Protect children in sect case

Re “State vs. church,” editorial, April 22

Please tell me that The Times, in the name of religious freedom, is not advocating sending more than 400 children back to a faith whose tenets include statutory rape, child molestation and child abuse. There’s a line, folks, and your editorial crossed way over that line.

Doug Curlee

San Diego

“No, we mustn’t free the slaves. They’re happy just the way they are.” That was the great outcry in the South before the Civil War. But, of course, the slaves weren’t happy -- that’s why we fought the Civil War, to extend freedom to those who were not free. That’s why laws were passed to correct these grave injustices.

Eventually we also passed laws to make women free to vote and hold office. But to be an American citizen is not only a privilege, it is a responsibility. People who live in America must obey our laws or face the consequences. We make a big deal about that when discussing immigrants. Holding people involuntarily in sweatshops and sex enterprises is against the law. Selling children is against the law. Underage sexual relations are against the law. And so is polygamy because of its great repression of women, children and teens -- both male and female.

This country was founded on the ideal of clinging to what is right and true, and not just inventing a religion that makes what is morally and legally wrong sound right.

In all this, the state of Texas has been courageous -- and correct.

Bonnie

Compton Hanson

Santa Ana