No Sects Please, We're Texan (II)

The case that began with a bang and is ending with a long series of whimpers, namely the raid on the FLDS compound for the purpose of "rescuing" its children from the hoary clutches of dirty old men... or dirty _young_ men... or any men at all, is petering out in the form of a gradual return of the children to their parents (over the strident objections of many social workers, I'm sure), on the grounds that said children are not, as yet, to anyone's certain knowledge, in imminent danger of being sold off (by their parents!) as white slaves to degenerate polygamists. This is, of course, a significant turn of events from the authorities' original position, which was that, based on the doctrine and supposed practices of the FLDS cult, no adult member of that cult could, by definition, be trusted with the raising of children (of either gender, but especially female). Now it turns out that, even though the elders of the group _teach_ polygamy, and the customs of the group favor it, that is no longer considered an automatic disqualifier for parenthood. So I guess members of other cults can relax as well -- you know, like Roman Catholics, who frequently bear more than the "replacement level" number of children, and still contend that priestly celibacy is a good idea. (You have to understand that the regime has equally strong views regarding sex and non-sex. Go too far in either direction and you're in trouble.)

Among signs of the petering out of this case -- some of the parents are required to attend "parenting classes". Well, yeah... those classes are certainly just as about as "establishment" as they could be; i.e., they perfectly communicate the "mind" of the regime when it comes to parenting. But they fall quite a bit short of actual brainwashing, at least in my experience. If you show up, smile, and don't cop an attitude, and "take active part in discussion", you pass. I've seen people in parenting classes who probably have their pusher waiting outside the door with needle in hand; it's not exactly "life-changing" -- it's more like burning a pinch of incense to Caesar. The same families have to "be available for unannounced visits by Child Protective Services". Well, again -- sure, this is a sign of tyranny, collectivism, and all the rest. But again, if they find your kid up and dressed, and not lying in a darkened room in a stupor surrounded by petrified pizza crusts, you're going to come out OK. Just make sure there's something baking in the oven (the same thing they tell people trying to sell a house).

Of course, the main reason these cases are falling by the wayside has nothing to do with the family-friendly, humanitarian instincts of the Texas child protection racketeers. They just couldn't get enough of a budget increase, or personnel "slot" increase, in short enough time to handle the products of their zeal. When you raid an entire community and take everyone away these days, it's not like the age of the Golden Horde. Those people have to be taken care of -- fed, clothed, educated, provided with medical care, and so on. And when you're in a part of Texas that has 1000 armadillos for every human, the resources for even volunteer, to say nothing of paid, child care are slim indeed. So the kids have to be turned back, albeit grudgingly, to the strange community from whence they were spirited.

Plus, they still haven't figured out who filed the complaint to begin with. I suspect the answer is "nobody" -- or that some zealous social worker took time off from lunch to hotline the FLDS. But the authorities were ready to go in at the drop of a hat, in any case -- no start-up time was required. Plenty of resources for raids, not so many for follow-up.

Now, I'm not claiming, in all this, that the FLDS folks are "normal", by any standard. The women I saw on TV were a cross between "The Waltons" and "The Stepford Wives". Plus, I'm one of those oddballs who still thinks that the LDS in general is a cult -- to say nothing of a "fundamentalist" spin-off. But for all that, I think the burden of proof is solely on anyone who wants to march in and take children away from families, and I think that burden ought to be much more onerous than it is at present. Plus, it all depends on what one defines as a "cult" or as "abnormal upbringing", doesn't it? Home schoolers were put in that category by the educational and social work industries until fairly recently. In my book, a family where the parents spend every minute from waking up until going to bed listening to NPR qualifies as a "cult". So who is to say? I'm just glad that some semblance of sanity is starting to prevail in Texas -- even if for the wrong reasons. It sure beats the Waco era, where the policy was to firebomb first and ask questions later.