Polygamy thrives in Utah

[pwaldo]

http://news.yahoo.com/polygamy-thriv...071640727.html

The Dargers are members of a polygamous marriage, a lifestyle they say is endorsed by their fundamentalist Mormon beliefs.

Joe married cousins Alina and Vicki in 1990. Ten years later, Vicki's twin sister Valerie joined them, after her first plural marriage broke down. She brought five children with her from that relationship.

The family has lived openly for several years now, even publishing a 2011 book entitled "Love Times Three".

But for a long time, Joe Darger says he worried that he might be arrested under the anti-polygamy laws in effect in the western US state.

"The fear when I went public four years ago, that fear was very real," he told AFP.

"This is a third degree felony... this is serious prison time. My grandfathers were imprisoned, so that was a real impact that we felt."

That fear has lifted for now, following a December ruling by a federal judge that struck down a key part of the state's anti-polygamy law as unconstitutional.

Judge Clark Waddoups ruled that legislation banning "unlawful cohabitation" was at odds with the constitutional right to freedom of religion.

Alina Darger, who herself works as a lawyer on cases involving polygamy, says the ruling was a relief.

"That's been one of the great things about the ruling -- the decriminalization, and the judge saying basically that the state needs to stay out of people’s bedrooms," she said.

"As long as it's adults freely choosing what they want, then I don't feel it would be my place to tell somebody else you can't choose to love who you love."

The United Nations has called for a ban, while polygamy has been at the center of notorious cases such as that of Warren Jeffs, the fundamentalist Mormon leader sentenced to life in prison for child sexual assault in 2011.

The main branch of the Mormon faith -- the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- renounced the practice of polygamy in the 1890s under pressure from the US government.

While some offshoots of the religion continue the practice, exact numbers are hard to come by. Some estimates say that around 40,000 Utah residents live in plural marriages.

Utah's Attorney General Sean Reyes has yet to say whether he will challenge the federal court ruling on polygamy.

The state is also currently fighting to enforce a ban on gay marriage, which was ruled illegal in December by another federal judge.

[Star_Cards]

I view the polygamy debate about the same as the gay marriage debate. I see no reason to have laws against it.

The Warren Jeffs issue is way deeper than polygamy. Obviously he wasn't in a polygamist relationship between consenting adults.

[centrehice]

I view the polygamy debate about the same as the gay marriage debate. I see no reason to have laws against it.

The Warren Jeffs issue is way deeper than polygamy. Obviously he wasn't in a polygamist relationship between consenting adults.

The Josef Smith issue was also way deeper than polygamy. What you had was a charlatan, womanizer, who was basically a sex addict, one of America's first public one's who's problem was so entrenched that he had to create his own religion based on keeping as many women as he wanted with no repercussion, while at the same time traveling, marauding, and ripping-off American society.

Josef Smith was the World's First White Gypsy, without their morals.

[JustAlex]

God does not agree with polygamy.

The only true form of marriage is one christian man with one christian woman, everything else is against god's holy word.