<p>Change the facts a bit. Say that this is a boarding school for kids who act out and that none of the kids are allowed contact with anyone in the outside world. A young girl calls from within the school and says that she was forced to have sex with a teacher at age 14, had a child at 15 and is now 16 and wants OUT. The voice on the phone is credible and there have been previous reports that some of the faculty at the school were forcing female students to have sex with them–but none were solid enough to justify a search warrant. The school is known to use corporal punishment–which is not illegal in that state. </p>
<p>So, the government goes in with a search warrant after receiving the call. To be able to do that, the authorities had to go before a judge and that judge said that the call and whatever other information the governement had constituted probable cause. You obviously don’t think it does, but a judge given that power by our constitution made the decision. </p>
<p>The governement goes in. There are many young women who seem to be below the age of legal consent who have young children. None of the girls will admit that she is the one who called. </p>
<p>Do you think the government would just walk away and leave that poor kid --knowing that it was at least possible that if the male faculty members figured out who called her life might be in danger? Would you want them to walk away? Would you want them to ignore the other remarkably young mothers? Or would you want them to do something about it? </p>
<p>Why is this situation any different? </p>
<p>The authorities are convinced that a young woman called for help. It seems to me that they have an obligation to remove any of the young women who might have been the caller from that environment and to question them away from anyone whose presence might coerce them.</p>
<p>Years ago, my kid fell and broke her wrist when she fell roller skating. Apparently, the injury was consistent with an injury caused by an adult grabbing a kid by the wrist and twisting it until it broke. You better believe that at the hospital, my kid was separated from both parents and questioned extensively about just how the wrist broke and each parent was separated from the other and questioned about the accident too–presumably to make sure the stories were consistent. </p>
<p>Now, it didn’t go further than that --no police etc. But while part of me felt bad about my young kid being separated from us when hurt in a big scary hospital, I also understood that the hospital staff was just doing its job. </p>
<p>And that’s what I think happened here. If there really was such a phone call and if none of those young women will admit to making the call…should the authorities walk away? Or should they go through that compound brick by brick and make sure that there is not a young girl tied up somewhere out of sight --or worse? Should they question the other young women to find out if this is a routine event? </p>
<p>I don’t think you have to get into the whole subject of religion at all to justify what is being done here. You can BELIEVE anything–but that doesn’t give you the right to do it. So, you can teach polygamy as some wonderful life style. You can teach young girls that their sole role in life is to have children. But you can’t carry out that belief by having sex with them before they are of legal age. And if you do and one of them complains, the government has the right to try to find and help that person, even if that means a bit of inconvenience for others.</p>