All Good Things in Moderation
by Krysti Janusz
Thomas Jefferson brilliantly predicted the necessity of separation of church and state at the onset of American independence. Ever since, it has been the habit of the United States government not to involve themselves in matters of faith and religion. The recent scandal involving Mormon polygamists and under-age marriage, however, has made this habit harder to keep. The issue of polygamy suggests that in some instances at least, there may be a conflict between the right to individual spiritual choice and the duty of government intervention.
Polygamy, the practice of a husband taking more than one wife, was outlawed in the U.S over a hundred years ago, but followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, otherwise known as the Mormon Church, have not entirely abandoned it. The majority of the Church, based largely in Utah, renounced the practice upon Utah's entry into the Union. There remained, however, a group of Mormons who refused to relinquish what they refer to as "the Principle" or "Celestial Marriage," or most commonly as "plural marriage," according to Michael D. Quinn in an article in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. This group of Mormons became an off-shoot of the church, and formed their own polygamist communities. They are now generally called Mormon Fundamentalists.
It is within this sect that a growing number of sexual and physical abuses have been occurring in secret underage marriages. In April 2008, more than 400 children were taken from one of the sect’s religious compounds in Eldorado, Texas, and placed into government care. The government accuses the men of the compound of taking wives as young as 13, and is also investigating the possibility that the children were abused. The scandal broke when a 16-year-old girl reported on her 50-year-old husband and accused him of abusing her both physically and sexually. This phone call led to the evacuation of the other children in the compound.
These fundamentalists are able to get away with polygamy because the husband will only obtain one legally-binding marriage certificate for his first wife. The remaining wives consummate the marriage only through the matrimonial ceremonies of the Mormon Fundamentalist Church. Otherwise, the state would be notified of anyone seeking additional marriage licenses and polygamy would be virtually non-existent.
Polygamy is a third-degree felony in the U.S, and it is often tied to other illegal activities within the marriages themselves. The former leader of the Mormon Fundamentalists, Warren Jeffs, was convicted last year of incest and rape charges along with the crime of performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin, for example. This is the same man who preached the moral value of polygamist practices and "ancient" ways to his more than 6,000 church members.
Polygamy itself in this type of environment doesn't seem to be nearly as troublesome as the all-too-common practices of incest, rape and abuse that often go with it. Why is it, then that known polygamist communities such as Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona are still allowed to function in the US without any government interference? The government doesn’t seem inspired to crack down on these communities unless it receives a direct call from one of the abused first. But why wait for the call for help? Why does it take reports of rape and incest to incite officials to act when there is a known history of abuse in polygamist communities?
