(no subject)

[pearwaldorf]

16-year-old Ruth Stubbs was "sealed" to her 32-year-old brother-in-law by the Prophet in a "spiritual" ceremony. No marriage certificate was issued. Ruth had no right to community property. Even death was not to part them. Ruth was to be Rodney's possession for eternity.

I seem to need to share my misery. As if posting an article on how much life sucks in America if you're poor and unskilled, here's an article on child brides in abusive polygamous 'relationships' in a renegade branch of the Mormon church. Ganked from Making Light, which has a plethora of other information on the subject.

The Prophet decides which men get which wives, and how many. The addition of each wife to a man's family is called a "blessing."

The more blessings a man has, the greater his prestige and power in the community. A minimum of three wives is required to enter the highest levels of the complex heaven called the Celestial Kingdom.

Women, according to the religion, can't reach the Celestial Kingdom unless their husband first achieves the lofty height and then agrees to bring his concubines into paradise. The chase for plural wives dominates earthly pursuits.

To quote Buffy, "Note to self: religion creepy."

Comments

[starstealingirl.livejournal.com]

Although I agree that this form of coercive polygamy where women, even young girls, are forced to marry strangers twice their age against their will, is deplorable and wrong, I find the website from which said article came disturbing in its own right. It makes some alarmingly broad overgeneralizations about polygamy: that it is inherently and always non-consensual and abusive toward young girls; that on the basis of some disgusting practices by a few fundamentalist yokels in the American southwest, the concept of polygamy can be judged to be intrinsically wrong.

Personally, I think that polygamy, practiced by informed and consenting adults-- something this website claims can never happen-- is perfectly permissible, and that there is no excuse for its being illegal in the United States, save for social convention and prejudice. To ignore the fact of consensual polyamory in the United States and the fact that some people in polyamorous relationships may simply want the same legal rights to their partners that monogamous couples enjoy, is to unfairly stereotype those relationships, and to allege that some forms of marriage should never be recognized because "common sense" says they are wrong.

[sonatine.livejournal.com]

My bad. I didn't look through the rest of the site--I just used it because it had links to all of the New Times articles. Figures it would be one of those polygamy baaaad sites. And considering most normals' information about polygamy as a practice usually comes from hearing about things like Short Creek/Colorado City (which is in Arizona--wtf?), I can see where that impression would come from. Doesn't make it right though.

There is some commentry in the Making Light post I stole the article from in regards to the distinction between y'know, pedophilia, child slavery, and actual consensual relationships between adults.

[starstealingirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I read the Making Light site after that. What is it? Somebody's blog?

[sonatine.livejournal.com]

Yes it is. It's the blog of a woman who works as an editor at Tor Books (we shall forgive them for having colleagues that allowed the last four Wheel of Time books to be published). I like it a lot, as it is one of the only places I've ever found more-or-less civilized intellectual discussion.

Also. Robert Jordan's new novella, New Spring is an expansion of a short story he wrote a while back for some fantasy collection. It's the story of how Moiraine and Lan met, I hear. God help me, I'm going to go to the library and find it. But goddamn it, I miss Moiraine.

[starstealingirl.livejournal.com]

Ah, Moiraine... *drool*

I may just have to find that book for myself. (^_^)

[sonatine.livejournal.com]

Also, after a quick look at some of the articles on the site, it seems to be one of those "all Mormons bad and evil and cultish" things that pop up every so often. They never really take much of a notice of polygamy cases outside of the United States (of course, I'm not sure those usually make the media), or acknowledge that y'know, it does happen outside of Utah and Arizona as well. Good intentions, flawed implementation.

I have no problem with the practice of consensual polygamy, but I would not want to be the poor bastard who has to draw up all the legal paperwork.

[starstealingirl.livejournal.com]

*laugh* I hear that. Dealing with the legal logistics of, say, an eight-person group marriage doesn't sound like a fun way to pass a morning at the office.

[cosinesky.livejournal.com]

It does happen outside, indeed. One of the 'prophets' in the polygamy-centric cities recently excommunicated several of his fellow polygamists, and reportedly some of them are taking their families up to another polygamist community... in Canada. (Alberta, I assume, that being the most Mormon province I know of.) I think it's just the fact that polygamy, being technically illegal, was driven underground, and once that happens any previous moral bounds are likely to dissolve or shift into... distortions, I guess. Thus the incest and the child brides, and so forth.