Why the Attack at El Dorado?

By Elder George, MMNS

The publicity concerning the polygamous operations at El Dorado has cooled down. The results of the El Dorado raid have approximated those that occurred in Short Creek, Texas in 1953, in which a raid on a polygamous compound created a lot of publicity but resulted in all the families re-uniting within a few years.

The ostensible reason given for the raid at El Dorado had to do with the protection of children, and in particular teenage girls. Was the concern over teenage girls having babies? Teenage motherhood runs rampant in America. I wonder if the enrollment of even one U.S. high school does not include pregnant girls.

Is it because teenage girls have sex? Our government at all levels encourages sexual activity among children. Sex education courses have become sexual education courses. In New York City AIDS education begins in kindergarten. Alternate lifestyles are taught (meaning different sexual unions). The city of New York distributed 2.6 million condoms to public school children. Birth control advertisements abound in the transportation system, meaning it’s all right to engage in premarital sex. Teenage girls having sex represents the norm in America.

Is it because of the marriage of teenage girls? The marriage of young post-menstrual age females has been common in every society in the world for millennia. Cleopatra was only 16 years old when she captivated Marc Anthony.

The issues at El Dorado and Short Creek, were the same. We have a government opposed to patriarchy in general and polygamy in particular. Patriarchy provides armor against government intrusion into the private lives of its people. It maintains freedom from government interference as a result of its development of family values. This area of independence frustrates the ruling powers of Western society. The modest dress of the women in polygamous and patriarchal societies and their attention to the nurturing of the family combined with a lack of adultery, divorce, and lascivious living run counter to the social mores fostered by our government.

When morality moves out government control moves in. Teenage sex and pregnancies spawn birth control clinics, abortions, pre-natal care, after school educational programs for mothers, nurseries, day care, welfare, counseling, and therapy. Government takes control of teenage mothers and their children, who must be raised in accordance with the dictates of government, down to the smallest detail of health care. If these teenage mothers do not comply, their children are removed from them and put into foster care until they are adopted. Government control is complete and uncompromising.

Of course, the government receives the support of most mainline Christian Churches, which unfortunately practice a Europeanized interpretation of Biblical teachings. Most of them seem unaware that the Bible overflows with illustrations of polygamy. All the great patriarchs had multiple wives. Manly responsibility requires the taking care of women—all women—none are to be left out. However, since Western culture has decided that men should no longer have any authority, the State now takes control of all societal functions.

Government control and myopic Christian doctrine (a joining of liberal and conservative thought) are behind the attacks on polygamy in particular and patriarchy in general, which was the true motivation for the raid at El Dorado.

Elder George’s website is www.mensaction.net and he can be reached at 212-874-7900 ext. 1329.

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