Modern society considers it normal and acceptible for most teenagers to be sexually active. Modern society just doesn't want them getting married or having children. Modern society embrasses (embraces) serial polygamy (marry, divorce, marry, divorce, marry, etc.) Modern society encourages 15 year-olds to pose nude, drapped in a sheet and then criticises them for doing it. Modern society causes teenage girls to have eating disorders and teenage boys to use steroids. Modern society embraces abortion as a convenient form of birth control. Modern Society produces teenagers that want to, and try to, kill all of their school mates.
Even if all of Egan's falsehoods about 19th century Mormons were true, it would still shine in comparison to his precious modern society. Given that they are not true, he ought to be focusing his efforts on improving the society he is part of.
This is the point I akwardly tried to make in my previous posts. I responded this way:
Right on Matthew!
I have another observation. Everyone in America (some LDS included) are assuming that all the "reporting" on the FLDS is correct. They have been found guilty without even a shred of evidence.
I watched the interviews of the women who have lost all their children and it broke my heart. These families are being ripped apart by a prank phone call. There has been no evidence of any abuse- only the accusations and imaginings of reporters. Yet we all condemn them anyway.
We (LDS) need to watch out that we don't do the same things to them that we claim are being done to us.
In reading articles about the FLDS and LDS I have been cured of any trust in our media. They are biased, lazy and elitest and can't be believed anymore. We seem to be in a catch 22. Experience is directly at odds with what our media is trying to convince us of.
Certainly these two religions are not any more similar than Baptists and Catholics, but it's not necessary to convict them just to make ourselves look better. Government is abusing these folks.
Since I had limited words let me elaborate a little more.
What I see on these comment boards and occasionally in person is arrogance. We love to assert our righteousness and sometimes assert that because we are persecuted, we must be right! Well as one commenter pointed out the FLDS and many other groups could use that logic. We need to learn to talk to people without all the Sunday language. It's not testimony meeting. We need to talk about the doctrines. But we first must know them. Often we need to know our history. In this case a knowledge of our history is essential and those who don't know it only get in the way with their Sunday School answers. The world needs fact and doctrine without the condescension. What we think is common sense or obvious is not so to everyone. And too often I see LDS commenters assuming that what they "know" is commonsense and obvious to everyone, and anyone who doesn't get it must be evil or stupid. We should be the best defenders of other religions in the world. Instead, I see us whining about our own persecutions and participating in persecutions of others.
The government is abusing these women at this Texas ranch. We should be angry about that because it could easily happen to us. Instead, we are afraid of being lumped with them and so we willingly condemn them to protect ourselves. It's shameful. I certainly hope that when the time comes that LDS children are removed from their mothers for some prank phone call, that the Baptists, FLDS, Catholics, Muslims, and Buddists, will stand up for me!
