The Stupidest Rules

In The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams, the main character, Kyra, and her family live in a compound. They are polygamists. In the compound, they have many “rules” which they talk about throughout the book.
1. “The unwhole won’t meet God. They do not qualify for the kingdom.” Kyra talked about Sister Janie Abbott who had two baby boys, one who did an hour after birth and the other who lived awhile. He was unwhole (meaning those who have disabilities) and they “did away with him.”
-God loves all. It says so in the bible. Prophet Childs is full of crap.
2. “If I were a boy, I’d get to do more stuff, like the boys do here.” Like choose who to marry.
- Women obey the men. That’s how it is there. When men and women are married, it’s mostly and arranged marriage. Except now I just think that the men choose who they want because they are selfish. The boys get nothing. The old men who work for the Prophet are the ones who have lots of wives, which is apparently important to get into heaven.
3. “’Bring the demon’s world here. Burn it all.’ And everyone did. They brought picture books and teen books. Magazines and newspapers. Novels and even the Reader’s Digest. ‘Bring word from the Infidel. And I will bring you truth. I will lead you to Heaven.”
-I don’t want someone telling me what I can and cannot read. I talked about that last week. Nowhere in the bible does it say that the Bible is the only thing you can read. Kyra talks about how her younger sister wanted to keep a Dr.Seuss book, but wasn’t allowed, because “the devil is in the books.” Really? Because I just thought the books were to help kids read and for their enjoyment?
4. “Don’t speak, Sister Sarah, unless I’ve spoken to you first.”
-And again, women have no rights in the compound.
5. “Discipline is God’s way to raising righteous children. It’s a way you can move up in leadership.”
-What happened here was Kyra’s Uncle, who she’s supposed to marry, comes to their house because the youngest, a baby, was very noisy when he was over to dinner and he did not appreciate it. Kyra’s mother is forced to hold her under water three times and they almost lose her.
6. Sister Ellen has to marry Brother Mathias, who was at least seventy years old. She fell in love with someone else, Bill Trophy. He was sent away and she was killed.
-Where do I even begin? Well, for one, sleeping with another man when you are married is wrong, but killing someone does not make God any more happy.
7. “Once, two years after Prophet Childs took over and close us into our community, people started peering in. ‘They are Satan. When you see them, with their all-seeing eyes, with those cameras, you run. They are Satan, here to try and steal you from us. To take babies from their mothers’ breasts. To teach you the ways of the world. To lead you all to hell.’”
-Oh, so I’m going to lead them to hell? I do not follow the ways of the world, which include drugs and alcohol and sex. I follow the bible, just like they apparently do. Except I’m not trying to play God, like Prophet Childs’ is.
8. Brother Alex Delango lost everything because he dared to contradict Prophet Childs. “They took his children and wives and give them to two other of the brethren. They made him leave, along with brother Olsen and Brother Adamson. The three of them were run off, all of them losing their families because they crossed the Prophet.”
-Wow. That’s intense. And that is what Kyra’s father is warning her about. If she doesn’t marry her uncle, her father will lose everything!