Jon Krakauer wrote an excellent expose about the FLDS church in 2003,
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. (It's irrelevant, but one of my first posts here at TFP was on this same subject.
)
The book has firsthand accounts of life inside these compounds and speaks extensively about Warren Jeffs and his father and predecessor, Rulon, who died at the age of 92, the proud husband of 75 wives and 65 childrens. Why here he is now with two of his, right, you guessed it -
wives:
I've taken this picture out because I'm an idiot and I'm not sure at all that those girls were 18. doh.
The book will leave very little doubt as to whether we should be intervening in these groups. Polygamy isn't even the issue. It is the coercion of young girls into these marriages where they are given no choice over their own lives. The physical, sexual and emotional abuse of girls runs rampant through these communities as you might imagine in a society where total patriarchal control of their lives is the standard. They grow up knowing they will have no choices. And the church encourages families (even through intimidation and threats) to completely estrange
anyone who leaves the church. It's really an interesting book and highlights a lot of facets of this cult that you might not ordinarily think about.
So again, consensual polygamy is, to me, totally irrelevant to this issue.
The book also goes extensively into how their societies and governance works and it will leave you wondering how the hell this is allowed to go on in this country. And for all you conservatives here, you will especially love the part of the book that discusses the huge burden these families put on the welfare system while they actively dissent and demonize the US government. It's a million laughs.