should allowed to play with meaningless toys like monkeys. That slows, or prevents, emotional and social maturity. But it does make them good future cogs in some corporate machine.
Kids are tax exemptions.
Men are gods of their planets.
It's God's way.
Poor kids...for fun they get to wash door knobs and feed chickens!
I grew up in a house where we had video games at a very early age (mid 80s). My parents regulated play, made sure I had chores, and made sure I did other things than just sit around and play video games.
Anybody can see an Xbox doesn't foster creativity. Try giving your child an instrument to play or some legos. Odds are your children aren't buying the toys themself.
If they find the abuse you describe I am sure many "Mormons" will be horrified. However I am not sure we are takling about the same group of people. Traditionally the term (slang) Mormon was used to identify members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as LDS.
Some LDS memebers may be concerned about the constitutionality of the mess in Texas, but members of the LDS church do NOT condone child abuse. The leaders of the LDS church speak out against it frequently and the members are expected to follow the laws of the land. Contrast that with the FLDS leaders and members and their obvious distain for the laws.
If you still have trouble seeing the truth repalce the word "Mormon" with "Christian" in your comment and you might see the light of truth.
This is about the "Wife Swap" a few weeks ago where the Mother who let her son's girl-friend and her daughter's boy-friend live in their home and share a bed with them...
When she was sent to a family where the kids had a schedule, rules, faith, music, etc, she immediatly started BAWLING and said, "I JUST FEEL SO SAD FOR THEM, WHY CAN'T THEY JUST LET THEM BE KIDS, I JUST WANT TO TAKE THEM AWAY"... (sounds like the same mind set as Texas CPS, doodles and NO CHILDHOOD @ 6:48). Bawling... "THEY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TOYS, THEY LIKE TO WORK, THEY HAVE A SCHEDULE! WHY CAN'T THEY JUST LET THEM BE KIDS!" Oh Boo-hoo!
Comments from people here who think they know how many toys a kid should have (or they are being abused). Thinking only THEIR life-style is OK (all other's kids should be taken away). Believing ANY restrictions or structure during childhood is "BAD" and that they should have the right to intervene in any family that had a stricter life-style than theirs... just brought back this Wife Swap episode to me.
Oh MY HECK! I hope and pray I never get on the downside of popular opinion.
And "Take Note," it may not have been intentional, but you have equated the FLDS with the LDS. While there are similarities to our beliefs, the two are different and separate, and we in the LDS church are just as horrified by what has been reported to be going on in that compound.
Shees, who made you the standard of all that is good? I hope you never come into my house, it sounds like I could have my kids taken away because of a home decoration violation!
The environment and schedule of the FLDS children is completely controlled. There is no individual thought allowed. No freedom of expression. No ability to make individual choices. All of the choices for this community are made by the men.
The only education they receive is what the men decide they want the children to learn. Nothing more.
If you're born into this community and you're a girl, you will be programmed to become a baby-making machine for whomever the old men decide they should mate you with.
If you're born into this community and you're a boy, you'll be programmed to become one of the controlling old men, or, if you're not one of the "lucky" 1-in-3 boys who make the cut, you'll be kicked out of the community as soon as you are old enough to become competition for the old men.
Don't give me this phoney argument that the FLDS are simply protecting their children from the outside world.
God's plan is to teach children correct principles, then give them the freedom to make their own choices.
Satan's plan is mind control with no freedom to make choices.
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Another thing I notice is that there is no interaction mentioned with a father in any of the schedules. Is the father never present? Do any of the children know who their own mother is? The schedules sounded like every child belonged to every mother and they were cared for in a communal way.
I believe that the schedule publishing idea was really to convince the reader that FLDS children are programed every hour of the day in their activities, thinking and associations.