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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Don't Blame Polygamy

With the antipolygamy law on trial in Canada, we get this opinion piece in a major newspaper that expresses disapproval of the freedom to marry.

In her affidavit, the woman scheduled to testify for Stop Polygamy in Canada describes growing up with one father, four mothers and 31 siblings in a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) community outside Salt Lake City.

She married another FLDS member when she was 18 but fled the commune with her five children a decade later. “Wives are expected to deliver one baby every year and are not permitted to use any form of birth control,” she writes. Girls rarely attend school past Grade 5 and incest and child molestation are common, she adds.

What does that have to do with polygamy? A high expectation of fertility as well as child molestation or rape happens in monogamous homes, too.

Sadly, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) also wants our polygamy law struck down.

Why is that sad? Why it sad for someone to have the freedom to marry the persons he or she loves? Why make a person pick one person over one or more others when all involved want a commitment with their existing relationships?

Criminalizing such practices doesn’t serve the best interests of women and children. And making it legal does?

Yes, actually, it does. It gives women the freedom to have one husband who also has other wives to keep him occupied, and gives women the freedom to have more than one husband, or more than one wife, or a wife and a husband (or two, or more).

The brainwashing, abuse and exploitation of females in FLDS communities is rampant.

Prosecute abuse and false imprisonment. Don’t prosecute love. This is like comparing racketeering to capitalism. Earning money is not a crime. But racketeering is. Identify the real problem. Having more than one spouse should be legal. Keeping women and children as hostage rape toys is not. If the latter is going on, stop that.

I am curious what the divorce rates and cheating rates are in polygamous homes, in comparison to supposedly monogamous homes.
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