Child Brides - Part III
 
Submitted by Kiota
Progressive U blog - San Mateo, CA
 
The few attempts to stamp out fundamentalist polygamy have failed. For example, the raid on Short Creek - a polygamous town, now known as Colorado City.

On July 26th, 1953, 122 polygamous men and women were arrested, and their 263 children placed in foster care. However, by 1956, all of the arrested were free and reunited with their family. The public did not take well to the raid. Photographs of crying children being wrested from their mothers generated public sympathy.

But why were the polygamous women arrested? From the time they were born, they were taught that it is their sole duty to serve their often abusive husbands. If the wives had been allowed to keep their children - but the men who'd committed statutory rape, or abused their wives, had been arrested, the raid might've been a success.

Aside from that long-ago failed raid, little has been done. As noted above, abuse and rape is mostly ignored. Polygamous fundamentalist Mormon communities continue to recieve vast amounts of money from the government. Colorado City, for example, the residents receive eight dollars in government services for every tax dollar paid. By comparison, residents of the rest of the Mohave County receive just over a dollar for every dollar paid in taxes.

How long is the public, and in particular the law, going to ignore this? There are more than thirty thousand fundamentalist polygamists living in Canada, Mexico, and the American West. There may be as many as a hundred thousand. Every year, thousands of young girls in their early teens, brainwashed since birth, are forced into marriage to much older men, often suffering sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. Will it ever cease? Religion is no excuse for committing child abuse.

*source - Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer.

I mean no offense to any Mormons. This article is about Mormon fundamentalists, who've been renounced by the Mormon community.

I have nothing against polygamy - when it is done by fully consenting adults and there is no abuse of ANY kind involved.

More information about Mormon fundamentalists and their polygamous marriages with children can be found at childpro.org, helpthechildbrides.com, and theHOPEorg.org, three websites dedicated to helping the child brides of polygamous marriages find freedom.
 
ProgressiveU.org
Originally published March 1, 2007
 
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