Angela Campbell: Bountiful needs a critical assesment (Pro-Polygamy Propaganda?)

National Post ^ | September 26, 2009 | Angela Campbell

[Loyalist]

.... The terms “Bountiful” and “marriage,” when used together, often conjure up a distinct image. One probably envisages a couple united by a cult leader in a short, secretive, and seedy ceremony. The bride would be imagined as young (perhaps underage), naïve, quiet and unworldly. Her husband would be depicted as older, savvier and lecherous, married already to a number of existent wives.

This image does not emerge from thin air. The popular press has gone to lengths in casting Bountiful and other communities of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) as places marked by two predominant features: child marriage and polygamy. A CBC story aired last January suggested that an older man in a polygamous society like Bountiful can marry a “whole flock of teenage girls.” But how accurate is this assertion? And indeed, how valid are common assumptions about polygamy?

.....

Marital experiences in Bountiful are varied. Community members present themselves as choosing conjugal relationships that best reflect their own values, goals and identity. This is relevant to the debate over polygamy’s criminalization. It suggests the need to revisit presumed links between polygamy and sexual exploitation, abuse and assault. The latter are indisputably harmful acts subject to criminal prosecution. But justifications for prohibiting polygamy seem less clear, especially since the criminal law does not target other “unorthodox” conjugal practices, such as adultery and arranged marriages.

[Loyalist]

The two leaders of the polygamist cult in British Columbia just had their polygamy charges dropped.

The B.C. government is trying to avoid the showdown that will inevitably lead to the decriminalization, and legalization, of polygamy.

They don't want to prove that the slippery slope argument against same-sex "marriage" was right all along.

Oh, and here's Professor Campbell's profile photo, included for the purpose of attracting the usual irrelevant commentary:

[eleni121]

“Irrelevant” it may be to you but students of physiognomy believe that looks can lead to wacky behavior and even whackier beliefs. Or just the opposite...

This bozo looks like a peeping tomasina type. She gets her kicks from watching the strange behavior of others.

[RazzPutin]

Hey, why don’t we just “Ask an Imam”?

http://www.askimam.org/search/keywordSearch.php?keyw=polygamy&Submit=Search

[B-Chan]

Turtle Girl!