Tag Archives: Topic: Polygamy

Washington Post: “Teaching about polyamory but not about monogamy or abstinence? . . . Brooks notes that denizens of the sex industry have been involved in some of the events . . . ”

“Canada, which redefined marriage nationwide to include same-sex couples in 2005, against the backdrop of successful provincial lawsuits against the country’s marriage law, could be moving on to bigger things — literally. Specifically, polygamy and polyamory, as this case invokes the question of whether the government can continue to criminalize multiple-partner marriages . . .”

Associated Press: “Utah’s Supreme Court has rejected a petition from members of a southern Utah-based polygamous sect seeking a reversal of changes made to its communal land trust.” FLDS v. Hon. Lindberg, No. 20090859 (Utah Aug. 27, 2010)

The Globe and Mail: “A court case examining whether Canada’s polygamy laws violate religious protection might focus on a fundamentalist Mormon sect in southeastern B.C., but it will also explore rarely discussed polygamy within North America’s Muslim community.”

Attorneys for Wendell Loy Nielsen . . . said at a hearing Tuesday they intend to challenge the Texas bigamy laws their client is charged with violating under amended indictments.”

Scott Titshaw, A Modest Proposal: To Deport the Children of Gay Citizens, & Etc.: Immigration Law, the Defense of Marriage Act, and the Children of Same-Sex Couples (August 18, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1661276

“This article explores the language, context, legislative history, and purposes of both DOMA and relevant sections of the INA. In the absence of reported cases on point, it reviews opinions in related areas, such as the recognition of children born to concubines or second-wives in polygamous marriages. Finally, it analyzes each relevant section of the INA in turn, concluding that DOMA does not proscribe recognition of parent-child relationships resulting from same-sex marriages under most, or all, of the sections.”

Aolnews.: “Utah will have to wait in line before it gets a chance to retry polygamist leader Warren Jeffs. First he’s going to a state where prosecution has been more vigorous. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said he believes the case against Jeffs is stronger in Texas, where he will be extradited.”

ADF attorney Jordan Lorence appeared on All Sides with Ann Fisher to discuss the Proposition 8 ruling. | MP3 14:24 mins

“I am bullish on polygamy. It has a bright future. Now that The Very Reverend Vaughn Walker, High Priest of the Church of Political Correctness, has cleared the way for the creation of the oxymoronic idea of ‘homosexual marriage,’ polygamy’s life just got a whole lot easier.”

“One San Francisco judge ordering it so was an arbitrary, heavy-handed act with no other basis than a demand from a powerful activist group. Unless this is overturned, the same playbook will be used to try to institutionalize group marriages, polygamy, and every other iteration of human relationships until marriage is utterly obliterated.”

Polygamy in American: How the Varying Legal Standards Fail to Protect Mothers and Children from Its Abuses
Amy Fry, 54 St. Louis U. L.J. 967 (2010)

“Although polygamy is clearly being practiced in shadowed corners, it is a long-established criminal act in the United States. As a result, polygamy has always had an impact on child custody proceedings when practiced by one or both parents. Its controversial presence has had a strong yet varying effect on child custody rulings, as courts struggle to weigh the child’s best interests against parental rights and the freedom to practice one’s own religion. A highly-publicized recent battle is the In re Texas Department of Family & Protective Services case, for which final custody proceedings are still pending. This Note examines the ways courts have balanced these interests and why, what impact this most recent Texas case has on polygamy’s standing in the United States, and where the legal stance on polygamy should be headed. Part I focuses on the problem: how much of an impact should the practice of polygamy have on a child custody ruling? Fleshing out this question requires analyzing the history of the FLDS, the impact the FLDS has on mothers, and the malleable, varying ‘best interests of the child’ tests. Part II examines the impact of the recent Texas polygamy case, discussing the majority stance and the distinction made by its concurring opinion. Part III turns to a 1955 Utah Supreme Court case that exemplifies the position the United States once had towards polygamy. Part IV then compares the recent Texas ruling to the older Utah Supreme Court decision, examining the dangers of the current standard and emphasizing why courts should revert back to taking a stronger stand against polygamy. The illegality of polygamy and its abusive impact on children outweigh a mother’s right to raise her children and practice her religion in an FLDS polygamous sect more often than courts acknowledge. The Utah decision should be strongly considered in future child custody rulings involving polygamy as it signifies a better balance between religious freedom, parental rights, and child custody than the current legal standard.”

