My Rant on The Comments I Have Been Hearing

Do we make all marriages bad? Because that's what I am hearing. I can tell you that marriage is good for me. Plural marriage for me may be good too. Why restrict it? Some of the finest of God's servants had more wives than one. The Bible is full of references. Stop with the, I am better than you mask, and leave people to their religious lives. Especially when they are doing fine. I lived in the FLDS community. I don't now, so I can be objective about it. I will say, I prefer the way they do marriages over the way it is done anywhere else. The respect exhibited by the men toward the women is not as objects as some are misinformed, through propaganda, may conclude. No. Respect toward women there is admired by the youth, and that is why most children stay when they grow older. Young marriages are not common there. They are not forbidden, but are rather minuscule in number. Yet you would think that it is common, by the accounts of the media. It is not considered evil or wrong to marry young there. Because when girls think they are ready to marry, they have to have their parents agree, which is many times unlikely for the parents to agree. But when they do, they will present her to the prophet who will have her come back for multiple appointment sessions with the parents in tow. I will have you know that this is not unlike how the young men are treated. It is no laughing matter to the parents nor to the young people. The vows are taken seriously. Abuse is unlikely in case you are wondering. If a man is found to be abusive there, he will be sent out, and all he earned in his life will be given to a finer gentler more righteous man. Jeffs is being wrongfully targeted. It is due to the religious prejudices of those who hold authority in government. The laws that are being used to convict him are unconstitutional. Yet he has been hated by the media, the government and the LDS neighbors who just hate Warren Jeffs on the outset. There is no truth in their criticism except in their own paradigms.

The (so called) New Hope

The HOPE Organization is a non-profit group dedicated to assisting survivors of abuse within polygamous relationships on their courageous journey to personal freedom.

HOPE is a St. George, Utah based 501(c)(3) charity providing assistance to individuals and families to safely transition from a polygamous lifestyle into mainstream society.

HOPE's purpose is to offer support, protection, assistance, choices, opportunities and hope for the women, children, families and young adults (both male and female) who have been kicked out or have chosen to leave this culture. Sadly, too many women and children live under immense control, oppression and fear of eternal damnation, and they are caught in the cycle of abuse without a choice or a voice . . . We want to empower them!

Laws against these crimes are based in religion, which violates the separation of church and state. They are un-American, as they attempt to homogenize the country to a certain group's idea of morality, and that they create an oppressive society, restricting personal freedoms without justification. They teach irresponsibility, by not letting people deal with the natural consequences of their actions, but rather penalizing them whether or not their actions harmed anyone else.
Catching the "criminals" involved is an expensive affair. Victimless crimes draw manpower and funds away from crimes that do hurt innocent parties, and enforcement of the laws is not consistent enough to be an effective deterrent. I argue that actions to help people deal with problems caused by these illegal activities are effectively prevented by their criminalization -- for example, no one could be helped about their drinking problems during Prohibition. Additionally, he details how laws against victimless crimes paved the way for organized crime. from Wikipedia: Ain't Nobody's Business if You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country by Peter McWilliams

A response of mine to a media reader's comment

Are you aware that FLDS do not trade their precious daughters?
There are no FLDS men that I know who would let his daughter go to just any man.
The Prophet is the matchmaker. He is the last one who has the decision that she is ready. He does choose who marries who. The young ladies are expected to be responsible, kind, and prayerful before they are deemed worthy to marry. The parents of the potential bride are the first to give their blessing to her by bringing her to visit the prophet or his counselors on her behalf.
She had to be willing and able to marry someone she is matched with. She is aware of her decision and is most likely anxious to be placed by a man who is chosen by the preacher/leader.
The man that the girl(usually 18-22) will be chosen for is quite young himself(usually 20-30). There few are exceptions.

