WHY POLYGAMY SHOULD B E DECRIMINALIZED

            I recently received an email that Flora Jessop and Terri Goddard have been asked by an Arizona concern to submit a 500 word essay as to why polygamy should be decriminalized.  Flora is a passionate anti polygamy pundit and author born and raised in the FLDS.  She is taking the anti side of the issue, Terri Goddard, the Arizona State Attorney General, is apparently taking the pro side of the issue. Now you might think that the Arizona Attorney General taking the pro side of polygamy is rather incongruent with the Arizona government’s official position in as much as polygamy is against the law in Arizona.   But as we have seen in Utah, the attorneys general seem to have the discretionary power to decide what laws they will prosecute and what laws they will not, regardless of public opinion or legislation.      

            Have you noticed where in some political circles “political correctness” seems to take precedence over the laws of the land?  For example, try and get a sodomy complaint or adultery complaint, even in highly conservative Utah and – you will be wasting your time.  When it comes to eroticism the trend seems to be, anything goes.  With that in mind, I don’t know who will judge the essays or what criteria will be used, but I suspect the Attorney General will have the edge.  Nevertheless, if I were asked, I would offer the following suggestions to Flora:

(1)    Decriminalizing polygamy would tend to favor the polygamy doctrines of two religions, Islam and Mormonism, over the monogamous doctrines of Christians.   I think the argument can be made that decriminalizing polygamy to accommodate Mormons and Muslims would be a violation of religion and state.

(2)   The Mormon polygamy doctrine, D & C 132 is inherently coercive.  Verses 4, 5, 54, 64 and 65 state that all those who refuse to accept and live the polygamy doctrine will be damned. Verses 54, 64 and 65 are directed at monogamous wives who refuse to allow their husbands to take plural wives – and threaten to “destroy” them.  The doctrine purports that the individual doing the threatening is Jesus Christ of the New Testament.  If polygamy is decriminalized Mormon fundamentalists will be emboldened with the notion that it was God’s handiwork and now the US Government accepts and honors Section 132.

(3)   Section 132 has but one rule, polygamy must be lived.  It does not say who may live it, how one goes about obtaining plural wives, how many wives is enough, how old they must be, or even if the man must care for their needs.  Consequently the historical record shows that resorting to deception, trickery, force, seduction, lying and kidnapping are not sinful (within the Mormon concept).  A man can take his mother-in-law, sister, half sister, niece, mother and daughter without sinning.  Nor does age matter, she can be age 5 or 105, dead or alive as long as the marriage is sealed by proper priesthood authority. Prosecuting polygamists like Warren Jeffs and Tom Green have slowed these atrocious tendencies down.  Decriminalization will give them new impetus.  Decriminalization will imply that polygamy is a legitimate alternative form of marriage just as the political correct view of homosexuality is that same sex marriage is a legitimate, alternative form of marriage.

(4)   Decriminalization will not reduce the tendency towards abuse of females.  If anything it will increase it.  Laws against polygamy tend to inhibit the propensity of men to oppress women.   We have seen from the books written by women escaping from the FLDS that when the bigamy law is ignored oppression increases.   Those narcissistic polygamists and those with tendencies towards aggression, and they abound, will be less inhibited to act out.

(5)   Authority.  Mormon polygamy is an authoritative religion.  D & C 132, Verse 7 makes that clear.  According, only one man on earth at a time has the priesthood authority to seal plural marriages.  Of course there are dozens of self proclaimed prophets claiming to be that one man.  Wives are expected to yield to her husband’s authority.  The husband is expected to yield to priesthood authority.  The prophet is expected to yield to the wiles of Jesus Christ.  Of course only the prophet knows what the capricious Jesus desires.  The priesthood is infallible and cannot lead the people astray.  The true believers are dependent upon the priesthood for their exaltation and are therefore expected to serve the priesthood.  With this authority the merchandising of plural wives has become a multimillion dollar business for no one gets a plural wife without being a full tithe payer or huge donor of valuable assets.  Priesthood moguls and fathers of large families become surrogate gods over their charges and manage their “chattel” much like a shepherd herds his sheep.

(6)   Mormonism is a theocracy.  The organized groups are governments within the mainstream government.  This is made evident by the FLDS.  In case of conflict, God’s laws preempt man’s laws. 

