Weighing in on YFZ

While I like to stay informed about what's happening in the world, I tend to avoid watching the news. FH and I have CNN Headline News on in the morning while we're getting ready for work, and I catch bits and pieces of things, other than that, I generally stick to the internet for my news. There just seems to be so much negativity, it can get overwhelming at times. But when all the YFZ news started to break, I couldn't tear myself away from it.

I work every day with child and adolescent victims of sexual abuse. Having that insider perspective doesn't allow me to say, "oh, how horrible," and move on. I don't have the luxury of detachment that I suspect allows a lot of America to cope with something like this. Knowing what kinds of twisted things abusers do to children, and having worked in a previous position with more than one child who had been abused by a cult, it makes my stomach turn to think what kinds of horiffic things must have gone on at YFZ. Especially with the talk about finding beds on site at the temple... it makes me shudder. And the part that sickens me the most is that it took so long for anything to be done about it.

Warren Jeffs was arrested in August 2006, if I've done my research accurately. It is now April of 2008, and we're JUST stepping in to remove women and children from an environment where abuse was an accepted, even mandated, part of daily life?

If Jeffs was building a "Business Retreat," did anyone bat an eyelash when a quarry and an incinerator were built? Did anyone find that even remotely ODD?

Look, I like the First Amendment as much as anyone, but that simply is NOT the issue here. It's about human rights. It's about the ritualized abuse of women and children. It's about the abuse/neglect of teenage boys who were sent away. Have we learned nothing from the other cults that have made headlines over the years?

And what do our national leaders have to say about all this. I'd love to hear them weigh in on it. I haven't been able to find anything at this point - if anyone knows of something I've missed, please point me in the right direction. What we have allowed under the cloak of religion is DISGUSTING, and we need to take steps to ensure this does not continue to happen. We need to get the remaining women and children to safety. Those behind these crimes need to be swiftly prosecuted. We can no longer allow religion to mask human rights violations in this country, or in any other.