When Church Autonomy Is Tyranny
- Author Marci Hamilton
- Published May 22, 2008
- Word count 700
Ignorance is the enemy of liberty. That truth has never been so forcefully made as it has been with the rescue of the hundreds of children from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints compound in Eldorado, Texas.
As the clergy abuse crisis within the Roman Catholic Church has proved, Americans are all too willing to ignore evidence of child abuse when it occurs in the context of religious organizations. Until very recently, willed denial was the primary response to this devastating and systemic set of issues. Parents punished children who told them they had been sexually abused by priests, prosecutors declined to investigate, and newspapers failed to cover. Why? Because we as Americans just do not want to believe that religious groups are capable of such base behavior. As we succumb to the romanticism of religious liberty, we leave the vulnerable in desperate straits.
That is why the Supreme Court’s 1990 decision in Employment Div. v. Smith is both wise and necessary. In that case, the Court held that Native American Church members could not receive unemployment benefits if they used the illegal drug peyote, even if the drug was used during a church service. Why? Because "[o]ur cases do not, at their farthest reach, support the proposition that a stance of conscientious opposition relieves an objector from any colliding duty fixed by a democratic government."
Some misguidedly criticized the decision, because it was purportedly based on "targeting" of the Native American Church. Religious and civil rights groups lobbied to enact the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to eliminate the Smith decision, because they argued that religious excuses should trump most "colliding" obligations. The children at risk in religious compounds prove how wrong they are.
The capture, trial, and conviction of Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the FLDS, along with books like Under the Banner of Heaven provided all the information anyone should need to know that the children within the FLDS are in extreme danger on a daily basis. Whether it is the adolescent girls being given to middle-aged men for sex or the boys being abandoned on street corners to keep the numbers in the men’s favor, leaving aside the poverty and educational neglect, this is an organization whose abuse bona fides have been clear for years. But the vast majority of Americans have simply ignored the evidence in their midst.
It is this willed ignorance that has kept these children in a religious cult that deprives them of basic liberty everyday. Now, the government is taking the right steps while the FLDS’s lawyers argue that their constitutional rights have been infringed. They argue they have a right to autonomy and treat the removal of women and children as though it is a massive constitutional invasion. To scare the courts, they argued yesterday that the raid on the compound was the equivalent of a raid on the Vatican. Given the Catholic Church’s problems with child sex abuse, this seems like an unfortunate comparison to make. In any event, even the Vatican would not be safe from authorities if hundreds of children were being abused on the premises.
Their constitutional arguments are just cover to deflect the public discussion away from the devastating conditions under which women and children have been living within the sect. In their arguments, liberty is an oxymoron. They hope that Americans will return to their daily lives, and simply set aside the knowledge they now have of the oppression of these children.
For children, ignorance combined with calls of religious autonomy are the handmaiden of tyranny.
About the Author:
Professor Marci Hamilton is a leading church/state expert who specializes on the issue of whether religious practices that violate the law should be accommodated. Professor Hamilton is a visiting professor at Princeton University this year and holds the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. She is the author of God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law (Cambridge 2005, 2007) and the forthcoming Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children (Cambridge 2008).
Hamilton represents numerous survivors of childhood sexual abuse, especially in circumstances where the abuse was made possible by religious organizations.
Read her blog articles at: http://cupblog.wordpress.com/
Article source: https://articlebiz.comRate article
Article comments
There are no posted comments.
Related articles
- The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Perfect Venue for Your Event
- Highlights from IMX 2023: A Milestone For Global Music Industry Collaboration
- Nuke in Da Boyz kills thousands
- Wisconsin Hotel Professors Role in Mumbai India Attacks
- How Should We Interpret the Concept of "All Men Created Equal" Historically?
- The Richard Boynton Story
- Corruption
- Amazing War Stories from Air Force Cadets
- Stop The Violence Celebrity Basketball 2022
- A Case Study of Misplaced Nostalgia for Colonial Hong Kong
- 98 years old and counting
- An insight on the Fifth Global Conference on Elimination of Child Labour
- SUCH BRAVE HEROES
- The origin of World Ozone day and it's significance
- Panorama India hosts unique & historical India Day Drive Thru Parade on Aug 15
- Remember the 2019, UCH class of 1986 Reunion in Hyattsville, Maryland 20783, USA?
- A Year of Pandemic Later: Thanking the Psychologists That Continue to Be Truly Essential
- India is an unbelievable country with many cultures, backgrounds, and languages: Sumeeta Kohli, Panorama India Chairperson
- Will Coronavirus Kill Quality, Free To Consume Content?
- The Boarder Crisis will only get worse
- CardioFlex Therapy Spring 2021 Community Events
- Travelling Through the Timeline
- Nicolle Stinson is called to Ministry
- Contrary To The Ethiopian Transport Minister's False & Misleading Statements - ET302 Flight Crew Did Not Follow Procedures
- What should you consider when planning an event?
- Saving the world with Eco-Powered WiFi for Events
- Make you holiday Party ‘A Fun Blasting’ with Party Energizers!
- The "Great Recession" - Ten Years Later
- From Burning Trees To a Lighthouse
- The African-American With Lewis and Clark