ms hamilton gets it right

(in a way that is). of course we could stop a LOT of this shite if we (canada included) PROSECUTED polygamists. it's against AMERICAN LAW AND CANADIAN LAW. when one knows 13 and 14 and 15 year old girls are FORCED into 'marriage' and raped and FORCED to have children and young teen aged boys are FORCED to leave the only world they know and one does nothing, one deserves to be publicly flogged (figuratively, that is). f**k 'religious' rights. when you're torturing children, THEIR rights take precedence. ms hamilton is wrong in her thinking we actually WILL start prosecuting more of these cases. hell, our politicians are committing THE most heinous crimes and we're letting THEM get away with it. why should we make another bunch of old white guys pay for THEIR crimes? (my anger is not only directed at THIS religious sect but ALL religious sects who abuse children - or even adults - in the name of THEIR god)

Prosecuting Polygamy
By Marci Hamilton, Huffington Post
There is nothing so dangerous for a child as an insular, patriarchal religious organization, and the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, whose compound in El Dorado, Texas, is now under control of the Texas authorities, is one of the scariest examples. It took the extraordinary bravery of a 16-year-old girl to set in motion a chain of events that should have happened long ago.
She reported that she had been "married" to a 50-year-old man, forced to have sex, get pregnant, and have a baby. Because of her, Texas authorities have taken hundreds of children and women to safety. From all reports, they have yet to find her.
I give the Texas law enforcement and child protective agency officials a great deal of credit for moving in on the compound. They bucked the three trends in our culture that have kept these children at risk for far too long.
First, authorities in general are too fearful of intervening in religious enclaves, even when the harm is so awful and apparent. Yet, there is no right of religious liberty to engage in child and spousal abuse, or polygamy for that matter. The taboo against holding religious entities accountable is simply foolhardy.
In fact, enforcement of the polygamy laws could have stemmed many of these abuses. Yet, it is the rare prosecutor who will prosecute on the basis of the polygamy laws, despite the fact those laws are utterly clear and repeatedly have been upheld against constitutional attack. The largest enclave of FLDS resides in Bountiful, British Columbia. A misguided Canadian public official announced just yesterday that the government cannot go forward with a prosecution of polygamy against the FLDS (where the accounts of abuse are legendary), because of concerns about religious liberty. If Canadian law, though, protects polygamy, it also protects the child and spousal abuse that inevitably follow. That is not religious liberty, but rather religious licentiousness. American prosecutors have been marginally better, though there are many more cases out there that they ignore on daily basis..........

repent, do your duty

even though you are only 14 or 15 (or goddess knows how YOUNG), spread your legs for your new (AND OLDER) 'husband'.

jeffs and everyone like him need to be locked up for good. taken off of the streets. it hasn't happened yet. whole towns are run by people with these beliefs. mayors and law enforcement and owners of hardware stores.....................

well after all it's ONLY a grrrl child isn't it?

Polygamy and Forced Sex in the Name of God

By Ellen Goodman, Washington Post Writers Group.

............To hear the alleged victim, known only as Jane Doe, describe her marriage is to be as deeply saddened as the jury was. After resisting Jeffs' order to marry her 19-year-old first cousin, she found herself at the altar, head hanging, forcing out the words, "OK, I do." After refusing sex, she went back to Jeffs for counsel and was told to "repent," to "do your duty," and be "obedient." And so the girl who didn't know what sex was or where children came from says she was forced to submit to her husband.
Did this teenager make her own choice? We forget how the rules governing consent have changed. Conflicting state laws now navigate between a girl's sexual maturity and her vulnerability. In many states, including Utah, a girl can marry with her parents' permission at a younger age than she can have sex.
But this case raises a different question about consent. How much power did the religious leader wield over the 14-year-old? If you refused to marry the chosen husband, Doe testified, you would "lose your chance at salvation." How could she refuse to obey the husband who was "my ticket into heaven"?...............

why is it we let SOME child abusers off

and we prosecute others? you know what? i could give two shites about people practicing polygamy (of course it IS against the law). i really don't care if it is THEIR choice and EVERYONE is comfortable with it (in the deep recesses of my cold black heart, i don't really think EVERYONE who is in a polygamous relationship IS happy with it). if you're doing it to 'get into heaven' well then you're not living in reality. i'm also not quite sure everyone who is a fundamentalist mormon who practices polygamy does it for PURE reasons......

that is neither here nor there. i AM concerned when 14 year olds (grrrls) get raped by their brothers and fathers and uncles. i AM concerned when 14 year old grrrls (when i say 14, i mean thereabouts a little older, a little younger) get MARRIED OFF. i am concerned when 14 year old boys are kicked out of their communities and their families so the male geezers in the sect get to rape the 14 year old grrrls (see of course they drive all of the boys out). what the f**k kind of society are we living in anyway?

Girl, 14, fled abuse, 'mind control' of polygamy
From Amanda Townsend and Agnes Pawlowski

CNN) -- Sara Hammon saw some of her sisters pulled out of school to be married to men they didn't know. She dreaded a similar fate. And so, she ran away from home before she was old enough to drive legally.
She left behind 19 mothers, 74 siblings, and a father she says could never remember her name, even though he repeatedly molested her.
And, she left behind a culture she says was oppressive for young women.
Hammon recently gave CNN a deeply disturbing account of her life inside the polygamous sect whose leader, Warren Jeffs, goes on trial this week in Utah.
Jeffs is accused of being an accomplice to rape. The charge stems from his alleged practice of arranging polygamous marriages between child brides and older male followers.
Hammon is not directly involved in the charges against Jeffs, which concern an arranged marriage between a girl, 14 and her 19-year-old cousin. She left the sect before she could be placed in an arranged marriage. But she is one of its most outspoken former members. Watch Hammon describe her escape from a closed world »
"Probably the worst part of the whole theology," she said, " is the treatment of women and teaching women that they are not equal to men." ..............




old postings: sara

of course they drive all of the boys out

how else could all of the'elders' get all of the young babes? how this can go on is beyond belief. this is child abuse. wives at age 14 (yeah, i know they finally got jeffs but i'm sure they only did it because of public outcry) boys kicked out of their homes at 14 and 15. utah and arizona authorities doing VERY little to stop all of this shite. hey it's ILLEGAL to have more than one wife. well i don't so much care if someone is polygamous, what i DO care about is the children. marrying young girls or kicking young boys out. THAT MUST STOP

here are the real lost boys (and girls)

Boys Cast Out by Polygamists Find Help
By ERIK ECKHOLM
ST. GEORGE, Utah — Woodrow Johnson was 15, and by the rules of the polygamous sect in which his family lived, he had a vice that could condemn them to hell: He liked to watch movies.
When his parents discovered his secret stash of DVDs, including the “Die Hard” series and comedies, they burned them and gave him an ultimatum. Stop watching movies, they said, or leave the family and church for good.
With television and the Internet also banned as wicked, along with short-sleeve shirts — a sign of immodesty — and staring at girls, let alone dating them, Woodrow made the wrenching decision to go. And so 10 months ago, with only a seventh-grade education and a suitcase of clothes, he was thrown into an unfamiliar world he had been taught to fear.
Over the last six years, hundreds of teenage boys have been expelled or felt compelled to leave the polygamous settlement that straddles Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah.
Disobedience is usually the reason given for expulsion, but former sect members and state legal officials say the exodus of males — the expulsion of girls is rarer — also remedies a huge imbalance in the marriage market. Members of the sect believe that to reach eternal salvation, men are supposed to have at least three wives.
State officials say efforts to help them with shelter...........