Dallas Morning News (AP): “A southern Utah judge has set an Aug. 18 date for a hearing on a request that polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs be granted a speedy trial.”

ABC 4 News: “The Hainlines were trying to clear out the work shed of items left by a previous occupant. They were instructed by the Mohave County Sheriff to place the items in a storage unit and then simply give the key to the unit to the old occupant. But as they went to work Tuesday morning, town Marshals showed up with a Temporary Restraining Order signed by the local justice of the peace. The TRO essentially barred them from their own property – namely the shed. … Before they could get answers, the Marshals returned. First, they arrested Matt without a warrant and without explanation. Then they arrested Genevive by pulling her off of the family’s pick-up truck and wrestling her to the ground.”

“Increased crime, prostitution and anti-social behaviour. Greater inequality between men and women. Less parental investment in children. And, a general driving down of the age of marriage for all women.”

CBS: “A West Texas jury has convicted a member of a polygamist group of sexual assault of a child, a charge stemming from his alleged marriage to an underage girl.”

Prakash Shah, Inconvenient Marriages, or What Happens When Ethnic Minorities Marry Trans-Jurisdictionally (June 2010). Utrecht Law Review, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 17-32, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1625649

“This article presents evidence of a trend in the practice of British immigration control of denying recognition to marriages which take place trans-jurisdictionally across national and continental boundaries and across different state jurisdictions. The article partly draws on evidence gleaned from the writer’s own experience of being instructed as an expert witness to provide opinions of the validity of such marriages, and partly on evidence from reported cases at different levels of the judicial system. The evidence demonstrates that decision making in this area, whether by officials or judges, often takes place in arbitrary ways, arguably to fulfil wider aims of controlling the immigration of certain population groups whose presence in the UK and Europe is increasingly seen as undesirable. However, and quite apart from the immigration control concerns underlying such actions, the field throws up evidence of the kinds of legal insecurity faced by those whose marriages are solemnized under non-Western legal traditions and calls into question respect for those traditions when they come into contact with Western officialdom.”

Adriaan Bedner and Stijn Van Huis, Plurality of Marriage Law and Marriage Registration for Muslims in Indonesia: A Plea for Pragmatism (June 1, 2010). Utrecht Law Review, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 175-191, June 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1625684 This …

Susan Rutten, Protection of Spouses in Informal Marriages by Human Rights (June 2010). Utrecht Law Review, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 77-92, June 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1625657

“This article deals with one of the aspects of a pluralistic society: the existence of informal marriages. These are marriages concluded in accordance with religious or cultural traditions that do not comply with the requirements of the formal secular legal order. Two aspects of those marriages will be discussed: primarily, whether and to what extent spouses in informal marriages should be regarded and protected by law as spouses, and secondly, whether spouses who are involuntary kept in their informal marriages should be released by and protected by formal law. With regard to both aspects the question will be raised whether human rights could and should serve as a means to offer spouses of informal marriages their desired protection. From recent case law both from the European Court of Human Rights and the national courts, it becomes clear that human rights have only recently and very cautiously started to demand a role in the informal legal orders.”

Salon: “One of the special experiences at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was seeing the premiere of Reed Cowan and Steven Greenstreet’s wrenching documentary ’8: The Mormon Proposition’ in the Utah mountains, less than an hour’s drive from the world headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although the film is about how the Mormon church both bankrolled and masterminded Proposition 8, the now-notorious California ballot initiative that amended that state’s constitution in order to deny gays and lesbians the right to marry, it’s in many ways a Utah story . . . ”

Irish Times: “The French interior minister has suggested amending the law to enable the state to strip polygamists of their French citizenship. Brice Hortefeux was speaking after a judge filed preliminary charges of fraud against an Algerian-born man whom the authorities suspect of polygamy.”

France 24: “A French Muslim man [Lies Hebbadj] has been formally charged Wednesday for taking welfare benefits to which he wasn’t entitled only two months after French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux accused him of polygamy.”

