Feeling the Love for "Big Love"

[conradd]

I'm catching up with the story line - saw the last show, watched the others via Comcast On Demand, and I'm buying the first season so I can see those too. What a hoot! The relationships are fascinating, especially at the compound.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

So I got to thinking from the other thread - how much impact has Big Love had on the Regular, Not Polygamist, Normal LDS church and community? Have people confused the two, or do people easily differentiate between LDS and FDLS?

[mtomm[$]]

The rumors I've heard is that the LDS public relations department has been inundated with requests for interviews and information. They've spent a lot of time explaining that they are not a source of information because THAT IS NOT OUR CHURCH!

But that's just rumors.

If all of the allegations prove themselves then Texas did the right thing by taking all of the children. If not, well, then they just trampled on the rights of a lot of people. I actually haven't followed the story that closely but if there really are that many (16 or something?) teenage mothers, well, then I think that is child rape.

On one Mormon board I visit there have been some who come to the defense of the FLDS on the grounds that their rights are not being defended. But for the most part people get all in a tizzy about not liking how it reflects on us.

Then, in my mind, I don't really discuss it at work, ahem, that in some ways the LDS church is culpable because of the whole polygamy thing to begin with. But the FLDS have really perverted what was the original way polygamy was meant to be practiced and what it meant to early church members. I'm not a polygamy expert and really don't know much about the early practice.

[amykhar]

I'm reading a book called 'Escape' right now about a woman who left her plural marriage and took her 8 children with her. I'm learning a lot from it. What I always wonder about from both the book and Big Love is the amount of money this group seems to have. I also saw a segment on Oprah about a polygamist community that was comprised of mansion after mansion. Where is all this money coming from?

[drmomentum[$]]

Texas did the right thing even if not all the allegations are proved.

At least 41 children seized from a polygamist ranch in West Texas in April have had broken bones, and some young boys may have been sexually abused, Texas officials said Wednesday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/us/01raid.html

[emeleel]

Sorry, but A) less than 10% of a group of kids that stay outside a lot and do a lot of physical work during any given day doesn't seem all that surprising to me and B) the word "may" has been bandied about a LOT by the Texas authorities, all in the name of trying to make their action seem right.

I don't agree with polygamy, I don't agree with forcing people to marry (civilly or "spiritually") if they don't want to (if that goes on at this ranch) but I think the government is wrong, wrong, wrong in the way they handled this entire case. And if anything *has* been going on at the ranch, they've probably blown their whole case by the way they've handled it from the git-go.

Two places I've been keeping up with this story:

Grits For Breakfast
The Common Room

And about those broken bones?

More on the broken bones: You may remember that I was confused by Angie Voss' court testimony at the hearing about this issue. When asked if CPS had found any broken bones, she said 'there were some suspected broken bones.' How do you 'suspect' a broken bone, and why wouldn't you confirm it? They'd had the kids for two weeks then, and they still only 'suspected' broken bones? What was that about, I wondered. Why didn't they know?

Perhaps they 'suspected broken bones' because the mothers of the children informed CPS that some of them had brittle bone disease:

Salt Lake City attorney Rod Parker accused the department of putting out "misleading information" to malign the polygamous sect.
Parker said some children in the community have brittle bone disease and that Texas Child Protective Services was informed of that.
"That makes some of the children more susceptible to broken bones," Parker said. "The mothers told CPS about that when they were taken in. They've known all along that the reason they might see higher incidence of broken bones was due to this condition. They have no evidence to support the implication it is due to child abuse."

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Psst... this Pop Culture thread is mostly about the tv show, the Texas sect news thread is here

[jgibson2[$]]

drmomentum said

Texas did the right thing even if not all the allegations are proved.

At least 41 children seized from a polygamist ranch in West Texas in April have had broken bones, and some young boys may have been sexually abused, Texas officials said Wednesday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/us/01raid.html

I can't find the numbers right now, but I once read that the average boy breaks a bone sometime before his 12th birthday. Only one of my 3 did, but we've known kids who broke more than one at a time and others who seemed always to be in a cast. less than 10% seems way below average to me.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Psst... this Pop Culture thread is mostly about the tv show, the Texas sect news thread is here