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Old February 9th, 2014 #1
Alex Linder
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Default #1 Polygamy Thread

Polygamy thrives in Utah


Joe Darger poses for a photo with his wives (from L) Alina, Valerie and Vicki Darger, at their family home in Salt Lake City, Utah, January 30, 2014

Salt Lake City (United States) (AFP) - With 17 of their 25 children still living at home, breakfast is a military operation for the Dargers.

As organized chaos unfolds at the family home in the Utah countryside outside Salt Lake City, the parents come to help out.

Alina is the first, followed by her "sister wives" Vicki and Valerie, and finally their husband Joe.

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."

But what the Dargers see as unwarranted government intrusion, others see as essential for the protection of women and children.

Marion Munn moved to Utah from Britain after converting to a fundamentalist Mormon faith, and says she was part of a polygamous relationship for 18 years.

"The only way that I can explain it is like living with adultery on a daily basis, and having the woman come home," Munn said.

"On top of that you have to smile and pretend that everything's okay because that's part of the culture too."

She now argues that such marriages are inherently unequal, and often aren't entered into freely.

"Certainly within Mormon-based polygamy, it's not really much of a choice, because Mormon scriptures teach a woman that if she doesn't consent to living in polygamy, God's going to destroy her," Munn explained.

"So for me going into it, I didn't personally want to live it, but I felt compelled to as a matter of faith."

While the practice may work for the Dargers, a 2011 University of British Columbia study found polygamy causes greater levels of crime, violence, poverty and gender inequality in communities that practice it.

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.

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

Last edited by Alex Linder; February 9th, 2014 at 05:22 PM.
 
Old February 9th, 2014 #2
Alex Linder
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Joe is much man. That's an attractive assortment of wives, I like them all.
 
Old February 9th, 2014 #3
Alex Linder
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I'd be interested in some informed commentary on how polygamy relates to queer 'marriage' and real marriage legally.
 
Old February 9th, 2014 #4
Alex Linder
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"So for me going into it, I didn't personally want to live it, but I felt compelled to as a matter of faith."

Good example of a woman unwilling to take responsibility for her own decisions. Anything preventing her from ditching Mormonism? No. From not entering a polygamous marriage? No.
 
Old February 27th, 2014 #5
SSanguine
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Linder View Post
"So for me going into it, I didn't personally want to live it, but I felt compelled to as a matter of faith."

Good example of a woman unwilling to take responsibility for her own decisions. Anything preventing her from ditching Mormonism? No. From not entering a polygamous marriage? No.
Brainwashed.
 
Old February 27th, 2014 #6
procopius
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As far as I know, only the first wife has a marriage license, all the other "wives" do not. That means that the other wives are just live in girlfriends in a American bureaucratic legal sense.
 
Old September 12th, 2015 #7
manofire
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The media wants us to believe that humans are naturally monogamous. We are not. Men have always been intended to be polygamist, while women are what their men make them, which is monogamous. The basic concept of marriage is that the man invests in the family in return for the sexual fidelity of his wife. This way, the man can invest in kids who he knows are his. It is well known that women prefer men who are successful with other women. The evolutionary benefits are obvious. A man who has the opportunity to spread his genes to many women will probably produce sons with the same opportunity, thereby also spreading the mother's genes. This would indicate that women would actually prefer to marry men who can have sex with other women. So why do western women insist on the opposite? I is not about the want of a good man, western women do not want a good man. They are taught that they should dominate and control their men, a position which women were never intended to fill. If the husband agrees and commits to sexual fidelity, then he has shown that he is weak and has failed the test. By committing to sexual fidelity, he is showing that he has no backbone and will give in to his wife on all issues. If his wife believes her husband's commitment, she will view him as a doormat and will soon find him boring and lose interest in having sex with him. If she doesn't believe his commitment, she will consider him a lying bastard and the marriage will be full of drama until it finally falls apart. Either way, the husbands loses. By refusing to commit to sexual fidelity, the husband passes the shit test. The wife will then feel that she still needs to compete with other women to hold on to her husband, so she will continue to be sexually attracted to him.
 
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