(7)   A woman’s exaltation is dependent upon the priesthood of her husband and prophet.  She must be a plural wife, she must be worthy of her endowment.  She must be absolutely obedient.  It the husband who resurrect the wife.  If she is rebellious he may leave her in the grave as punishment.  The husband is expected to be absolutely obedient to the priesthood and prophet or his family may be taken away and he excommunicated.  This authority gives husband and priesthood enormous power where oppression often blossoms. 

(8)   Entitlements.  The earth belongs to Jesus Christ, the prophet and priesthood are God’s plenipotentiary ambassadors - surrogate god who assumes God’s prerogatives.  Therefore exploiting government welfare and grants is called, “Bleeding the Beast.  “Milking the Gentiles” is also honorable and was a way of life in the Nineteenth Century.  Hill vs. Allred, Jenson, AUB et.al., where AUB (Apostolic United Brethren) stole 1.54 million dollar from Hill, is a modern version of milking.  Between the welfare programs and the grants given to incorporated priesthood owned towns like Colorado City, tax payers are indirectly subsidizing Mormon fundamentalist polygamy.

(9)   Radicalism and fanaticism are common among Mormon polygamist.  Narcissism and sociopathy are also common.  Evidence of this is the criminal conduct and violence that seems to be endemic to the lifestyle.  Consider the following.  The Law of Consecration (everything belongs to the priesthood), Blood Atonement, the Swapp brothers, Ervil LeBaron, the Lafferty brothers, Brian David Mitchell, Tom Green, Warren Jeffs, David Ortell Kingston, Hill vs. Allred, Jenson, AUB et.al.  And these are just the ones who got caught.  The pattern is clear.  It is not will there be any more criminal behavior, but when.  Decriminalization will not reduce the criminal propensity but open the door for more aggressive behavior.

(10)           Control of Information.  Sympathizers purport that laws against polygamy drive them into isolation where oppressive behavior will be more apt to occur.  They claim decriminalization will penetrate the secrecy and victims will be more apt to report offenses.  This is an intellectual misconception.  Polygamist leaders intentionally isolate  and insolate true believers so they can control information.  If you control information, you control beliefs and behavior.  It is about power, money, sex, and ego.  The goal of the Mormon polygamist group leaders is to harvest generations of indoctrinated young women that can be merchandised at plural wives.  That is the stark reality.  Isolation means not just physical as in Colorado City, but emotional and psychological as in Apostolic United Brethren and the Kingston Group.  Where you have both physical and mental isolation as in Colorado City, apostasy is minimal.  Where psychological isolation is the least as in Apostolic United Brethren, apostasy is the greatest because of it nearness to mainstream society. AUB is the most liberal and least tyrannical because the members are widely dispersed among mainstream society.  Consequently ego driven incidents like Kody Brown and the “Sisterwives” happen where the leaders seem to have the least influence over their true believers.  The Kingston people are as dispersed among mainstream society as AUB except they have an economic program that indentures members to the leadership, and the mental programming is more efficient that AUB, giving the Kingston oligarchy more control over members.  To reiterate, the goal is to control the thinking so you can control the daughters, pocketbooks and bedrooms of the true believers.

(11)           Sex.  The whole purpose, according to Brigham Young, the fundamentalist’s hero and mentor is to “raise up a righteous seed.”  This mandate accomplishes the following:  lots of sexual intercourse, future wives and future tithe payers, and greater numbers for greater power.  For proof positive that sex in Mormon fundamentalism is the prime attraction, see Polygamy’s Rape of Rachael Strong.

(12)           The privileged and underprivileged.  Equality is rare among Mormon polygamists.  There are the elite families and the secondary families – the favorite wife or dominate wife and children, and the secondary wives and children.  The pecking order is clear.  A man with a higher priesthood can take the wife of a man with lesser priesthood.  In AUB the secondary children apostatize wholesale, some hate their fathers with a passion because of the way they treated their mothers and because he was never there for them.  In the Kingston group there is an unequal distribution of wives where the oligarchy take first pick of the pretty young women, forcing secondary boys to search outside the group for wives.

            These are just a few examples of what will happen if Mormon polygamy is decriminalized.  The authority issue among the fundamentalist is so pronounced and ingrained that decriminalization will not penetrate it.  The more absolute the authority the more inevitable is abuse.  The more libertarian government becomes, the more decriminalized laws against drugs, homosexuality and polygamy (vice) becomes, the more chaotic and socialistic society will become.  The more socialistic, the more demanding the people.  Look at the French riots.