Polygamists worry Jeffs case harms image

[oberliner]

ST. GEORGE, Utah - A criminal court case here paints a polygamist sect's leader as a controlling abuser who breaks up families and forces girls to marry men sometimes decades older.

But polygamists who aren't associated with Warren Jeffs' group say the case is giving people unfair perceptions of their way of life.

"I think everyone that lives the lifestyle now is guilty by association," said Rachel Young, 45, a polygamist wife and mother of 12, who is a member of the Davis County Cooperative Society, a polygamist group.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061124/ap_on_re_us/polygamist_leader_1

[goddess40]

1. Then they should have spoken up earlier and condemned his actions

By not doing so they condone it and seem to put their stamp of approval on it for all the outsiders.

[mike_c]

2. uh-- yeah....

:rofl:

Just like Hitler gave fascists everywhere a bad name....

[originalpckelly]

3. And anti-Semites...

poor Mel Gibson.
:rofl:

:sarcasm:

[fudge stripe cookays]

4. Read "Under the Banner of Heaven"

There IS no difference. These people are sick, and they're a drain on government resources. Only the first marriage is legal. Subsequent marriages are only conducted in their personal churches, and the wives and children from the multiple marriages end up getting welfare and AFDC.

That book woke me up to a lot that goes on in this country that half of us can't even conceive of. Some of these fundamentalist sects have women who offer their own daughters as multiple wives to the men they're already married to!

Jeffs is only one of thousands.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

5. Yikes, I've only heard hints from formerly Mormon friends.

This whole abusive, incestuous system should be dismantled. MKJ

edited to add...it's only one of many abusive, incestuous systems.

[Spangle]

9. Rules need to change

If a guy keeps having kids and can't support them, then they should be locked up. It's one thing when people need help, etc. But the game they play, isn't at all right. They want the wives, they want the kids, they should support them. If they fall on hard times, that is one thing. But like everyone else, they too must 'get off' the system. If the guy doesn't want to pay up, but keep having kids... lock his butt up as a form of birth control.

[fudge stripe cookays]

10. Yes, but see...

to them, abusing the system is OK. They are punishing the government that forced Mormonism to change (giving up polygamy, saying black people are OK since the 1970s, etc).

It's nuts, isn't it?

[Fridays Child]

6. She should be careful. Her own group has its share of skeletons...

"In the Davis County Cooperative Society, a polygamous community north of Salt Lake City, the leading family, the Kingstons, has been said by state prosecutors to have assets worth well over $150 million. Yet court testimony in a recent child-abuse and custody case revealed that one of the community's patriarchs argued he could not pay the monthly child support ordered by a judge for the children of one of his several wives. Another of the family's leaders was convicted in 1999 of felony incest for taking his 16-year-old niece as his 15th wife."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/chi-0609240351sep24,0,969308.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines

[BlooInBloo]

7. lol! ID people worried that gw's harms image!

:rofl:

How can you hurt something that's already beyond redemption?

[mitchum]

8. Are you sure that headline didn't come from The Onion?