Posted on 07/29/2008 10:06:01 PM PDT by goldstategop
"Texas authorities on Tuesday indicted the leader of a polygamous sect ... on charges of felony sexual assault on a minor, the first criminal charges to stem from a massive raid on the group's West Texas compound," The Los Angeles Times reported last week (http://tinyurl.com/6oenlz).
The Associated Press and other media used similar words: "indicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs ... charges of felony sexual assault of a child."
Straightforward reporting? In my "20/20" special "Sex in America", polygamy activist Mark Henkel said no, it's an ignorant distortion.
"The media kept saying, 'Polygamist leader, polygamist leader,'" Henkel told me. "But the case actually involved incest and arranged marriage of a girl with her 19-year-old cousin. There wasn't anything [that] had to do with polygamy. [Jeffs] wasn't called an incest leader. He wasn't called an underage-marriage leader. He was called a polygamist leader."
Henkel and his website, TruthBearer, (www.truthbearer.org), campaign against the media and others who lump criminals like Jeffs with all polygamy.
Henkel won't reveal his own family situation. In Maine, where he lives, even purporting to have more than one wife is against the law. Henkel complains that American laws are hypocritical.
"Someone like a Hugh Hefner will have a successful television show with three live-in girlfriends! And that's all OK, and he's making great money, and that's all fine and great entertainment. But suddenly, if that man was to marry them, then suddenly he's a criminal. That's insane!"
Many people, when they hear the word "polygamy," think of fundamentalist Mormons living in cults, but the truth is that there's lots of polygamy in America that has nothing to do with that. First of all, polygamy was banned by the mainstream Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1890 and is grounds for excommunication. For my "20/20" special, we interviewed Jewish and evangelical Christian polygamists. Henkel's website is subtitled "Organization for Christian Polygamy." He estimates that there are 100,000 polygamists in America.
Ten years ago, University of Georgia Professor Patricia Dixon thought polygamy exploited women. Then she embarked on a study of it.
"I was transformed by the experience."
She spent years living with different polygamous communities. She was surprised to find that polygamy was not about men exploiting women.
"It's female-centered. The women are the ones who are benefiting. ..."
Wouldn't most people say it's about the men getting more sex with more women?
"It's not about another notch on your belt or anything like that. It really is the women who really promote this idea."
Plural marriage is common around the world. In the United States most get married in religious ceremonies but keep quiet about it because what they do is illegal.
The families we met wonder why what they do is illegal. Clearly it's wrong if an older man arranges marriages of young kids, but when adults choose to live this kind of life, why is that evil?
"Because we need marriage for the good of society. I think if we were to see this across the range of society the effect would be negative," Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council (www.frc.org) told me. He added, "Slavery and polygamy were the twin relics of barbarism. Those are barbaric societies that we've tried to move beyond."
Plenty of religious leaders agree with Sprigg, but Mark Henkel isn't buying it. "If they're saying that's immoral, they're calling the greatest heroes in the Bible ... immoral! ... Saying that Abraham, with his three wives, was immoral. Jacob had four wives. David had seven known named wives before Bathsheba."
Prince Ben-Israel, who has four wives, calls plural marriage a civil-rights issue. "Who is this government that's in somebody's bedroom? ... It was illegal for me to marry a white woman at one time. ... It was illegal for me to vote at one time. And if I had accepted somebody else's definition of what was right and wrong, I would still be riding in the back of the bus.
"We're not saying this is for everybody. Everybody don't like football and basketball or tennis. But those who do oughta be free to do this."
Well put!
I never fail to get angry over the continuous dolts who claim that God sanctioned the perversion that is polygamy.
Good Morning Alice!
I am up way too early.
Monster...
You don't abuse a gift like a sweet and loving woman. Period.
I dunno. In Massachussets having gay sex outside marriage is not considered adultery. So there obviously is more than bias and hypocrisy in this. Domestic unity and peace is against all gay agendas of freely raping society by making people apologize for being repulsed by such sexual predators, calling any retaliation a hate crime.
It’s not a free country to brainwashed little girls who are raised within the confines of a cult to be handed to wrinkled pervs.
I think this is one of those situations like price controls or the minimum wage: some people desperately, viscerally want it to be a good idea, but the overwhelming empirical evidence shows that the practice is harmful for all but a very few.
Frankly, between this and the recent column supporting public sex and nudity, I'm starting to wonder if he's gone off the deep end ...
One is plenty, thank you.
Thank you! I’ve never figured out what was so difficult about understanding “and the two shall become one.” Not the three, not the four.....
I don't think so, can you clarify that a bit?
What do you mean?
“There’s biblical sanction for polygamy.”
Please provide Scriptural references for this claim.
I can think of many examples where this situation is noted and several others where it is condemned, but never ‘sanctioned.’
And no, neither Michal or Abigail were a ‘reward.’
From his column:
Marriage, as its ultramodern critics would like to say, is indeed about choosing one's partner, and about freedom in a society that values freedom. But that's not the only thing it is about. As the Supreme Court justices who unanimously decided Reynolds in 1878 understood, marriage is also about sustaining the conditions in which freedom can thrive. Polygamy in all its forms is a recipe for social structures that inhibit and ultimately undermine social freedom and democracy. A hard-won lesson of Western history is that genuine democratic self-rule begins at the hearth of the monogamous family.
No, the problem is gay polygamy. There would be benefits for a marriage involving several gay men.
The savings on buying AIDS medicine in bulk alone might make it economical.
Thanks. I’ll look at that article in a bit - have to run before it gets to hot :-).
No, there is not.
btt
I mean that men who can, by their own efforts, financially support several wives and dozens of children are few and far between. Since the states do not recognize plural marriage, the soi-disant wives are legally unmarried mothers and eligible for welfare and a host of other taxpayer-supplied benefits. The teenage boys driven in large numbers from polygamous sects are also burdens on the state.
In many ways, the financial situation of “polygamous families” parallels that of the serial hookups and multiple baby-daddies of the inner-city poor. Both “lifestyles” are made possible by government handouts.
What about "Be fruitful, and multiply"
"Just kidding!" he yelled, running serpentine to avoid lightning bolts
Something is wrong on your end. I get both links fine.
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