I feel horrible for the moms in Texas who have lost custody of the children. I'm not saying the state should not have taken the kids away. As a foster care attorney, I absolutely understand what the state did. And I'm not in favor of children getting married or of polygamy. But these moms grew up this way. They were subject to the same reasoning that the subjected their kids to. Imagine if you just followed your religion, and lost your kids for it!
I'm torn, because I definitely think these kids need to be safe. But I'm really sad for the moms, because you shouldn't lose your kids when all you did was what you truly believed was best for them.
It's a very sad situation.
It also made Alan start asking me a million questions about under what circumstances we could lose custody of Ander. And I know too much about the reasons, because of my job, and it made me nervous. I hope every state continues to take kids away who are in danger. But, yes, states ocassionally get it wrong. It's usually fixed pretty quickly, but how horrible that must be, even if it lasts only a couple of days.
Etcetera.
How horrible indeed....
ReplyDeleteI too had the same questions as Alan and Keith and I were talking about what's going on with those people and we came to the conclusion that although it was a religion, it was more like a child molestation ring. Just because it's a "religion" doesn't make it right. Thinking about it like that makes it easier to agree with the decision, but I do feel sorry for those people and their children.
I don't think there is an easy way to think about it.
ReplyDeleteI want to respect people's religious faith. I don't want parents losing their children because of deeply held beliefs.
But in my view some of those beliefs are just plain wrong and then the children's needs have to come first. Exploiting children for sex is one example. Refusing medical care to children is another.
It's never going to be an easy decision to over-ride parental care of a child and maybe it never should be. Sometimes, though, it's necessary.
I agree that you can't help feeling sorry for those poor mothers, though, who were doing their best as they knew it.