Hildale UT is the home of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a polygamist breakaway sect from LDS. The cafe has articles about the area’s history of polygamy on the walls, so it’s hardly a big secret. It is run by polygamist wives. This is where their leader Warren Jeffs was from, before he went to prison for accomplice to rape for officiating a marriage between a 14 yo girl and her 19 yo cousin.
The food was excellent and, as appears to be the norm in Utah, the people friendly.
The Mormon Church (LDS) takes great pains to point out that FLDS is a breakaway sect, that LDS no longer practices polygamy, and that FLDS members are not Mormons – statements which are completely correct.
The Mormon Church can take all the pains they want, but they make no effort to eradicate these criminals, and even protect them at times. In effect, they turn a blind eye to and perpetuate pedophilia, incest, child abuse and slavery … and in case they haven’t noticed, polygamy is illegal in this country. When child protection agencies, law enforcement offices and the courts in those strongholds are all manned by the criminals themselves – who send fleeing victims right back to their predators – how can their victims ever seek justice? Answer: they can’t. And the Mormon Church does nothing. I doubt the helpless victims of those vicious “Sister Wives” are quite so “merry”. And someone ought to ask these brainwashed brood mares who pockets the profits – if there are any. Guaranteed it ain’t them.
Wikipedia for Hildale, UT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildale,_Utah
“In 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported that welfare fraud is widespread in both Hildale and its sister city Colorado City AZ. As many as 50% of plural wives are on government assistance. The fraud arises from the women’s claims that they do not know the whereabouts of the children’s fathers. Former State Senator Ron Allen remarked “The social costs of polygamy are quite high. The things I’m most worried about in polygamy are physical and sexual abuse of children, forced marriages among minors, welfare and tax fraud, and the diminished educational opportunities, especially among girls. None of this is acceptable.””
Yes, FLDS owns most the land and the police and town officials are mostly members. So how does the state bust that up, assuming it wanted to. It would be a long protracted, probably violent battle
Everyone in Utah owns guns, usually lots of them, and full auto machine guns are legal. Just saying.
Since when does the Mormon Church (or any other church) have the power to enforce laws, especially on folks who aren’t members? We pretty much ruled that out when we adopted the Constitution. Most mainstream Mormons consider the FLDS an embarrassment, but they have no power to change it.
There are plenty of reported abuses in the FLDS community. But it would be fallacious to generalize their habits to all polygamists, or even to the entire FLDS, just as it would be incorrect to say that monogamy is wrong because some monogamous men beat their wives.
Among the practitioners of polygamy up our way, well outside the FLDS community, I have yet to meet a wife who is underage (or even close to it). I’ve had business dealings with a few of them, as have many of my clients, and we see them quite often in Wal-Mart wearing their their homespun dresses. Last night, I drove past a big, new house in town. I pointed it out to my friend. He said, “Oh that’s a polygamist’s house– he built one section for one wife and one for the other.” These are not compound-inhabiting recluses, they are participants in the broader community. I have no reason to think that they are any better or worse than any other group of people– mostly decent and hardworking. And if they practice polygamy by choice and not coercion, as seems likely given they don’t live in a concentrated area and are surrounded by “outsiders,” that’s their business.
I wouldn’t choose polygamy; personally I think one wife is plenty. And sure, it’s against the law, but so is smoking dope, and though I choose not to, I know plenty of folks who do. It’s not my job to judge people for their lifestyle choices unless and until there is coercion or harm to another.