[najida]

Erm,
few scoundrels and perverts?

All the males are complicit in this— this is the basis of the religion! That’s why they’re there! That’s why they get male converts over from the outside but never any female (think about it).

This isn’t a one family and a few people. This is a lot of people organized to sexually abuse a lot of children.

OK, what would you do?

[Wallace T.]

Polygamy is an ancient practice. The practice was forbidden in Western nations since the latter days of the Roman Empire, based on Christian teaching on the matter. The FLDS church has been around since the 1890s when it broke away from the mainstream Mormon church when the latter condemned polygamy. Marriage of teenagers and adults in polygamous contexts has been going on for a very long time in the FLDS and before that in the LDS. The founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, had a 14 year old girl, Helen Mar Kimball, as one of his wives, marrying her when he was 38.

There are issues with regard to the age of consent and the minimum age at which marriage is allowed. There are issues of alleged brainwashing and coercion involved as well. The role of government, however, is not to say that so-and-so is brainwashed and must be protected, but to prosecute individuals charged with crimes. The mobility of the women and children is a problem, and a reason why it has been difficult for the authorities in Utah and the surrounding states to suppress polygamy. However, it is better to restrain the government in such matters rather than expand its authority.

Thomas More, the English jurist and Catholic martyr, warned an eager young man who would chop down all the trees in England if necessary to eliminate hiding places for outlaws that once the forests were gone, there would be no place for him to hide.