One of the responsibilities of a state legislator -- perhaps the responsibility -- is to feret out where injustice is being done, and, in those cases where laws are the proper vehicle for change, to change things.
Pass laws that protect against unfairness and injustice.
I am running for the state legislature, and it occurs to me that a person could be kept busy introducing such legislation. I pick up my paper and read a story I had been meaning to catch up on for a couple days now. Two Navajo siblings are suing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for placing them in homes where sexual abuse took place. They allege that it happened not just in one home, but in a series of homes.
Obviously, if we can do anything to prevent children from being placed in bad homes, we want to do that. I ponder on what kind of legislation is possible.
But, there is also another injustice to be concerned with here. I question whether the church should be made responsible for the abuse when it is clear the church does not condone, does not knowingly encourage, and does not want to be affiliated in anyway with sexual abuse. On the contrary, it fights against it.
I do not know all the facts of the case. It might be, church representatives knew their was danger in placing children in the homes they did. There might have been culpability.
But, I can see the need for protecting the church from injustice.
I will post in the coming days on both sides of this question -- what can be done to protect the children and what can be done to protect the church. For those who might not want to wait, look up my July 1 blog from last year. It has some application here, and I will probably be reposting it, with some revision.
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