reading circle

I just finished (while on the way home from Mass) Stolen Innocence, My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs by Elissa Wall. I can't say that I know much about Mormonism in general or the FLDS (the group that runs Yearn for Zion ranch in Texas), but this book gave me more insight into the brainwashing that goes on in such a place. It was frightening to read about her repeated pleading not to marry a man she despised and then be pressed into "man-woman relations" without having learned anything from her mother about such things. It amazed me how Elissa could develop a stong inner conscious after being subjected to such abject cruelty and limited education. Her courageousness at facing down the "prophet" Warren Jeffs is inspiring.

The epilogue mentions the April 2008 raiding of the FLDS compound in Texas and how Elissa assisted the authorities in communicating clearly with the members. She gives great credit to the CPS and the police in their effort in reaching out and understanding the culture of the FLDS while investigating child abuse. I admit that I can see this side of the argument better now. On the other hand, I still am angry over the image of dozens of little children taken from their mothers and put in foster care based on a single anonymous caller. This is many homeschooler's biggest fear and one that has made me wake out of a nightmare covered in sweat.

What was the right thing to do? I think it is such a difficult and multi-faceted problem involving freedom of religion, property rights, marriage laws, and child abuse that it will take minds far more intelligent than mine to find the morally correct answer.