“While others — such as Surreybased Wiccan priest Sam Wagar . . . contend that they have a religious right to practise polygamy, the polyamorists say that for them it’s a matter of freedom of expression . . . ”

The “Licentiousness” in Religious Organizations and Why It Is Not Protected Under Religious Liberty Constitutional Provisions
Marci A. Hamilton, 18 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 953 (2010)

In this Article, I will first briefly examine the beliefs and practices of the fundamentalist polygamists, primarily but not exclusively the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), which have led to a cycle of severe and entrenched child sex abuse. The point of focusing upon the fundamentalist polygamists is that their sexual abuse of children is grounded in their religious scriptures and beliefs. Therefore, if there is any religious liberty defense to furthering child sex abuse, they arguably would have the most powerful arguments. Second, I will survey the rich history that establishes that ‘licentious,’ or illicit, sexual behavior was never intended to be protected by free exercise protections in the history of the United States (or Canada), even if religiously motivated. It is beyond the reach of free exercise guarantees, whether in the state or federal constitutions. I will also look to First Amendment doctrine, which further supports categorical exclusions. Free speech cases already recognize this principle in the context of child pornography and exploitation, which are constitutionally unprotected activities. If the First Amendment was not designed to protect the act of creating images of children engaging in sex, it follows that neither should it protect the acts that lead to child sexual abuse itself. Third, I will extend this reasoning to contemporary cases and explain why carving out licentiousness from religious liberty’s reach can keep these cases from negatively affecting other aspects of the doctrine.”

Reuters: “New polygamous marriages and sharia courts will be banned on France’s Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte when it becomes a department of the French state next year, according to a draft ordinance presented on Wednesday.”

“. . . there are an estimated 200,000 people, including children, living in 16,000-20,000 polygamous families in France . . . ”

Autonomy, Imperfect Consent, and Polygamist Sex Rights Claims
Jacob Richards, 98 Cal. L. Rev. 197 (2010)

“This Comment seeks to determine whether polygamy activism is intelligible within a broader sex rights framework. If so, what insights does such activism offer to the ongoing debates over sex rights? A close examination reveals that the Bronson case is not out of the ordinary in a complex tradition of sex rights claims. Such claims have often had a multifaceted, or even contradictory, relationship with varying ideas of autonomy, equality, and freedom from sexual- and gender-based harm. One of polygamy activism’s most interesting contributions to this tradition is the way it prompts questions about the law’s treatment of an issue that has surfaced in other sex rights claims but has never been satisfactorily resolved: what I will refer to as ‘imperfect consent.’ The term ‘imperfect consent’ describes moments where the ability of a person to consent to an act is questionable either because the act is arguably harmful to the person, or because social or cultural pressures potentially compromise the person’s autonomy. Polygamy raises questions about autonomy and imperfect consent when women claim the right to choose polygamous relationships despite concerns that social or religious coercion may cast doubt upon whether they are choosing such relationships freely. Through a comparison of the legal treatment of polygamy, pornography, sadomasochism, and abortion, this Comment will explore the law’s failure to address questions of imperfect consent in a principled manner and will present suggestions to remedy this failure.”

Lost Children: The Abuse and Neglect of Minors in Polygamous Communities in North America
Kelly R. Schwab, 16 Cardozo J.L. & Gender 315 (2010)

“Polygamous behavior has always been considered an unlawful practice. The Supreme Court in Reynolds explicitly held that the Free Exercise Clause does not protect plural marriages in the name of religion. Nevertheless, because of the deeply rooted societal notions protecting religious freedom and privacy, attempts to criminalize the unlawful act have failed; practitioners continue to argue that polygamy is protected by the Free Exercise Clause despite court decisions and legislation to the contrary. In the wake of the YFZ incident, state legislatures have again taken a less tolerant approach toward polygamous behavior, specifically because of the widespread abuse and illegal activity that surfaced in fundamentalist Mormon communities throughout the country. In this Note, I examine religion-based abuse in polygamous communities and how the widespread abuse and neglect of children in Mormon communities of North America is indicative of the conflict between protecting religious freedom and protecting the rule of law.”

