Polygamy charges in British Columbia to open doors on private community

VICTORIA, B.C. ” Charges of practising polygamy against two leaders of a fundamentalist religious sect in Bountiful, B.C., will give Canadians an unprecedented look into the controversial lifestyles of one of the most private communities in Canada.

The charges against Winston Blackmore and James Oler will also test the legal boundaries of religious freedom in Canada, says a legal expert.

I don’t think polygamy is a good thing at all. Yet it seems this whole issue is being raised because some Feminazi has her drawers in a twist. There are no Muslims in Canada to go after?

I am inclined to believe there are some Muslims in Canada practicing polygamy. Hmmmm? I wonder why they haven’t gone after them? The question that always surfaces when I am thinking about this is, “what is the difference between what these polygamists are doing and other parts of Canadian society?

Everyone one of us knows at least one man who creeps from house to house, impregnating several women he has no intention of ever supporting. I have even seen these ignorant women support these jerks with their welfare dollars. So if I am understanding this correctly, the problem is with one group saying they are married with all wives concerned privy to their multiple marriages? Therefore if the polygamist make no claims of being married, yet keep the same women they made claims of marriage and just have sex and children with them they are lawful citizens again?

That is my problem with arresting people for polygamy. It is basically a matter of semantics when there are others who are doing the same thing as the polygamist, perhaps worse, yet they suffer no consequences. The whole law centers on semantics and the word “marriage”. This is rather like you being arrested for firing your gun (a 12 ga. shotgun) but me suffering no consequences for firing my boomstick (also a 12 ga. shotgun).

From the article: The men are leaders in a breakaway offshoot of the Mormon church. The group has communities in Bountiful, Arizona, Texas and Utah and they adhere to the practice of multiple marriage originated by Mormon founder Joseph Smith but renounced by the mainstream Mormon church more than a century ago as a condition of statehood in the U.S.

The mainstream Mormon church only "renounced" polygamy in the 1890s as in "public relations' 'renounced'". (They went on to privately sanction hundreds of plural marriages between 1890 and 1910).

Certainly, they didn't "renounce" polygamy at all for the afterlife; nor did they "renounce" polygamy as a "holy practice" -- what LDS apostle Bruce McConkie called it in the mid-1960s!

From the article: The belief is that a man should have at least three wives in order the reach the highest of the three levels in heaven.

In the 1860s and 1870s, it was conveyed to many LDS bishops and potential LDS leaders that if they didn't pick up a second and/or third wife, it could effect them remaining or becoming such leaders.

From the article: Women do not have more than one husband.

For "time" - yes --
...but even for mainstream Mormon women who have married serially here on this earth, the fact remains...
...that according to an on-the-record LDS policy book, a woman who has been married to more than one man (at a time) --
...and has been married to each of them "for eternity" in the LDS temple --
...may choose to be a wife to each of them beyond death.

From the article: It is called "celestial marriage" and the rites are performed with the community, by community leaders such as Blackmore and Oler themselves.

Yes, and "celestial marriage"-laden Doctrine & Covenants 132 is STILL in the mainstream Mormons' "Scriptural" adherence category (LDS haven't been told to ignore D&C 132!!!). LDS still believe polygamy exists as part of the "celestial marriage" practices of some temple-worthy Mormons...and many other Mormons believe polygamy will be reinstated on earth when Jesus returns -- as evidenced by such a statement coming from an LDS general authority, Bruce R. McConkie, in his book called "Mormon Doctrine."

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