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	Ruthie Kelly: the Missing Check on Religion Daily Aztec April 9, 2008 http://media.www.thedailyaztec.com/media/storage/paper741/news/2008/04/09/StateOfMind/Ruthie.Kelly.The.Missing.Check.On.Religion-3311251.shtml Sometimes my fierce opposition to religion can seem extreme, even to me. After all, faith and church have been staples of human existence for a long time, with undeniable positive influence on many individual people, including my immediate family. Sometimes I question myself, wondering if the negative aspects are merely exceptions to an overall positive force. Then news releases such the following pop up: Police raided an isolated religious polygamist compound founded by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints last Friday. The congregation, known as FLDS, is a group that split from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, (whose members are known as Mormons), after they renounced polygamy in the late 1800s. The group has faced prosecution in the past for the rape of young teenage girls and the sometimes incestuously arranged marriages to older men in the compound. This raid resulted from a call by a 16-year-old girl alleging physical and sexual abuse while living there. She had apparently been forcibly wed to a 50-year-old man, raped and forced to bear his children. A total of 52 girls were bused away from the compound to be interviewed and inspected for signs of similar abuse. Eighteen girls have already been taken into state custody and placed in foster homes. There are too many situations such as this, where religious conviction masks revolting systems of abuse. Another instance that easily comes to mind is the widely publicized scandal of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests, where church officials simply relocated the perpetrators, concealed evidence or paid off victims, rather than reporting the crimes to police. Abusers are often in positions of power and authority. They have the ability to do virtually anything they want and cover up anything they perpetrate, by virtue of their divine backing. I have yet to see an effective system for challenging their authority, a system where believers can question leaders' power without having to sacrifice their faith or position within the flock. There is no "check" like those we impose upon secular positions of power. There is no impediment to abuse aside from the promptings of their own conscience, and we can see how well that works. Such a system would greatly reduce the ability of those in authority to hurting those who trust them the most or at least help reduce the number of their victims. These abuses are by no means limited to any one religion or denomination. The hierarchical, omnipotent system of religion is deliberate, with a few exceptions regarded as "extreme" and "liberal" by the staunchly conservative majority of religious groups. Figureheads care more about preserving faith than pursuing justice, so when it comes to choosing between the two, they choose the course of action that will cost them the fewest believers. If religious sects do not address these inequalities and abuses themselves, secular authorities will be compelled to perform raids and interventions, such as the one mentioned above. Leaders compellingly argue against government interference in their private organizations: Separation of church and state is just as much an effort to free religion from government interference as it is to free the government from religious interference. I can sympathize with the paranoia experienced by religious groups that fear government intrusion into their holy places. However, there is a more important issue here than the ability of churches to be free from government interference. There is the deliberate and systemic abuse of followers, especially children. It's not always part of the formal doctrine, as with the case of the FLDS, but the system of religion does not prevent it. Formal religion's false sense of safety and requirement of unquestioning submission to authority creates situations predisposed to abuse, especially prolonged abuse. Until a different system is put in place, until there is a "check" on human authorities other than divine oversight, we, the secular public, should feel compelled to interfere - for the sake of the children. -Ruthie Kelly is a journalism junior and a staff columnist. -This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed - include your full name, major and year in school.
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