Polygamy: The New Testament Version!

Oh, those fundamentalist Mormons and all their wives. Those AWESOME colonial dresses that the women wore in The Village are so VOGUE in Mormon cults.

Ah, cults. So strange, so cut off. So wrapped up in religious dogma, with a healthy splash of superstition. Not to mention brainwashing.

Sounds yummy!

But hey, it's none of my business. And that's what's key in the recent story of the raid on a Mormon sect in Texas. We are knee deep in a very slippery slope.

The allegation that underage girls were being forced into sex and marriage is valid if there is evidence to support it. And if there is evidence, the State has a right to intercede and protect those who are being acted upon against their will. If the people of a state have set a legal age of consent and this law is broken, punishment can ensue.

BUT.

The bigger issue is the State's "moral" stance against polygamy. In 1878 the supreme court ruled it illegal on the grounds that polygamy was ""almost exclusively a feature of the life of Asiatic and African people," and that it was "contrary to the spirit of Christianity"" (Falk 11). I don't need to tell you all that the Christian bible oozes polygamy, but I will say that the State has no place regulating marriage. While creating laws that decide on an age of consent is acceptable, interfering with consenting adults making non-violent decisions that affect only themselves is NOT the domain of the State.

This is, indeed, the larger issue, not statutory rape. The State outlaws polygamy and seeks to quash it where it can. We also saw the same behavior over the non-issue of same sex marriage.

If women are being raped and beaten, the State plays an important role in protecting these individuals. But it serves no role in non-violent, consenting decisions made by adults.

The State's involvement in yet another social issue is, again, the result of a systemic issue within the framework of a "planned society" that we see our ever expanding government moving toward. It has no place, ever, in the private lives of consenting adults.

The term is Liberty. And the State seeks ever to dismantle it before our very eyes.

TL

Work Cited:

Falk, William, et al, eds. "Married to the Mob." The Week. 16 May 2008: 11.