This month’s issue of Details (a magazine not known for its hard hitting investigative journalism) features an article on “The Lost Boys” (no link available but it’s on page 177 and can be read in line at the grocery store). Approximately 400 boys 18 and under have been expelled from Colorado City (along with Hildale a twin city Fundie-Mormon polygamist settlement on the AZ/UT border) in the past few years by Prophet Warren Jeffs, the sect’s leader, for such damnation worthy offenses as watching Charlie’s Angels while on a church trip to Salt Lake City, talking to a girl outside of their family, attending public school or watching anything other than a nature show on TV. The boys grew up so secluded and in such a backward area and with such little education (this is a city with a baby cemetery and all marriages are arranged) that they could not name the U.S. president, had no idea how to use vending machines and addressed black people as n*ggers to their face having absolutely no idea they were being offensive; needless to say they often went completely wild when they were evicted, often ending up working as hustlers and or hopelessly addicted to drugs. They believe their excommunications had much to do with the fact that there weren’t enough young girls to supply the Elders neverending need for new wives (marriages twixt teenaged girls and middle aged men are not uncommon).
There are several lawsuits currently levied against Jeffs (who is almost impossible to serve with papers) charging everything from illegal seizure of property to repeated sexual abuse of both male and female minors. There has not been an actual raid on Colorado City since 1953 (when it was called
Short Creek; residents are still known as Crickers- last year’s bestseller Under the Banner of Heaven was set largely there) and though bloodless that one was considered largely a disaster as most of the people seemed happy enough and went back to their polygamous environs as soon as they were released from prison. Times have changed since then with multimedia and while exactly how armed the compound is is not known it is definitely known that they are far stricter and more culturally isolated than ever before. There is much evidence that girls are being forced into marriage, and even adult women who enter polygamous unions do so with almost no knowledge of any other lifestyle or the world outside of northern Arizona.
In 2002 Tom Green, husband of five and father of more than 30 children, became the first person imprisoned for polygamy in many years (due in large part to having married a 13 year old when he was 40ish). Many libertarians were dismayed as Green’s wives were very upset by his arrest- none felt they had been “liberated” and all wanted him home, and the seeming happiness of many of these families (along with law enforcement already spread too thin for violent and drug related crimes) have prevented more agressive prosecution. However, the evidence of girls being forced into teenage unions, the seeming Stockholm Syndrome of many older women in the sect, the unbelievable power wielded by the “Prophets” over their flocks, the substandard education of the children in Colorado City and other homeschooling cult enclaves, incest, the financial mismanagement and blackmail of members of the cult, the turning out of adolescent boys for incredibly minor offenses into a world where they have nothing to barter other than their bodies (as many as 17 teenaged exiles lived at one time in a 2 BR duplex in the nearest city) and the possible sexual abuse of minors all seem to warrant going after this particular cult and similar offenses seem to occur in other polygamous unions (such as the incredibly wealthy and inbred Kingston clan).
Since the phenomena of modern day Fundamentalist Mormon polygamous sects is spread across several states, do you believe that the Federal government should dedicate millions in resources to crack down on polygamous communities, or do you fear they would do more harm than good (ala Ruby Ridge and Waco)? Do you believe polygamists who do not marry women under legal marrying age should be prosecuted? What about the women? Should the children of polygamous families be removed (assume that the families are stable and loving other than the polygamous aspect but that they have no intention of becoming monogamous)? Should they be able to take in foster children if there is no history of abuse? Should homeschooling be allowed among these communities if they are going to teach that men never walked on the moon and children cannot identify George Bush?
Eager to read responses.
