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Originally Posted by Marvelous Marv
I've had highly educated people swear to me that most Mormons have multiple wives.
While I have not read the book you mention, I would speculate that a better wording would be "It is quite normal AMONG THESE GROUPS for girls as young as 13-14 years old to be married to much older men. Even for stepfathers to marry their own stepchildren."
I would further suggest that such arrangements are rare. What does the author give you in terms of numbers?
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Yes, that wording would be more fitting. Thank you.
Within the American populace at large, yes it is rare, but within these groups while perhaps not the norm, it is not rarely known. But how much tolerance of the marriage of adolescent girls, right here in the States,
is acceptable and not shocking?
I am quoting some from the book here:
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer, published by Doubleday, 2003.
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Originally Posted by From the book
Colorado City [Arizona], home to some nine thousnd souls....All but a handful of the town's residents are Mormon Fundamentalists. They live in this patch of desert in the hope of being left alone to follow the sacred principle of plural marriage without interference from government authorities or the LDS Church.
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About the town's resident leader and prophet, Rulon T. Jeffs, aka Uncle Rulon....
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Originally Posted by From the book
Uncle Rulon's word carries the weight of law. The mayor and every other city employee answers to him, as do the entire police force and the superintendent of public schools....
Uncle Rulon has married an estimated seventy-five women with who he has fathered at least sixty-five children; several of his wives were given to him in marriage when they were fourteen or fifteen and he was in his eighties.
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There are no statistics in the book, as it is doubtful that such statistics have ever been assembled. But he interviews many women in the book who were married at the ages of 13-16 and whose daughters have been married off at similar ages, sometimes even to their own husbands. From the personal accounts of Fundamentalist Mormons in the book who live within these groups, it is obvious that these marriages are viewed as acceptable, even if not subscribed to by every family. For me, reading the book, I was shocked by the fact that, in this day and age, there was a Mormon Fundamentalist
city in Arizona......let alone one in which adolescent girls were absorbed into polygamist marriages. I held no real objection to polygamy before I read this book, and I still do not among consenting adults, but not this.
Here's another little tidbit that struck me....this one more amusing....
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Originally Posted by From the book
Despite the fact that Uncle Rulon and his followers regard the governments of Arizona, Utah, and the United States as Satanic forces out to destroy the UEP [United Effort Plan, aka Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints], their polygamous community receives more than $6 million a year in public funds.
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I could find more excerpts regarding the marriages of underage girls, if necessary. The book has many references, compiled both by interview and by observations of the author.