Guidebook on polygamy from Utah and Arizona govt. office

[PolyPride]

I found an interesting guidebook that talks about polygamy although its main focus is on Fundamentalist Mormon polygamist. It was created by the Arizona and Utah Attorney General offices. It covers some basic information on the legal history of polygamy, different polygamous groups like the FLDS, the AUB (the group that the family on Sister Wives are members of), and other good information. It even acknowledges that there are "Protestant" Christians who practice polygamy as well so maybe these offices know about some people on here? hmmm. You can read about it on Fox13 Utah news station website here. Or you can read directly from the guidebook here. I'll quote some parts of it:


Source: The Primer
A Guidebook for Law Enforcement and Human Services Agencies who offer Assistance to Fundamentalist Mormon Families
Updated August 2009

On pg. 7

Polygamy is also practiced by small groups of devout Christians or “Protestants” in various parts of the U.S. However, this material attempts to address only those who embrace polygamy under the umbrella of early Mormon teachings.

On pg. 8

Polygamy became a political issue for the residents of Utah in 1856 when the Republican Party held its first national convention and set as its goal the eradication of the “twin relics of barbarism” -- polygamy and slavery. The party said that polygamy was barbaric because it undermined the concept of marriage.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1879 that the Constitution does not protect the practice of polygamy. In Reynolds v. United States, the Court ruled that beliefs may be protected but certain specific acts were not. Justice Waite wrote: “Laws are made for the government of actions, and, while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices.”

Congress passed the Edmunds Act in 1882, making “bigamous cohabitation” a misdemeanor, although only males were prosecuted. Under this new law, scores of polygamous Mormons who refused to abandon their wives and children were arrested in the Utah territory while others went into hiding. In 1887, the Edmunds-Tucker Act enabled the U.S. government to seize LDS Church property except for places of worship.

8 LDS President Wilford Woodruff presented church members with a document known as “The Manifesto” in 1890 and advised them to refrain from any marriage forbidden by the law of the land. At first, most polygamous unions were unaffected but, gradually, families were compelled to break up. A “second warning” (or manifesto) in 1904, and a “third warning” in 1931 were issued. The LDS Church eventually began excommunicating polygamists, causing a schism between itself and those now known as “fundamentalists”. In 1935, Utah enacted legislation to make the fundamentalists’ continuing practice of polygamy a felony under the bigamy statute.

Pg. 40-41

In the United States, the practice of polygamy is viewed as a crime. Plural marriages are usually contracted for religious reasons, however, every state has a law forbidding a man or a woman to be married to more than one person at the same time. Utah’s bigamy statute criminalizes cohabitation or the act of “purporting to marry” by those who already have a spouse (see Appendix C – Relevant Laws). Today, people who cohabit with multiple partners or who commit adultery are rarely, if ever, prosecuted. It is likewise rare for consenting adult polygamists to be charged with violations of bigamy statutes, unless other crimes such as incest or unlawful sex with minors are implicated.

Polygamists also try to avoid bigamy law violations by obtaining a state marriage license with only one wife.
One of the legal arguments in support of plural marriage is that it should be protected under the following clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment:

1. Freedom of Speech
2. Freedom of Religion
3. Freedom of Association

Many Fundamentalist Mormons believe that statutes targeting their lifestyle are unconstitutional and infringe upon their God-given liberties. They believe that God gave a commandment to enter into plural marriages and that, in certain cases, “God’s law” supersedes “man’s law”.

In recent years, three polygamy-related cases have been reviewed in state and federal appellate courts. The first involved Tom Green (who had several plural wives, some of whom joined his family as minors). The second involved Rodney Holm, a Hildale police officer who had three wives, one of whom was 16 years old. Both men lost their appeals, and the state of Utah ruled that, even though the second or third “marriages” were non-legal, the men had still violated the bigamy statute. The third case, Bronson v. Swensen, was an attempt by three Fundamentalist Mormons to obtain a legal marriage license to add a second wife to an existing legal marriage. The 10th Circuit Court reviewed the case and ruled against them.

The U.S. Supreme Court decriminalized homosexuality in its 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision. This ruling has not been shown to protect the conduct of polygamists.

On pg. 36

There are, likewise, many different approaches to courtship or marriage choices for men who are already married. Some defer to the direction of a church leader, some even accept the recommendations of existing wives, while other men may delay introducing the prospective wife to her future sister-wives until a romantic bond has already been forged. Some families believe that plural marriages can be more successful when the husband involves existing wives in the selection process and takes care to cultivate a loving relationship between the incoming wife and her future sister-wives.

On pg. 38

Since women outnumber the man in plural families, in some cases they may overrule him. Many women value the freedom and personal empowerment afforded by this family arrangement. They often obtain outside employment and enjoy contributing to the family’s economy and participating in family management. Few polygamous families fit the media-fueled stereotypes.

 

[Dr. K.R. Allen]

Yes. And another good reason why we saints should not use the state created system of "marriage."

Private cohabitation unions is what took place in the Bible and in the Roman era when the NT was written. There was no such thing as "marriage" in the Bible. It was a private agreement between people to join together and never through some legal and publicly regulated system. The term marriage and its related laws were created around the 600 to 1100 era as the new English language developed and in the 1300's English became the law of the European Courts and then those ideas and laws from the Roman Catholic dominated legal system were basically transplanted over to here in the early forming days of America. There are two systems: public legally created and regulated marriages and private relations between mature consenting adults which is also legal now under Lawrence V. Texas Supreme Court case and other related cases. The private or personal route where no legal license, no state terms, and no state official is used is the way of the Bible and the best way for people to show respect to the existing govt while still being biblical. In the Bible too if you read the original language there is really no term of husband and wife either. There are only the two word system of "my man and my woman" It is heautou gyne and heautou aner which is the genitive forms in a two word system. The terms husband and wife were also state created English terms developed on the Old English era.

 

[MarvelousMarvin]

Few polygamous families fit the media-fueled stereotypes.

At last! Someone in a position of some authority recognized the truth.

It looks like things might be starting to change for those of us who believe what the Bible teaches, just as (unfortunately) it has changed for the abominable lifestyle, homosexuality. Probably, the reason that plural marriage has met with such resistance from the world is because it is a lifestyle approved of in God's Word. Homosexuality is, of course, still an abomination to God and so a sinful world will accept it more readily.

Our biggest battle as believers in Biblical Family Values (as opposed to traditional family values) is not with the world, but with the Church, thanks to the syncretism of the RCC about 1,000 years ago.

Maybe one reason that the world is starting to change in their acceptance of polygyny is because the Church teaches that it is a sin.