Deseret News: “A Utah Supreme Court ruling issued Friday could open a door to recognition of gay marriage, polygamy and underage marriage in Utah, an attorney says . . . The Utah Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, ruled that a 4th District judge who issued a divorce decree to Neldon and Ina Johnson in 2001 did have the authority to do that. The Johnsons had lived together for 37 years, had children and represented to the outside world that they were a married couple — even though they were never legally married.” | Johnson v. Johnson, No. 20080274 (Utah, May 7, 2010)

LifeSiteNews: “Ballo, himself the child of a polygamous situation, said that Islamic men practice polygamy in order to receive income from their ‘wives’’ state benefits. ‘They practice polygamy just for that,’ he said. ‘I’d go so far as to say that polygamists here (in France) are breeding for cash.’ Ballo is the son of Malian immigrants whose father and grandfather were polygamous. He told AP that his group helps women and children find housing, benefits and jobs apart from their polygamous ‘husbands,’ a process known in France as “decohabiting.

BBC News: “A spokesman for the Muslim Association of Malawi told the BBC the proposed law would discriminate against the country’s Muslim minority.”

Telegraph: “A Muslim Frenchman accused of polygamy defended himself on Monday by saying that keeping mistresses was the French way of life.”

Salt Lake Tribune: “A Utah father is fighting an order that bars him from sharing his Fundamentalist Mormon views with his children — or even taking them to this small town he now calls home, where most residents hold a religious belief in polygamy that a judge deemed ‘harmful.’”

AP: “A Muslim Frenchman at the center of a firestorm over polygamy said Monday that keeping mistresses is the French way of life.”

Religion Clause Blog: “In Canada last October, British Columbia’s Attorney General decided that instead of appealing the dismissal of polygamy charges that were filed against the leaders of two FLDS factions, the province would instead ask the British Columbia Supreme Court for clarification on the law’s constitutionality . . . ”

Business Week: “A ruling party lawmaker and his second wife pleaded guilty Tuesday to entering into a polygamous marriage without official consent amid a debate in Malaysia over Islamic morality among politicians.”

AP: “Utah and Arizona authorities are serving search warrants on government offices in a pair of border towns dominated by a polygamous sect . . . ”

CBC News: “One of the spiritual leaders from a B.C. polygamous community says he needs hundreds of thousands of dollars in government money to participate in a court review of Canada’s polygamy law in a case his lawyer argued Friday will put him and his community of Bountiful on trial.”

Imperialism (February 26, 2010). William & Mary Law School Research Paper No. 09-43. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1560015

“This Article offers a new historical interpretation, one that places the birth of Free Exercise jurisprudence in Reynolds within an international context of Great Power imperialism and American international expansion at the end of the nineteenth century. It does this by recovering the lost theory of religious freedom that the Mormons offered in Reynolds, a theory grounded in the natural law tradition. It then shows how the Court rejected this theory by using British imperial law to interpret the scope of the first amendment.”

CNN: “Abuya, a 72-year-old preacher based in Malaysia, began lecturing on Islam and polygamy in 1968. He set up the company Global Ikhwan in 1997 and it has thousands of members around the world with clubs similar to the one in Jakarta in Europe, the Middle East and North America. The company provides homes, jobs, businesses, schools and medical facilities to its members. While being a polygamist is not compulsory, most people in the company practice it.”

Religion Clause Blog: “In Uganda earlier this month, the women’s rights organization Mifumi Uganda Ltd. filed a petition in the country’s Constitutional Court seeking to have laws that permit men to practice polygamy, but do not permit women to have more than one husband, declared unconstitutional.”

KCSG (AP): “Utah’s highest court weighed in on the long running dispute over a polygamous sect’s property trust Wednesday with one central question: Why did sect members wait so long to challenge a judge’s decision to remove the trust’s religious foundation?”

Associated Press: “Wendell Loy Nielsen, 69, was named president in documents filed with the Utah Department of Commerce. He has long been a senior leader in the hierarchy of the southern Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.”

Rob Vischer writes at the Mirror of Justice Blog: “The fact that this practice is now forbidden to Christian believers reflects the higher standards of holiness prevailing under the new dispensation. In terms of legal language, polygamy is a mala prohibita offense, something forbidden by law in some societies but not others, rather than something evil in itself, mala in se, which all reasonable people know to be wrong . . . ”

LifeSiteNews: “In discussing a new study confirming that polygamy is a staple within gay ‘marriages,’ a New York Times article has suggested that doing away with the concept of spousal fidelity in marriage represents an ‘evolution’ that ‘might point the way for the survival of the institution.”

