What is Good?

We were born knowing the difference between right and wrong at a basic level. Even as toddlers we know what is the right and what is the wrong way to treat others. Yet any who have done wrong must have justified it on some level. No one can honestly say that you did wrong knowingly and yet not willingly. The more you do wrong, the more tolerant you are to yourself and others doing it in the future. The more you do right, the more you realize what IS right and what is wrong.

But what is good? What is right? We have been taught in America that “freedom” is good, and that limiting your freedom is “bad” But is it good to use your freedom to harm another, or yourself? Is it bad to NOT be that free? This is the questions in my mind as I try to understand the people who run to the aid of the dissident from the FLDS faith. By their own admission they feel they are rescuing them from some sort of abuse. But what is the abuse that the so-called “lost boys” suffered? What was the “bad” that they had been subjected to? In all reality for the great majority of them, the only thing they were subjected to has been what the religion considered “good”, in fact almost all of the “good/abuse” they were subject to, most common sense folk and religions call “good”; selflessness, learning, personal responsibility and virtue. They were for the most part required to abstain from the entertainment of television, movies, suggestive and loud “music”, alcohol, drugs, and inappropriate mingling with girls.

They left the religion because of that horrid “abuse” called “strict religion”. Poor babies! Help them! Shelter them! Give them pacifiers and point at their evil parents and religious leaders and tell them “Oh, we will save you from those “bad” things. We will give you your “freedom” from “strict”. Unwilling to strive for religious righteousness, they sure aren’t too much “competition” for those who are.

I met with a couple of my former FLDS brothers and their former FLDS wives, (lost boys is quite an insult) and a cousin the other day. They were telling me how much the “help” some of the boys who ditched the FLDS community to escape “strict” and were living in the house off the bluff has not been as good as many believe. My cousin said it has made life much more difficult for some of those guys to give them such a free ride. He said it “ruined” them. All it was for them was a place to hang out with minimal supervision, schooling was required at first, but most of them were not in school anyway. Many had problems with drugs and alcohol, and have a hard time getting a job. I do hope the best for those guys, that they have a great life of their own choosing, but they shouldn’t be coddled in extra special ways simply because they are from the FLDS, and they definitely shouldn’t be continuously told how “bad” their family and religion was. Apparently some had even been told that their parents will be punished if they try to contact them. That is way beyond ridiculous.

In our society called America, where freedom is guaranteed by the Constitution, a document of written laws defining what the Federal Government can and cannot do, there are groups and sub groups of people. The founders believed that the larger the government, the greatest amount of freedom should be given, and the rights of individuals to govern themselves and their children should be where the strictest rules and infringements of “rights” should take place. That is what self government is all about.