Disgust
It's been nearly a month since I last posted on my blog. There have been a number of times when I've thought to myself, "You know, I should really blog about this." But for whatever reason, I haven't done it. I completed Super Mario 3 on the original NES for the first time a few weeks ago. That was pretty cool. I got accepted as a developer in the Google Summer of Code program today. That was exciting. Finals are going pretty well, I've got a wonderful girlfriend, and I got a flat tire. I could have blogged about all of these things, but nothing ever inspired me to stay up past 2:00 AM to write a blog post. My sleep was more valuable to me.
But now, I must write. I read today in a Deseret News article that a Texas judge has approached local LDS officials to see if they would be willing to supervise prayers of those FLDS members who are being held by Texas police. Attorneys for the state say they are concerned that the FLDS children may be coached by adults in how to respond to investigators.
Since when is the right to personal prayer no longer protected by the Constitution? Since when does our government have the right to tell someone that they cannot pray without supervision? Since when did our vaunted separation of church and state become no more than a phrase to be discarded. Since when are we allowed to treat those of "different" faiths with such blatant disrespect?
There are allegations of child abuse. I understand that. And they're probably even true. But when we declared that no one "shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law", when we declared that Congress would "make no law respecting an establishment of religion", when we declared that "the right of people to be secure in their persons, homes, papers, and effects..."; when we declared all these things, did we not recognize that a compromise was being made? The government surrenders certain rights which might otherwise enhance the enforcement of law because we agreed that there are certain rights which are more important than the enforcement of law.
And now we're throwing that out the window.
I've watched the news about the FLDS raids with ambivalence. Insofar as there are young children being forced to marry and have sex with older men against their will, I agree that something should be done. But when did this equate to pulling nursing babies from their mothers' breasts? When did prayer become a borderline-illegal activity that must be closely supervised? When did we stop caring about the rights of our fellow countrymen simply because they believe differently than we do?
We as LDS people look back at the Missourians of the 1840s with disgust. We marvel that someone could actually sign an "Extermination Order" proclaiming that all people of a certain faith are to be driven from the state or, if necessary, exterminated. We wince at President Martin Van Buren's declaration "Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you." We look back and think that surely, somehow, someone should have had the courage to stand up for a people very different from themselves. A people who practiced polygamy, who followed a single controversial leader, and who had their own book of scripture. Someone surely should have had the courage to stand up for the oppressed, the down-trodden, and the violated.
Why do we not do so now? I do not defend the alleged child abuse; if there is compelling evidence, it should be investigated and presented. But I do defend the right to prayer without special supervision. I do defend the rights of young children to be raised by their own mothers. I do believe that FLDS mothers and fathers deserve the right to raise their children free of broad-handed interference by an impersonal government. There are loving fathers and mothers among them who genuinely care for their children. There are families being broken apart by this investigation. There are rights being violated here.
If we stand by idly while this happens, what's to stop the same thing from happening to Islamic communities on the charge that a terrorist network exists somewhere among them? What's to stop the same thing from happening to an LDS stake or ward when a terrorist is discovered to have LDS roots?
Daniel went to the Lion's Den rather than give up his right to pray to God. Now we're threatening the same to these people.
I am disgusted.