More proof that LDS members as Government officials are persecuting FLDS

Feds are stymied in probes of FLDS

Federal authorities have been probing allegations of crimes involving the Fundamentalist LDS Church and its leader Warren Jeffs for years -- but have been unable to develop enough probable cause to launch a full-scale investigation or bring charges.
"Those cases where you hear rumor and innuendo about child brides and corruption, we have to have reasonable suspicion to open an investigation," U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman said Thursday. "Beyond that, we have to have probable cause to even get search warrants and grand jury subpoenas. That we have not been able to establish on numerous occasions."
In an extensive interview with the Deseret News on Thursday, Tolman and Tim Fuhrman, the special agent-in-charge of the Salt Lake City office of the FBI, detailed their efforts to investigate crimes within the FLDS Church. They also spoke against the need for a federal task force on polygamy-related crimes, despite a push by the U.S. Senate majority leader and the Utah and Arizona attorneys general.
"The crimes that are being alleged or that there is suspicion, these are predominantly state crimes," Tolman said. "I think it's a rush to judgment to think that a federal task force is the answer."

Investigations
The U.S. Attorney for Utah confirmed to the Deseret News his office has looked at the FLDS Church for possible violations of Mafia-style racketeering and corruption laws.
"We remain open to pursuing that line of investigation," Tolman said. "Investigating a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charge is labor intensive, requires someone on the inside and has to be done with great patience. It's certainly not something that would result in a raid on the FLDS and all the members and families in the community. We still would have to provide probable cause on each and every individual that's the target of the investigation."
Right now, Tolman said that all his office has is suspicion and nothing more. Child abuse, rape and incest are all state-level crimes. So is bigamy.
"We have the ability to prosecute transferring or crossing state lines for purposes of sex, and we had a case a couple of years ago that we investigated," Tolman said. "When the young woman was interviewed, she indicated that no sex had ever occurred. At that point we're very limited outside some evidence to help us establish probable cause."
It is a problem their state-level counterparts can relate to.
"That's been the challenge with these closed polygamy groups. You can't infiltrate them," said Kirk Torgensen, chief deputy of the Utah Attorney General's Office. "Getting intelligence and information is difficult."
It isn't for lack of trying, authorities insist.
"We open and close more investigations than we prosecute," said Fuhrman.

Probable cause
In 2003, a joint state and federal task force was convened to look into crimes within all of Utah's polygamous groups.
"We asked them to come out and take a more comprehensive look at things," Torgensen said. "The agencies came back and said, 'We're not finding anything."'
The U.S. Attorney's Office said it did not develop enough for subpoenas, search warrants or indictments.
"The fact that everyone may think something's going on ... ask Elliot Ness how easy it was," Tolman said. "He knew, and he knew Al Capone was involved. It still took quite a bit. It takes a lot, and it takes a concerted effort. Even though everyone may be clamoring, it doesn't make for a federal case."
Tolman said they still need probable cause.
"No matter what, we still have to abide by the Constitution and our criminal procedure rules," he said.
An attorney acting as a spokesman for the FLDS Church declined to comment on Tolman's remarks but said he could appreciate their approach toward probable cause.
"That's a much more responsible approach than what's been taken in Texas with respect to the Constitution," said Rod Parker.
The raid on the YFZ Ranch began April 3, when someone claiming to be a 16-year-old girl named "Sarah" called a family crisis shelter in San Angelo, Texas, saying she was pregnant and in an abusive polygamous marriage. Authorities are now investigating if the call was a hoax.
When Texas child welfare workers responded to the ranch, authorities said they found evidence of other abuse, including teenage mothers. That prompted a judge to order the removal of more than 450 children from the FLDS compound. They have since been placed in foster care homes across Texas.

Warren Jeffs
Federal prosecutors have leveled a charge against Warren Jeffs for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Jeffs, at the time on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, was arrested outside Las Vegas during a traffic stop in 2006. Typically, when a fugitive is arrested, federal authorities dismiss the charge. Instead, Jeffs was indicted by a grand jury.
The 52-year-old FLDS leader was convicted last year in Utah of rape as an accomplice, accusing him of performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. In Arizona, Jeffs is facing more charges accusing him of similar crimes.
Ben Winslow Deseret News
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20080502/ai_n25395626/?tag=rel.res4