Leavitt was Governor of Utah, having sworn to uphold the Constitution and laws of the State of Utah, when he gave a press conference on July 23, 1998, and was asked about the felony child abuse prosecution of John Daniel Kingston that was then ongoing and in the headlines.
Kingston was accused of beating his 16-year-old daughter with a belt when she balked at becoming the fifteenth wife of Kingston's brother. Although Kingston, a polygamist, was being tried for felony child abuse, neither Kingston, nor his brother, were being prosecuted for polygamy. Kingston was leader of a break-off fundamentalist Mormon sect, clearly not the LDS.
Anti-polygamy groups were publicly and vocally outraged that no polygamy charges had been brought and the Kingston matter was a major public and political issue in Utah.
Leavitt was asked in the news conference why Utah didn't prosecute polygamy. In addition to the comment that it may be a religious freedom (despite there being a famous U.S. Supreme Court case to the contrary when the LDS Church was fighting against federal prohibitions against polygamy, Reynolds v. U.S., one that any Utah lawyer or politician should know), Leavitt didn't leave the matter there.
He acknowledged that Utah didn't prosecute polygamy. He suggested it was a matter of consenting adults (and many here on FR will agree). He answered questions about polygamy for approximately four minutes before announcing he would answer no more. Among his comments, he said:
"It's clear to me in this state and many others, they have chosen not to aggressively prosecute it. I assume there is a legal reason for that. I think it goes well beyond tradition. What needs to be cracked down on, if there is to be such a crackdown, is any abuses of peoples' civil and human rights."
All of that - with the religious rights soundbite - is what caught national attention.
Leavitt later backtracked on the religious rights statement, however, he never issued orders to begin a prosecution of polygamy. In fact, there never was one. To this day, the official website of the Utah Attorney General states that Utah and Arizona have chosen to deal with child abuse and welfare cheating from polygamy, rather than polygamy itself. Again, my assumption is many on FR will agree with that stance.
However, Leavitt swore to uphold the Utah Constitution, which prohibits polygamy. He swore to uphold Utah laws, which prohibit polygamy. He was forced into the spotlight on polygamy, and the fact that Utah does not prosecute polygamy, because of a particularly noteworthy case and press conference.
Once he learned that he was wrong about the religious grounds . . . his choice was apparently to let the polygamy continue.
That's why he's viewed as the poster boy for political polygamy. Not that he's practicing it - but that moreso than any other Utah governor, he was put on the spot to police the prohibition and he chose not to do so, for what that's worth.
Was he sticking up for libertarianism and civil rights? Was he being a political pragmatist in a state that doesn't want a polygamist history spotlighted, now matter how? Call it as you see it.
Thanks for the documentation, SM.
Ah...
That's what SLC wants you to keep repeating!
Actually the 'fundies' are BRAVE enough to follow MORMON 'scripture'; whereas the spineless weasels, sequestered high above the whiteshirted drones in Salt Lake County (Original county of State of Deseret), would rather have STATEHOOD than to OBEY the commands of their GOD!
~ Wilford Woodruff, 4th LDS President
58 Now, as touching the law of the apriesthood, there are many things pertaining thereunto.
59 Verily, if a man be called of my Father, as was aAaron, by mine own voice, and by the voice of him that bsent me, and I have endowed him with the ckeys of the power of this priesthood, if he do anything in my name, and according to my law and by my word, he will not commit dsin, and I will justify him.
60 Let no one, therefore, set on my servant Joseph; for I will justify him; for he shall do the sacrifice which I require at his hands for his transgressions, saith the Lord your God.
61 And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood—if any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse aanother, and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then is he justified; he cannot commit adultery for they are given unto him; for he cannot commit adultery with that that belongeth unto him and to no one else.
62 And if he have aten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto him; therefore is he justified.
63 But if one or either of the ten virgins, after she is espoused, shall be with another man, she has committed adultery, and shall be destroyed; for they are given unto him to amultiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfil the promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of the world, and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men; for herein is the work of my Father continued, that he may be bglorified.
64 And again, verily, verily, I say unto you, if any man have a wife, who holds the keys of this power, and he teaches unto her the law of my priesthood, as pertaining to these things, then shall she believe and administer unto him, or she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord your God; for I will destroy her; for I will magnify my name upon all those who receive and abide in my law.
65 Therefore, it shall be lawful in me, if she receive not this law, for him to receive all things whatsoever I, the Lord his God, will give unto him, because she did not believe and administer unto him according to my word; and she then becomes the transgressor; and he is exempt from the law of Sarah, who administered unto Abraham according to the law when I commanded Abraham to take aHagar to wife.
66 And now, as pertaining to this law, verily, verily, I say unto you, I will reveal more unto you, hereafter; therefore, let this suffice for the present. Behold, I am Alpha and Omega. Amen.
Or should that be GODS???
1–6, Exaltation is gained through the new and everlasting covenant; 7–14, The terms and conditions of that covenant are set forth; 15–20, Celestial marriage and a continuation of the family unit enable men to become gods; 21–25, The strait and narrow way leads to eternal lives; 26–27, The law is given relative to blasphemy against the Holy Ghost; 28–39, Promises of eternal increase and exaltation are made to prophets and Saints in all ages; 40–47, Joseph Smith is given the power to bind and seal on earth and in heaven; 48–50, The Lord seals upon him his exaltation; 51–57, Emma Smith is counseled to be faithful and true; 58–66, Laws governing the plurality of wives are set forth.
16Therefore, when they are out of the world they neither marry nor are given in amarriage; but are appointed angels in bheaven, which angels are ministering cservants, to minister for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory.
17For these angels did not abide my law; therefore, they cannot be enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their saved condition, to all eternity; and from henceforth are not gods, but are aangels of God forever and ever.
18And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife, and make a covenant with her for time and for all eternity, if that acovenant is not by me or by my word, which is my law, and is not sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, through him whom I have anointed and appointed unto this power, then it is not valid neither of force when they are out of the world, because they are not joined by me, saith the Lord, neither by my word; when they are out of the world it cannot be received there, because the angels and the gods are appointed there, by whom they cannot pass; they cannot, therefore, inherit my glory; for my house is a house of order, saith the Lord God.
19And again, verily I say unto you, if a man amarry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and beverlasting covenant, and it is csealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of dpromise, by him who is anointed, unto whom I have appointed this power and the ekeys of this priesthood; and it shall be said unto them—Ye shall come forth in the first resurrection; and if it be after the first resurrection, in the next resurrection; and shall inherit fthrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths—then shall it be written in the Lamb’s gBook of Life, that he shall commit no hmurder whereby to shed innocent iblood, and if ye abide in my covenant, and commit no murder whereby to shed innocent blood, it shall be done unto them in all things whatsoever my servant hath put upon them, in time, and through all eternity; and shall be of full force when they are out of the world; and they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their jexaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the kseeds forever and ever.
20 Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from aeverlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be bgods, because they have call power, and the angels are subject unto them.
21Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye abide my alaw ye cannot attain to this glory.
22For astrait is the gate, and narrow the bway that leadeth unto the exaltation and continuation of the clives, and few there be that find it, because ye receive me not in the world neither do ye know me.
23But if ye receive me in the world, then shall ye know me, and shall receive your exaltation; that awhere I am ye shall be also.
24This is aeternal lives—to bknow the only wise and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath csent. I am he. Receive ye, therefore, my law.
25aBroad is the gate, and wide the way that leadeth to the bdeaths; and many there are that go in thereat, because they creceive me not, neither do they abide in my law.
How many MEN have been the governor of UTAH since then?
How many of THEM have stopped the polys in UTAH?