Posted on 09/09/2007 8:13:37 AM PDT by greyfoxx39
ST. GEORGE, Utah — Woodrow Johnson was 15, and by the rules of the polygamous sect in which his family lived, he had a vice that could condemn them to hell: He liked to watch movies. When his parents discovered his secret stash of DVDs, including the “Die Hard” series and comedies, they burned them and gave him an ultimatum. Stop watching movies, they said, or leave the family and church for good.
-SNIP-
Andrew Chatwin, 39, the uncle who took Woodrow in, left the sect 10 years ago. He explained how the expulsions usually happen: “The leaders tell the parents they must stop this kid who is disobeying the faith and Warren Jeffs. So the parents kick him out because otherwise the father could have his wives and whole family taken away.”
-SNIP-
Disobedience is usually the reason given for expulsion, but former sect members and state legal officials say the exodus of males — the expulsion of girls is rarer — also remedies a huge imbalance in the marriage market. Members of the sect believe that to reach eternal salvation, men are supposed to have at least three wives
-SNIP-
Shannon Price, director of the Diversity Foundation, an educational nonprofit group near Salt Lake City, estimates that 500 to 1,000 teenage boys and young men have left Mr. Jeffs’s sect in the last six years, based on the hundreds who have contacted her group and another nonprofit, New Frontiers for Families.
The new venture, the eight-bedroom house in St. George, is being run by the two nonprofits with private grants and $95,000 from the Utah Legislature.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ping
Your retort has a straw man built into it. You postulate that polygamy is inherently abusive. You need to understand that not all polygamist belong to Fundamentalist LDS and that not all polygamists treat their families in the same manner.
I guess Thompson is fine with this. It’s a state issue.
“Your retort has a straw man built into it. You postulate that polygamy is inherently abusive. You need to understand that not all polygamist belong to Fundamentalist LDS and that not all polygamists treat their families in the same manner.”
Sounds like a prescription to do nothing.
Hmm, decisions, decisions. Four wives, or my DVDs. Guess I’ll go with the DVDs. Way less aggravation.
It was intended to show the author of the comment that his argument needs to be based on more solid reasoning than generalizations that lead to straw man positions that are then flamed.
If the author wishes to propose a course of action, by all means do so.
Polygamy has been an issue for the Federal Government since the late 1800’s.
Oh I agree. I’m just pointing out the weakness in Thompson’s federalist argument. If states decide the definition of marriage then Utah gets polygamy if they want it.
That answers that years old question how there’s so many girls to wed vs. the nearly equal ratio of boy/girl birth rates. Notice it’s only the teenaged boys being shown the door. Yep, the old dudes are kicking out their younger, better looking competition. Much like the old Islamic clerics with a half dozen wives who instruct the young men on the proper way to wrap themselves with explosives.
“Your retort has a straw man built into it. You postulate that polygamy is inherently abusive. You need to understand that not all polygamist belong to Fundamentalist LDS and that not all polygamists treat their families in the same manner.”
Dittos.
It is entirely possible to be a polygamist w/o having such beliefs.
On a different level, I’m thinking that the process of divorce and remarriage is “polygamy in slow motion.” And, I wonder how many people have long-term intimate relationships that go on for years, perhaps even with the tacit approval of the legal spouse.
“Sounds like a prescription to do nothing.”
No, you don’t “do nothing.”
However, to spice up the article w/ the polygamist angle is to miss the point entirely. This is a toxic little sect, and a long process of “fresh air” would certainly change things.
I lived with Amish neighbors for a long time. One of their problems was that they all married family, since they couldn’t marry outside of the faith. Finally, someone got wind of “genetics”, and the Amish started shipping their marriage-age young people around the country to other Amish groups to end the genetic loops.
Just one example of where a little fresh air can change the habits of a sect, and in so doing, end a lot of problems.
I don’t know what you found in my comment no. 1 to cause you to remove it. ???
What polygamists are you defending?
Rather like a tribe of animals—the dominant male drives out the young males. When the young male can beat out the old guy, he then kills the old guy’s offspring. And the females just look on.
“However, to spice up the article w/ the polygamist angle is to miss the point entirely.”
The polygamist angle IS the story.
It doesn’t matter. Polygamy degrades and subjugates women and, as this article, shows, it makes it hard for many men, especially young men, to find wives. The only people who benefit from polygamy are the men who have multiple wives. Everyone else loses in this kind of society, including the children.
“Stop watching movies, they said, or leave the family and church for good.”
Child abuse should never be tolerated. These people are monsters! Children are gifts from Heavenly Father. Jeffs is now saying he’s not responsible because he is “mentally ill”. These adults need to be punished. Period. And I don’t care if they’re mentally ill or not.
Makes sense. A television station in Phoenix made a huge to-do on the investigations around this. So much so, that that may be why things finally started getting done. But, the charges are not polygamy,itself (although you could say they are related charges). They have been about the rapes of young girls by older men.
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