The FLDS is a bunch of criminals, each and every one of them.

The events surrounding the trial of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints has caused me considerable concern. As you may know, members of the sect were charged, by the state of Texas, with committing child abuse and forcing girls under the legal age to marry. On April 3rd, Texas child services and law enforcement began raids on the group's Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado, Texas. The children were dispersed throughout the state under the care of foster families as the FLDS fought to appeal the state's charges. They have succeeded over the past week, a victory culminating in today's order by Judge Barbara Walther that directed the return of the children to their parents on the ranch throughout the next week. Of course, this order was accompanied by a number of restrictions: child welfare officials would have access to the children on the ranch and be allowed to arrive without notice, parents could not interfere with the ongoing investigation into whether underage girls have been sexually abused or forced to marry, nor can the children be allowed to leave the state of Texas.
These are relatively reasonable and fair restrictions, at least in comparison to the overly aggressive dispersal of families, based merely on a tip given by an unidentified caller. In the wake of Warren Jeff's (the former leader of the FLDS) sex-crime trial last year, the Texas judicial and law enforcement system jumped on top of this tip with great zeal. These people practice polygamy for gods-sake. I'm not necessarily going to make an absolute cultural relativist argument here, however, the FLDS is an oppressed group, too radical for even the mainstream mormon church, and definitely too radical for Texans. They do not fit our American cultural family values, monogamy and nuclear household living in particular. They are strange, foreign, backwards, barbaric even. We constantly associate polygamy with gender inequality and with domestic abuse, yet we know little of the actual, internal working of a polygamist household and, especially, the culture of this Mormon sect. Who are they? Why do they live the way they do? What are the power relationships within their culture? Before we make judgements, we should understand why we make them (again understand our own cultural history and that "we see the lives of others through lenses of our own grinding" as I quoted Clifford Geertz in my first post). They may do immoral things, but does that warrant forced removal of children from their mothers and loved ones? The issues should have originally been dealt with on an individual basis.

Taking this argument to another level, perhaps polygamy shouldn't even be illegal in the United States. Of course, law enforcement must uphold the rule of law in order to avoid losing face, but the law, in my opinion, is somewhat flawed. Polygamy, either polygny or even the rarer polyandry, are not inherently unequal. Mormon doctrine does seem to make it sound so, the supposed reason being that having more wives earns a man higher status or an easier path to heaven. Again, the lack of clarity on this issue and the fact that doctrines and ideology are fluid and interpreted in varying, subjective ways, limits the ability for us to judge these people. Where are their voices, where are their words? Perhaps a memoir from a former member has been published that can direct us in a positive direction, but I have found little ethnographic work on this group (this, of course, may be due to their secrecy and the constant danger they face with law enforcement). Nonetheless, my point is that why can't a polygamous marriage be formed by numerous, consenting individuals (I refuse to say adult since the point where a child becomes an adult is somewhat arbitrary and subjectively determined. I for one, still feel and act as though I am 15)?

And if the culture of FLDS is asymmetrically unequal and damaging, is our aggression going to change it? Is our aggression even worth our time and money? Is it even moral and constitutional? Change can be slow and change can be drastic.