The United States Views on the Polygamy

In society, polygamy is seen as barbaric and goes against the norms of most cultures and traditions. Nonetheless, sexual exploitation and the mistreatment of women and children continue to transpire without support from the outside world (Gibson, 2012). Many polygamist groups within the United States are not always held to the same standard as people in modern society. Women and children have the right to a better life, one where they have control over their own political, social, and domestic lives (Gibson, 2012). This paper is an analysis of polygamy and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day and the inequalities woman and children face within a polygamist cult in the United States.

A fundamentalist group that has been in and out of the press for years is the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day, or FLDS. The FLDS has continued to live in secret, removing themselves from the outside world. The cult, located in Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, and many other states, has been under scrutiny for over a decade. The Federal Bureau has uncovered evidence that sexual abuse and molestation is a problem within the FLDS (Gibson, 2012). Woman and children have fallen victims to multiple forms of abuse including emotional and physical. Unfortunately, women of FLDS do not always understand when they are being mistreated.

Women and children within fundamentalist groups face extreme inequalities including sexual exploitation and suffrage (Gibson, 2010). Much of the responsibility can be placed on infamous cult leaders like Warren Jeffs. Jeffs is the preceding president of the FLDS and has been convicted of sexual assault, landing himself in prison (Gibson, 2010). Jeffs has placed many women and children into situations that would be seen as repulsive to the rest of society. With this being said, women and children are inferior to men within the compound of the FLDS.

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It is easy to forget women and children within the FLDS are required to follow rules of what a leader says. This applies to education, choice of clothing, hairstyles, and even marriage. Marriage within the cult has gotten plenty of criticism from the outside world. Men are encouraged to marry multiple women, while those same women are only permissible to one man: their husband. Ethically, women have unequal control of their families and their spouse will have a constant imbalance with martial commitments (Strauss, 2012).

Besides the abuse that occurs within the compound, human trafficking is another ultimate indication of corruption within the cult. Human trafficking consists of an act, a means, and a purpose (Quek, 2016). The FDLS has in fact taken young girls around 13 and 14 years old and forced them to marry men much older than they are. These girls are taken to different parts Utah and Arizona, as well as Canada. If persons committing the crime fall under the criteria broken down in the international law, they would be in violation of the law. Unlike most countries, the United States has the ability to force change in communities such as the FDLS (Quek, 2016).

Plural or celestial marriage has triggered the most debate relating to Mormonism throughout history. In 1820, in Palmyra New York, a 14-year-old boy named Joseph Smith created Mormonism. Smith had gone outside to pray to God to find out what church he should join (Conder, 2012). Smith claimed he saw God and Jesus Christ that day and they told him to join no church. As a result, Joseph Smith created the church of Mormonism on April 6th, 1830. This angered many people because Joseph Smith received many followers (Conder, 2012). With growing tensions, the Missouri government issued something called the Extermination Order.

This basically regarded Mormons as the enemy, causing killings of Mormons throughout the state in 1838. In 1844, Smith was shot and killed by a mob in Illinois (Conder, 2012). This opened up the opportunity for Brigham Young to be the succeeding prophet and followed him to Utah in 1847. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was created and follows the Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible (Conder, 2012).

In the 1920's, Smith had been experiencing revelations and saw visions of the future in which polygamy was in fact a central focus for Mormonism (Singular, 2008). In 1852, Polygamy was classified as an official belief of the church but as time progressed Congress had passed the Morill Act declaring Polygamy a crime within the United States of America. By 1882, not only was polygamy illegal it was now considered a felony; this was called the Edmunds Act (Singular, 2008).

Eventually, polygamy had been excommunicated from the church and a small group of Polygamists broke off from the church creating the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day, or FLDS (Singular, 2008). Problems continued to intensify as the federal government became more involved. Throughout the early 2000's, Utah and Arizona began to crack down on FLDS and what it was allowing within the compound, child marriages and sexual abuse. In 2002, infamous FLDS leader Warren Jeffs took over the compound following his father's death (Singular, 2008).

Warren Jeffs had grown up with a polygamy lifestyle. For Jeffs, being apart of polygamy goes back many generations. Rulon, Jeff's father had 50 wives and many children. Jeffs was Rulon's 14th child and was born premature (Singular, 2008). His survival granted him the name golden child. In 1986, Rulon became the new prophet and permitted himself as the only council member and a single leader of the FLDS. When Warren Jeffs grew older he became a principal for a FLDS school called Alta Academy and was known for being strict and a perfectionist when it came to rules (Singular, 2008).

