I’ve kept my mouth shut about the Texas polygamist raids, mostly because I think that it’s such a complicated subject. On the one hand, I agree with freedom of religion. On that same hand, I don’t have a problem with polygamy in certain contexts, when you are talking about long-standing cultural traditions and consenting adults, such as what you find in many African communities. On the other hand, I do have a problem with child abuse, coercion, and brain-washing, regardless of where, how, when, and in what context it happens (even if I happen to agree with the message that is being sent via brain-washing, I disagree strenuously with the method. I love how many people call something propaganda only because they disagree with it–but fail to recognize propaganda when they happen to agree with it.) (On yet another hand, says Ms. Octopus, rearing children in general veers into that arena of brain-washing and propaganda. I don’t know any self-respecting parent who doesn’t try to instill values in their children, but I think there is a gray area between instilling said values and training children to think exactly like you think.) Okay. Having said all that, I do find the tactics of the FLDS church to be fairly coercive; and enough information has emerged from those communities to indicate widespread child and wife abuse. Nevertheless, here are two blogs/columns, one which argues that the state of Texas was correct in raiding the compound and the other that argues it was indeed a violation of religious freedom and individual rights. Both interesting posts and both have interesting things to say. I don’t know much about the guy who wrote the second article, but the first post was written by a woman whose granddaughter is the daughter of a rather infamous polygamist now in jail for bombing a church and killing an FBI agent, Addam Swapp. Her entire blog is interesting and heartfelt….I definitely encourage people who are interested to read it.