Why turn a blind eye to polygamy??? April 18, 2008

If you have been keeping up with the news, there is alot of  coverage on the polygamist ranch in Texas over 500 women and children were taken off the ranch because of a 16 year old girl who called the police saying how she had been abused and how girls as young as 14 and 15 were being forced into marriage.This caused alarm across the country because once again we are hearing abuse within the polygamist community. Almost everyone has heard about Warren Jeffs. A polygamist leader who was charged with two counts with rape as an accomplice. In February of this year he has issued a guilty plea in Arizona, due to the accusations of arranged marriages with young girls and older men.

In my opinion why does the united states allow this to happen. Now i am not saying all Polygamist are prone to rape and forced marriages but a large amount of cases prove otherwise. Polygamy would be found under religion so based on that, the government can only go but so far to intervene. Only in cases where people are getting hurt such as the Jeff Warrens case or the new ranch in Texas can the law intervene. I feel through that in a religion that break rules such as multiple marriages,underage marriages and rape, why do we allow it? Yes i understand freedom of religion, but in a religion that can be compared to a cult…why allow it? There are stories of people who have broken free of there polygamist ways and are shunned by family and friends because they no longer want to live that way of life. There are stories of incest and rape, and forced marriages. There is a story of a girl was 16 and forced to marry a 65 year old man! This is ridiculous. People wonder why they are told to hide their faces when people who are non polygamist see them. That is because they are hiding their shame, there hopelessness. Though certain polygamy compounds are old fashioned, meaning they wear the home made clothing, with the bonnets almost very similar to the Amish. On Oprah i saw a modern day polygamist  family who wore the same clothes any average American would wear. They lived in a gated community ( of course) and their children wore no bonnets and they went to school with other non polygamy children. Now i am not giving them a gold star because they live a more modern way of life but they are less old fashioned.

My last thoughts on this is that i think polygamist should not be allowed. Polygamy in every other meaning then religion is illegal so why allow it? Especially when you take into account the children who have been  abused or shunned. The people who have no way out for fear of being shunned. For people who don’t even know what else life has to offer other then living a simple polygamist life. I feel this shouldn’t be legal. So i guess just like the KKK is legal because of freedom of speech, is guess polygamy will continue to be legal because of freedom of religion….what a country we live in.