Jeffs had abused the boys with belts or yardsticks if their shirttails were out and would suspend girls for short skirts. Jeffs made children flex their buttocks' in front of the other children for his own amusement and would grab little girl's necks and whisper different things to them, mostly about getting punished (Singular, 2008). As principal, Jeffs made the decisions on when the children were allowed to eat and what they could wear. No one was permitted to wear the color red or stripes and often times the children were not allowed to eat lunch. He used the children to gain knowledge about each one of their families in order to use it against them (Singular, 2008). Warren Jeffs once said, "Perfect obedience produces perfect faith, it produces perfect people" (Singular, 2008, p.283). It was not long until Rulon's health began to decline and Warren Jeffs was given the position as the new FLDS leader.

In 2002, Jeffs took the reins of his father and married some of his wives. Following these marriages, he moved the FLDS to West Texas (Biography, 2016). The Yearning for Zion, or YFZ ranch was developed and that is when Jeffs ruling over the polygamist people intensified. Jeffs announced 21 men were no longer welcome within the YFZ and had to leave immediately, explaining that they were disobedient (Biography, 2016). It did not take long for the excommunicated men to act against him and filed a civil law suit. Jeff's brother, Brent Jeffs, also filed a lawsuit against him claiming sexual assault from his uncle.

In 2006, the Arizona government was ready to prosecute Jeffs for “rape as an accomplice for arranging the marriage between a fourteen-year old girl and her nineteen-year-old cousin" (Vine, 2011, p.115). Warren Jeffs finally went into hiding from the continuous allegations and law suits being established around him. While in hiding, Jeffs married his final wife a 12 year old in Eldorado (Vine, 2011). During a traffic stop in Las Vegas, Jeffs was finally arrested after being on FBI's Ten Most Wanted List for 114 days.

Oddly enough, Jeffs was arrested in a red 2007 Cadillac Escalade, the same color in which Jeffs prohibited anyone from wearing. Jeffs had computers, cell phones, $55,000 dollars in cash, and a variety of sunglasses (Vine, 2011). After being arrested and placed in jail, Jeffs attempted suicide but did not succeed and would soon face a not so happy ending. One year later, Utah condemned Jeffs guilty of two first-degree felony counts or rape (Vine, 2011). He made an attempt to become a martyr by starving himself after his convictions but was once again not successful.

In March of 2008, a young girl called 911 expressing she had been being abused. A judge had decided to sign a warrant to allow the federal government to raid the compound of the YFZ ranch in West Texas (Vine, 2011). Jeffs remained in jail while the Department of Family and Protective Services interviewed women and children of all ages. During the interviews, the repetitive comments about child marriages became too much for authorities to ignore. Over 400 children were taken into custody (Vine, 2011).

Eventually, authorities found out the young girl that had called 911 was a thirty three year old Colorado woman making allegations and all children were returned to the compound. Yet, prosecutors developed enough evidence to indict 12 men for polygamy, sexual assault, and sexual abuse (Vine, 2011). After all his convictions, Jeffs was prosecuted for "78 illegal marriages (24 of which involved children under the age of 17), the 67 marriages he'd arranged between other men and underage girls, 500 bigamous marriages he'd facilitated, 6 instances of "illegal sexual conduct," the expulsion of numerous young men, the dismantling of roughly 300 families, and time spent as a fugitive" (Vine, 2011, p.120).

With Jeffs being in prison, much of the media coverage that once helped exploit the FLDS no longer makes an attempt to see what really goes on anymore. What many people do not know is Jeffs continues to make decisions for the FLDS behind the walls of a prison. Many people who are loyal to him come to see him, seeking for answers from him. With this being said, polygamy and the FLDS is in fact still a part of society in Utah and Arizona. Women and children continue to be exploited despite the fact that Warren Jeffs is imprisoned. Much of what viewers saw before has not been discontinued from the compound.

Much skepticism has evolved with whether feminist ideals and principles exist within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints even though Mormons follow patriarchy. Mormon women held great power within the church very early on but began fighting a losing battle to keep the power in which they held. For 100 years, many women held authoritative powers for the LDS church (Hanks, 1994). Women mismatched with men for power and began to lose power in the 1970s. The views that women held were not taken seriously and the shift in authority turned. Mormon feminists have fought to regain authority since 1991 and believe women should be allowed to become priests (Hanks, 1994).

Mormon men refuse to allow women to gain more power because it would also mean Mormon ancestors would be considered to have sinned against women and simply do not want to take responsibility for their ancestor's actions (Hanks, 1994). Women who chose to speak out with their feminist ideas are threatened with excommunication. Women once held high powers but now are powerless and live in a male dominated society where they control the government, education, and businesses (Hanks, 1994).

