Teen who ran away returned to polygamist community

Thank you very much for the informational link. I have long found Dennis Prager to be a very straightforward and enlightened thinker.

But Dennis artfully skirts one issue about which I earnestly inquire: polygamy. Did not the biblical Hebrews practice polygamy? I understand (or rather have been told) that it is from their example that Joseph Smith found justification for his belief system about multiple marriage.

I certainly would make no defense for polygamy. However, with the recent spate of court decisions, from the Supremes on down, I truthfully cannot see how it (or polyandry, for that matter) can be legally stopped. The state legislatures will try and outlaw multiple and same-sex "marriage," but I am not so sure these state laws would survive the inevitable Supreme Court challenges.

In fact, right now, the authorities in many states seem to be turning a blind eye toward polygamy, which means it will be much harder, as in the case of abortion, for example, to restore normal legal order.

Government has a vested interest in controlling the rights of families, households, and private individuals. They can use issues like this to distract, direct, and control entire blocs of voters at will.

I'm a Constitutionalist and as such I recognize that some behaviors I don't particularly like ought not be outlawed at the federal level. States ought to make laws their citizens want. Utah never wanted to ban polygamy in the first place--they were forced to do it, and to expect someone to vigorously enforce a bad law made under duress is silly. The majority would like their polygamous population to just shut up and be quiet and not bother them, and please don't do things to get yourselves in the news! but they have no particular interest in squashing a way of life that has significant historically and religiously important roots.

Really moral, really good, patient people could live this way and do well with it. Most of us would not handle it and it would bring out the worst in us. Since we are human not angels, most of us had better stick to the traditional Western pattern of marriage, which is too hard for many as it is.

I don't understand! Polygamy is illegal. Why isn't it prosecuted?

Not enough jails and money to prosecute all the polygamists in Utah.

Another reason is it brings too much attention to the reason some who practice Mormonism still practice it. Which is because the Mormon founders taught that:

“the only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy." (Journal of Discourse)

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