The FLDS

I've been up for over an hour trying to avoid sleep until I'm too tired to dream. And for some strange reason, I've been occupying my time not by looking up the requirements for nursing school-which I'm seriously considering attending-but rather by viewing the recent multitude to articles written about the FLDS organization; esp. in Texas.
It makes me sad to think about all those girls and children. I can't even imagine what it must be like to spend your whole life so conditioned to accecpt things that most of the world consideres to be abusive and disgusting. But how much worse is it for the little children? Think of your own little ones. How must it feel for a little one-year-old boy, or 8 month-old-girl or three year old to be suddenly uprooted from their home and separated from their parents and guardians. And for the older children who have no idea what's going on, they're just scared because they've been forced into the 'evil' outside world. And especially for the young girls who know that by answering questions they could be leading to the destruction of the world that they know. But being torn because they're unhappy with their situation, and in some cases are trying to save younger sisters from sharing their fate. Or even for the young girls who don't see anything wrong with the way they have been brought up and how they live their lives. How would you or I feel if all of a sudden one day a group of people who thought our way of life was wrong gathered us all up, took away our husbands, and separated us from our children in the name of protecting us. My heart really does go out to all the women and children who are hurting from this.
To be quite honest though I don't feel a lot of sympathy for the men. Regardless of what you're taught, you have to-on some level-have the awareness that a 13 year-old girl is more than just breeding stock, and that no child should be forced into intimate adult relationships with men four times their age. If the belief is truly that polygamy is necessary and that as soon as a girl is of child bearing age then she should marry, why the HUGE age discrepency? Why not marry a teenager to a teenager? Or a young adult? Why are little girls being paired up with men almost old enough to be their grandfathers?
Don't get me wrong, I am certainly not one to say either way that polygamy is right or wrong. It is certainly a principal that I would struggle with if it were still in effect. But I honestly think that in the end, there will be some called to practice it. After all, we're promised the fullness of the gospel, aren't we. Well, I don't think that Heavenly Father was just trying it out, and decided, "well, this didn't go as well as I had hoped. What was I thinking?" I think that wether we like it or not, polygamy is a gospel principal, and it was probably discontinued more because we weren't ready for it; not because it's not sound. After all, under the Mosiac Law (correct me if I'm wrong), there were provisions for divorce. Did that mean that Heavenly Father was condoning the practice? NO!! But the people weren't willing or able to live the higher standards.
Forgive my ramblings, and remember that nothing I say or write is Church Doctrine, it's just the musings, and understandings of Rachel Anderson. This is opinion, not fact! Because the last thing I want is to say something crazy that is taken for the 'official Church stand' on an issue or teaching!
Well, with that disclaimer, Good-night