Religion Clause Blog: “According to today’s New Delhi Pioneer, a two-judge panel of the Supreme Court of India last week held that civil service rules of the state of Rajasthan barring any state employee from taking a second wife without permission of the state takes precedence over the Muslim Personal Law that allows Muslim men to have a second wife.”

Calgary Herald: “A free-speech group allied with Holocaust deniers, women’s advocates and fundamentalist Mormons are among those looking to have their say at a B.C. trial that will determine the constitutionality of Canada’s anti-polygamy law.”

AP: “The federal trial concerning California’s same-sex marriage ban has resumed with lawyers showing videotape of a simulcast in which pastors supporting the ban say gay marriage would lead to polygamy and bestiality.”

UPI: “A Michigan judge must decide how to deal with the marriage of a businessman who allegedly wed a woman without telling her he already had a wife and children.”

Jeffrey Lord responds to Olson’s “Conservative Case for Gay Marriage” in The American Spectator: “The fact that Olson seeks to impose the values of a handful of elite lawyers and judges on the people of California when they have made their views not only plain but constitutionally plain under the law is what concerns. Mr. Olson’s ‘lifetime of exposure to persons of different backgrounds, histories, viewpoints, and intrinsic characteristics” is apparently limited to a resulting sympathy for gays . . . [I]t seems inescapable here that Olson has erred. If he has the passion he expresses for gay marriage, then his time would be more constructively spent for his cause convincing the voters of California and indeed other states. Seek consensus, convince, persuade, make the case. But, outstanding lawyer or not, resist the temptation to ‘resolve’ this by judicial fiat.’”

New York Times: “Mr. Ratzon, considered the ‘savior of the universe’ by his followers, has aroused the curiosity of the public, the police and the social services for years, and was the subject of a television documentary last year. But so far he has not been charged with any crimes. He was legally married to one or two women, according to the police, though he considered all the women his wives.”

Religion Clause Blog: “Yesterday’s National Post reports that Blackmore’s suit, filed in the B.C. Supreme Court, claims that the polygamy charges caused him to suffer business and other financial losses and that he and his family suffered stress and anxiety.”

Khaled Diab writes at The Guardian: “A Saudi journalist is demanding that women be given the right to four husbands. Maybe she has a point.”

LA Times: “Nadine Bedair’s controversial article, recently published in the Egyptian independent daily Al Masry Al Youm, that raised the question of why only men are allowed to practice polygamy in Islam but not women. As expected, the daring article, entitled ‘My Four Husbands and I,’ has stirred the pot among various groups . . . ”

NY Times: “‘Men are by nature polygamous,’ said Dr. Rohaya, Mr. Ikram’s third wife, flanked by the other three women and Mr. Ikram for an interview on a recent morning.”

New York Times: “The Ikhwan Polygamy Club is managed by Global Ikhwan, a company whose businesses include bread and noodle factories, a chicken-processing plant, pharmacies, cafes and supermarkets. Mr. Ikram is a director of the company. While polygamy is legal in predominantly Muslim Malaysia, the club has come under fire from the government and religious leaders, who suspect it may be an attempt to revive Al-Arqam, a defunct Islamic movement headed by Mrs. Hatijah’s husband, Mr. Ashaari Mohamad, who is the founder and owner of Global Ikhwan. Al-Arqam was banned in 1994 for ‘deviant’ religious teachings.”

Salt Lake Tribune: “The fiduciary who oversees a polygamous sect’s property trust is asking a Utah judge to hold sect leader Warren S. Jeffs, a dozen sect members, FLDS firms and the community’s local governments in contempt for trying to intervene in the 4-year-old court case.”

The Globe and Mail: “Religious leader who police say has 25 wives comes out swinging in online missive about legal case.”

BBC News: “A member of the Egyptian parliament has filed a lawsuit over an article questioning why polygamy is allowed for men in Islam but not for women.”

Post-Bulletin.com: “Then, despite what Deel called a “mountain of evidence” that Yisrayl Hawkins has dozens of wives and promoted bigamy to sect members, the county attorney decided he couldn’t afford to spend $30,000 on a case where ‘the outcome was uncertain.’”

