Re: Texas Polygamists--sf in real life?

In article <fv23hc$qr1$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Paul Ciszek) wrote:

> >All of that might explain putting into foster care the handful of 
> >pregnant minors. It might even explain putting into foster care female 
> >teens believed to be at risk of being pressured into marriage. It 
> >doesn't explain putting into foster care everyone else, including over
a 
> >hundred children four years old or under.
> 
> If the parents have consented to the statutory rape of their older (but
> not old enough) daughters, does it make sense to leave the other girls
> with those parents and come back for them when they reach puberty?
> If the parents are unfit, they are unfit to have ANY children in their
> custody.
> 

Including boys because, so the CPS spokesperson argued, they are being 
brought up to be abusers? Doesn't that come down to "teaching your 
children your religion is child abuse if the religion endorses illegal 
behavior?" 

On which basis Quakers, communists, and quite a lot of other people 
should have their children taken away? 

It's worth noting that the same legislative session, three years ago, 
raised the age of consent for marital *** from 14 to 16 and made 
polygamy a felony. It seems pretty clear that the legal changes, along 
with another that didn't pass, were designed to target the FLDS, with 
the objective of either destroying them or driving them out of the 
state. 

I'm curious--is what makes the parents unfit the actual behavior or its 
legal status? Back when the age of consent for marital *** (with 
parental approval) was 14, or in New Hamp****re where I think it's still 
13 (for females--15 for males), would you argue that the parents were 
engaged in child abuse even though what was happening was legal?

(Obviously, legality also depends on things like whether it was the 
husband's first wife; for purposes of the question assume it was).

-- 
 http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
 Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.
 Published by Baen, paperback in bookstores now