In society, people equate marriage between a man and women, also known as monogamy but within many cultures around the world monogamy is not the only form of marriage. Polygamy, or the marriage between one man and many women is often seen in places in Africa and East Asia (One Partner Or Many). Polyandry is the opposite or polygamy in which one woman has many husbands and is far less common. Population growth, religious ideologies, and social status are all reasons why many people have leaned towards polygamy lifestyle. Polygamy has decreased in urbanized locations due to the development of technology and media because of the negative backlash of society. Although, only about 10% of men in polygamous cultures have more than one wife (One Partner Or Many).

In the United States, Polygamy is not seen as normal and it deemed as illegal and socially distasteful. Bigamy is the term used to describe someone who enters in a marriage, while being married to someone else. In most states, bigamy is considered a felony. Many people in America still believe Mormons are associated with polygamy and often look down upon the religion, despite the fact that polygamy was excommunicated from Mormonism in 1890 (One Partner Or Many).

It is known that polygamy has indeed been around for hundreds of years. The Old Testament accepts Polygamy for what it is. David had eight wives, while Solomon had 700 wives (Alderman, 2007). Yet, the mistreatment of women and children in modern day society is still a problem. Polygamy often forces women into unwanted marriages and results into abusive neglectful relationships (White, 2009). Fundamentalist groups continue to allow abuse in all different ways including physical and emotional. Abuse occurs across whole families, not just between husband and wife but as well between sister wives. As a result of polygamy, sister wives have been found to be abusive towards their husband's wive's children causing controversy in a variety of degrees. Children have been choked and locked up by other sister wives (White, 2009).

Women in the FLDS society have a few main roles. Unfortunately, it is not exactly ideal for most women in the United States. A women's whole purpose for living is to have numerous children and the polygamist women believe it is for the lord (Gibson, 2010). They also believe they are to serve the prophet and being in a plural marriage allows a man to raise more children for the Lord. Women within FLDS believe they must obey their husbands, please their husbands, and never tell their husbands what to do (Gibson, 2010). Women are also not permitted to socialize, have girlfriends, and are required to do all the housework.

Within the FLDS, many families live on food stamps and are economically unstable. "Bleeding the beast," is the word the FLDS uses to describe their way of abusing and exploiting governmental assistance programs, which it considers a righteous endeavor to assist God in destroying the evil U.S. government (White, 2009). The women are the ones who place in the requests for food stamps because they have no income and have many children to feed. Hilldale and Colorado City, where the FLDS resides, receive a lot of federal poverty aid and is one of the top ten cities for aid in the western states (White, 2009).

Already, the FLDS lack proper health care but many people tend to forget that mental health is a growing problem already in society. Studies have shown that, "higher prevalence of somatization, depression, anxiety, hostility, psychoticism and psychiatric disorder in polygynous wives as well as reduced life and marital satisfaction, problematic family functioning and low self-esteem" (Shepard 2012). Mental illness goes unnoticed for these women because living in the FLDS and having a polygamy lifestyle has become too much for many of them to deal with. Marriage within the FLDS

In the FLDS, young women await their destiny to find out whom they will be married off to. The FLDS church makes the decisions about marriage. Those who donate the most money get the young and beautiful women, while those who donate less get the older, more overweight women. The FLDS incorporates the Lord with every decision that they make and base everything off the idea that every decision made will impact their ability to go to heaven. The FLDS tell women of the sect that they must marry the man they chose in order to go to heaven. Brainwashing is a common factor in polygamy lifestyles, in which women only know one type of life.

The most discussed topic of polygamy culture is underage marriages. At just thirteen years old, little girls are being forced into marriage without the ability to make decisions for themselves. No informed consent is used and with their age being so young it places these young girls in harms way (White, 2009). Sexual abuse becomes a prominent problem with underage marriage for obvious reasons. Brothers and fathers of these young girls continue to condone underage marriages to older men in the FLDS, creating brainwashing and the mistreatment of children and women (White, 2009). With all of this being said, incest becomes a huge problem because women and men of the FLDS begin to share gene pools causing high-risk pregnancies and birth defects. Young boys are also placed in harms way when forced to leave the FLDS to allow for older men to bare more wives (White, 2009).

In conclusion, an analysis of polygamy in Fundamentalist groups and the inequalities woman and children face within a polygamist cult in the United States was expressed. The FLDS has proven time and time again to place women and children into harms way. Women are forced into marriages to bear multiple children and have very limited say in anything they do. Being born into the FLDS lifestyle has brainwashed many of them into thinking that the only way to get to heaven is through surviving one man for the rest of their lives.

Yet, this lifestyle continues to bring hardship, stress, and abuse. Many women that escape have found peace and closure with an understanding of how the FLDS has been brainwashing the women and children of the society. There needs to be more authoritative action regarding the FLDS and polygamy in order to put a stop to the abuse and underage marriages happening still in the United States.

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