Metro News (AP): “Raymond Jessop, 38, was convicted late Thursday for having sex with the teen with whom he had a so-called spiritual marriage. He faces up to 20 years in prison when the jury reconvenes Monday to begin deciding his sentence.”

The Family Policy Council of West Virginia Engage Family Blog: “One proponent of polyamory or, as some have termed it ‘ethical nonmonogamy’ said ‘We have rights to love any way we want unless we are harming other people…we have a right to be and do and say whatever is our full expression, and this to me is a civil right.’ Such a sentiment could be the very Pandora’s Box that groups such as Focus on the Family, the Alliance Defense Fund, and we here at the Family Policy Council are afraid to open. Where does the redefinition end?”

CNN Living: “Lipton and Barash, who have been married 32 years and are the co-authors of ‘Strange Bedfellows’ and ‘The Myth of Monogamy,’ said serial monogamy may be more realistic — a model in which people move from one committed long-term relationship to another and choose partners for different reasons at different stages of their life.”

Deseret News: “A school district serving a remote area of northern Arizona and southern Utah long dominated by a polygamist sect is poised to emerge from a state takeover implemented nearly four years ago because it finances were in disarray.”

Associated Press: “More than 150 potential jurors, including 10 women in prairie dresses and braids, crammed into a makeshift courtroom Monday as jury selection began in the first criminal trial stemming from the raid of a polygamist sect’s ranch last year.”

“British Columbia’s Supreme Court is being asked to decide if polygamy should remain illegal in Canada, the province’s attorney general announced Thursday.”

Salt Lake Tribune: “The polygamous FLDS sect is asking the Utah Supreme Court to return to church control a trust that governs most property in two towns at the Utah-Arizona state line.”

Martin Guggenheim, Texas Polygamy and Child Welfare (September 17, 2009). Houston Law Review, Vol. 46, No. 3, 2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1474983

“This article explains why the child welfare process was used in the 2008 San Angelo, Texas raid on the FLDS community which resulted in the removal of more than 400 children from their families. It argues that the criminal justice system, not the child welfare system, should be the preferred means by which state officials attempt to prevent the practice of polygamy. The criminal justice system contains many more time honored protections of civil liberties than the child welfare system.”

Associated Press: “A Bay City woman has pleaded guilty to a charge of polygamy.”

Adrienne D Davis, The Game of Love: Polygamy, Default Rules, and Bargaining for Equality (September 30, 2009). Washington U. School of Law Working Paper No. 09-09-01. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1480906

“This Essay shifts attention from the constitutionality and decriminalization debates to a new set of questions: whether and how polygamy might be effectively recognized and regulated, consistent with contemporary social norms. It argues that the gay marriage analogy, invoked on both the ‘left’ and the ‘right,’ is a red herring, a distraction from the real challenge polygamy raises for law – how plural marriage transforms the conventional marital dyad and whether law is up to regulating marital multiplicity.”

Catholic News Agency: “A law professor [Chai Feldblum] nominated by President Obama to become a commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was a signatory to a radical 2006 manifesto which endorsed polygamous households and argued traditional marriage should not be privileged ‘above all others.’”

AP: “Polygamy is legal for Muslims in Malaysia, though not widespread. The Ashaari clan believes it should be. Last month it launched a ‘Polygamy Club’ that claims the noble aim of helping single mothers, reformed prostitutes and women who feel they are past the marrying age.”

Associated Press: “A polygamy advocacy group is sponsoring its first-ever conference for attorneys on the legal issues associated with lifestyle.”

“The judge said the province’s attorney general did not have the jurisdiction to appoint a second special prosecutor to consider charges . . . ”

Ron Coody writing in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel: “Elevating the importance of biologically sterile homoerotic attraction above the importance of sexual reproduction and child-nurture in the heterosexual family ‘soul nest’ can work only in a society that is willing to diminish the value of children, even the value of its future.”

Salt Lake Tribune: “After months of haggling over every period, definition, connotation and allusion, the state’s Safety Net Committee has released a revised guide to understanding so-called fundamentalist Mormon communities in Utah, Arizona and as far away as Missouri and Canada. “The Primer,” as the booklet is known, now has a neutral tone that no longer promotes the idea that fundamentalist Mormons, many of whom practice polygamy, are ‘victims’ of groups who experience more domestic violence or abuse than other populations . . .”