Polemic®

Back in school, one of my liberal professors shocked me when, after almost a full semester of agreeing with everything she said, came out in favor of government interference with polygamist sects.

We had discussed the wrongful impact of government regulation on reproductive rights, marital relations, gay marriage, miscegenation, and the long-standing gender bias in the law. But when the subject of polygamy came up, she thought the government was right to interfere.

With Passover fast approaching, my thoughts naturally turn to religious persecution. So, with the FLDS in the news again, I thought I’d throw m two cents in.

The first argument is that Polygamy is per se abuse of women. And while there are probably some women who would chose to leave those groups given the right opportunity, there isn’t a large exodus even after raids like this. These women have free will–don’t they? Do we decide for people that they must not have free will because they make bad decisions, or ones that even seem repugnant to us? It wasn’t so long ago that a strong majority opposed gay marriage.

It’s not the choice we protect, it’s ability to make choices that we protect.

Second, the children. It’s always the children, isn’t it? So, the adult women you can say have free will. But what about the brainwashing of the children? What about the alleged sexual abuse of the children? That’s illegal, right?

This is as close to the line as you can get. I would point out that not long ago, the age of consent was 14 some places. Did those 14 year olds suddenly become the victims of sexual abuse the day the legislature changed the law? Does the legislature really dictate these norms?

But this brings up a different question. Are we genuinely going against the child abuse in general, or are we finding child abuse as a tool to oppress polygamy? I suspect it’s the latter. And this bothers me.

Look, if there’s honest to god child abuse going on, stop it. If there are members of the FLDS that are breaking their own rules about young girls, then I don’t feel sorry for them. But, I hate to break it to you, but it’s hardly a unique practice to consider girls who have hit puberty to be women of proper age for child bearing.

I think this is a similar question to circumcision. Is that child abuse? It certainly is an awfully painful procedure (assuming no anesthesia is used) and the medical evidence is mostly equivocal on its benefits. Yet it is probably the most widely practiced aspect of Judaism. In America, most non-Jewish boys are circumcised too. But what if medical practice determined that boys shouldn’t be circumcised until age 18, if at all?

What would happen to the brit milah on the 8th day? Would a bunch of Orthodox rabbis be thrown in jail? In that context, I think we see that as a bit oppressive. That practice is millenia old, and doesn’t appear to have destroyed humanity.

So, as much as I find it abhorrent that young girls are forced to marry older men and bear their children, I have very strong reservations about the use of state power to change that practice.