In the News: West Texas Polygamist Ranch Raided

I am sure many of you have heard of this story in the news recently. Pictures of people dressed as if from a different era, looking more suited to be from the time period of the Primrose Girls rather than modern day. I'd like to take a minute to go over it briefly and share my thoughts. I want to make it clear though that I am far from an expert on this news story. I have only read over some of the media coverage on the internet. So take everything I say here with a grain of salt. First off, a quote from msnbc which sums up what has happened.

"ELDORADO, Texas - Officials on Monday announced that 534 women and children — more than twice as many as had been earlier reported — were removed from a polygamist compound and that all 401 children have been placed in state custody because a judge deemed them in imminent danger of physical abuse."

"The dayslong raid on the sprawling compound built by the now-jailed Jeffs was sparked by a 16-year-old girl's call to authorities that she was being abused and that girls as young as 14 and 15 were being forced into marriages with much older men."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23993440/

It is easy to follow news coverage like this and see it in a one sided manner. They paint of a picture of beating, abuse, rape, and forced marriages for young girls and women. It is made to seem like some kind of molester paradise or hell on earth. Is it really like that though?

Let's take a minute to examine the facts from the start with our skepticism turned up high. A 16 year old calls saying she is abused physically and sexually, basically saying she has been beaten and raped. Who knows exactly what she said over the phone at this point, we only know what we have been told second hand. When someone says "beaten" it usually brings up images of terrible abuse involving broken bones and bleeding. Is that really what it means in this context?

I will quote now from a book called "Escape" co-authored by Carolyn Jessop, a woman who was born into a FLDS community. She has been on the news lately.

"In private, my mother was depressed and volatile. She beat us almost every day. The range was anything from several small swats on the behind to a lengthy whipping with a belt."
http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/cgi-bin/chapter.pl?isbn=9780767927567

So basically several small swats on the behind is considered beating. Even if we are talking about a belt whipping I'm sure most reading this would agree that a 16 year old girl getting the belt is hardly a news story. Putting the beating aside, what about the rape? When you hear the word rape you think about a girl being held down and violated while struggling to get away. Of course there is another kind of rape. The kind called statutory rape, where even if the girl was totally consenting, the male would be sent to prison. Which kind of rape is it then?

The goal of this community is obviously to marry off girls as young as possible in order to start birthing children. The entire concept of polygamy facilitates that goal. Kind of like having one rooster in a hen house. Is this wrong? I honestly don't know. What I do know is that it is a very "American" idea to break off and seek freedom from religious persecution. Why should the government involve itself in family matters? If one or two girls call about abuse should they send in swat teams to extract over 500 women and children from the community in response? We may not agree with their values, but it is still sad to see their way of life being attacked so viciously.

The most interesting part of this is the media's response to the allegations of abuse. They call it "beating" over and over but never say what that actually entails. I wonder if they purposely shy away from saying spanking because they are afraid some people might agree with it as a disciplinary tool. Even if they did mention spanking children, would they ever mention wife spanking? No, I think not. It would always be referred to as beating or abuse. What does everyone else think about this and the news story? Please feel free to comment here even if you totally disagree with what I've said. Hate mail would be welcome too. I am surprised I haven't gotten any of that yet over some of the posts in this blog.

Maintenance Discipline

My favorite topics are the ones that are controversial. The concept of maintenance discipline definitely falls under this category. For those who are not familiar with it, maintenance discipline is a punishment given for a general cause or for no specific cause at all. An example of this might be if a girl receives a spanking once a month, once a week, or at any chosen interval of time regardless of how her behavior has been. Another example would be if a girl has been well behaved and not earned herself any punishments for a certain length of time, she is given maintenance discipline.

The controversy starts when people see this as a punishment without justification. A girl might ask "why should I be punished if I have been behaving?" Some might think that if a girl successfully goes a length of time without earning herself any punishment then it would be counterproductive to give her maintenance discipline. It may come off as being cruel and unusual to many who spank for discipline to do it without any direct cause.

What is the purpose of maintenance discipline? There are many different reasons I've heard for this, but some of the popular ones are these. It could act as a simple reminder to behave in the near future. It could be for accumulated minor misbehaviors that have gone without punishment. A reminder of who is in charge. Stress relief for either the spanker or the spankee. A preemptive measure against future misbehavior. An attempt to directly influence a girl's general attitude. It even could be a way to show a girl that she is loved.

How severe should maintenance spanking be? I find that for most this ranges from being a light punishment to one that is equal to a true disciplinary spanking for misbehavior. It may not seem fair to give a harsh spanking for no direct cause, yet it could also be argued that there is no point in giving a spanking if it is not going to leave an impression on the girl. If the goal is for it to be a reminder of what a spanking feels like, then it makes sense for it to be like a typical spanking for misbehavior. If it is about addressing minor misbehaviors or showing love then perhaps a lighter spanking could work. At any level of severity there will still be the element of shame that comes from losing clothing, being on display for the spanking or corner time, and of course being spanked like a child.

There are a few articles on this around online, but I thought I'd point one out in particular. Sir Don wrote a great article about how maintenance discipline can work in a Christian domestic discipline relationship between husband and wife. Here is a link to that article. http://www.christiandomesticdiscipline.com/maintenancediscipline.html

I have updated this to include a post made by the very popular and ever interesting Angie. She reposts some comments she made on the LDD site article about maintenance discipline. Thank you for pointing this out Angie. Here is a direct link the post on her 360. Do yourself a favor and check out all her other posts too if you haven't already. http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-81KbBQY.b60U0_uzl5TSoGmRAdE-?cq=1&p=56

It is difficult to find a picture that represents something as abstract as maintenance discipline. I chose a piece of art created by a talented artist named Roger Benson. It was created in black and white and later colorized by FST. We can't know the circumstances of the two girls being disciplined in this illustration, but one assumption could be that they are receiving some sort of maintenance discipline. The two parents work as a team, the mother first collecting panties so that the father can do the work of warming the girls' bare bottoms. If indeed two girls were living under the same roof it makes sense that they would be given maintenance at the same time. But what about the mother? Does she not receive maintenance discipline? Is she allowed enough dignity by her husband to take hers later in private?