Ratting out ignored polygamy
 
By Daniel Cullen
The Daily Barometer - Oregon State University
 
Turn on the TV to CNN or whatever news channel it is that you find to be least sensationalist these days, as I did recently, and it won’t be long before you come across a top-10 pin-up multi-millionaire stud called Warren Steed Jeffs. But don’t take my word for it; ask one of his reputed 70, or more, wives who are currently camping out in Colorado City, and possibly Arizona, Hildale and Utah.

Jeffs is the self-proclaimed prophet, aka "speaker of God’s will," of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and for the last year this man has been on the run after a string of federal allegations were made against him, primarily for polygamy, evasion of the law and statutory rape. Consequently, these accolades have earned Jeffs’ place of pride on America’s Ten Most Wanted. Hard to believe really that this story is not coming out of the latest Hollywood blockbuster, but the real lives of people whom American authorities have let slip through the net.

I confess, somewhere between paying reasonable attention to my psychology textbook and cramming another onion ring in my mouth, I had to take time away from what I was doing to throw my hands up in bemusement when I saw his ugly mug come up on the CNN broadcast. "My God!" I said to myself, "does this tirade never stop?" or will the U.S. government not be satisfied until absolutely all of its problems have been allowed to go under the radar, exacerbating that which would be so much more effectively dealt with in its early stages before it eventually does bite this fair country in the ass, tenfold?

Currently, federal law prohibits polygamy, since federal law does not legally recognize the practice as a legitimate marriage of one man and one woman, however, there are estimated to be in excess of 60,000 polygamists in Utah alone, which amounts to approximately 5 percent of Utah Mormons. What’s more, the last significant anti-polygamy prosecution occurred as far back as 1953 when the Arizona National Guard raided a polygamist colony called Shot Creek on the Utah/Arizona border, and there have been no such crack-downs since, despite the fact that authorities now have detailed intelligence that polygamy is still being practiced on a large scale by many communities in the U.S., such as Jeffs’ FLDS.

In keeping with the behavior of many Mormon followers who, while renouncing polygamy openly (as of the late 19th century), appease polygamy’s seedy presence in the outskirts of what we consider normal society, the law has been reluctant to intervene in polygamists’ defiance of the law, just so long as the perpetrators of the crime are discreet about it. The problem is, for almost as long as the practice has taken place in the U.S., the prospect of attacking religious Mormon principles openly, in a state that values freedom of religion, is a hornets’ nest that the U.S. government would rather leave well alone, preferring instead to blow smoke up its own behind before addressing a thorny issue that nevertheless needs to be addressed.

Just to give you a picture of what appeasement of these polygamous communities has resulted in, and more importantly, how powerful male patriarchs have managed to abuse their power further still within these communities, it is helpful to stress that Jeffs inherited his position of religious leader as the son of FLDS prophet Rulon Jeffs, who is rumored to have had no less than several dozen wives. Subsequent to his father’s death, Jeffs endowed himself with the power to assign and reassign wives to husbands (Jeffs is the only patriarch in the community with the power to do so) as a matter of preference or punishment. And the slippery slope has been allowed to carry on for so long now, that he even has the power to reassign these people’s homes, and their children. Only a week elapsed after his father’s death before Jeffs had married all but two of his father’s widows! And as if that were not enough, reports are now coming out of the woodwork that Jeffs regularly sodomized preadolescent boys, before excommunicating them for such ridiculous acts as going to watch movies if they ever blabbed.

I had to put my onion rings well and truly away when I heard that bit. Somehow they just didn’t have quite the same appeal that they used to. In my shocked and somewhat sickened state, I felt deeply sorry for these brainwashed men, women and children who have been so completely and utterly let down by the system.

Well now the FBI has brought this issue into the public forum, offering a reward for the arrest of Jeffs to the tune of $100,000 of your tax dollars. That’s right! Federal and local law enforcement have allowed this problem to escalate to such an extent that it has made it possible for leaders like Jeffs to establish complex bases of support, which means that authorities now require your hard earned cash to rat Jeffs out. Doesn’t that make you sick? Assuming that you’re not the one that finds him, that is.

Once again, incompetence, not of the laws themselves, but of the enforcement of those preexisting laws, is giving Washington a headache that it could really do without. Yet I wonder, will such a state of affairs continue to be allowed to happen even after they have got their man, or like the recent immigration fiasco involving, oh I don’t know, the infiltration of 10 million or more Mexicans into the American system, will the U.S. government be looking for a quick fix to throw the public dogs off the scent, without ever having to get their hands dirty by actually doing its job.

Who knows? Perhaps after Jeffs is caught there might be new laws passed, in say 10 years, to enforce the laws that are already in existence, outlawing polygamy. I am skeptical however, as to whether or not this would make the blindest bit of difference when a government cannot even enforce the laws that are already there. It’s shameful I say, but again don’t take my word for it; take the word of those unlucky children of Jeffs’ 70, or whatever it is, wives — whom the press is now calling ‘the lost boys’ — they were the ones that got buggered for it.

Daniel Cullen is a non-degree student in liberal studies. The opinions expressed in his columns, which appear every Wednesday, do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Barometer staff. Cullen can be reached at forum@dailybarometer.com
 
barometer.orst.edu
Originally published May 17, 2006
 
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