The recent arrest of fundamentalist polygamists and the rescue of hundreds of women and children from a compound in Eldorado, Texas, has reopened the debate about polygamy and religious rights in the United States. Many claim that the government has no right to interfere with one's religious beliefs, even if it contradicts the law, like in the case of Rastafarians who hold marijuana use as part of their religion or extreme Mormons who practice polygamy. I hold, however, that the practice of polygamy is inherently abusive and should therefore remain outlawed.
There are stories all over the media about groups of women who are happy to be married to the same man. Others point to ancient traditions in places like Africa where sometimes dozens of women are married to one man for financial benefit and support. On the surface, there does not seem to be anything wrong with polygamy if all the women choose such a lifestyle. After all, how can any government tell anyone who they can live with or what lifestyle to have?
However, an actual case study of polygamy on a mass scale reveals how dangerous it can be. Four-hundred and sixteen children have been removed from the Eldorado compound, all suspected of being both mentally and physically abused. A 16-year-old girl, who was married to a much older man and who had a child at age 15, made the call to police about the compound. Authorities say that the children have been raised to hate everyone outside the compound, especially the government.
So, at the very least, we can deduce from these basic facts that extreme polygamists tend towards very young wives who are too young to make decisions for themselves. This is not the romanced polygamy of HBO's "Big Love." This is child rape.
It is no surprise, then, that the children are abused. The polygamist leaders probably want to raise the girls to become the young child-wives of other polygamists and expect the boys to join their ranks. The children are enslaved in the compound and grow up with a distorted worldview and a very limited opportunity to lead full lives in the real world, outside the tyrannical world of mass polygamy.
Polygamy's inherent abusiveness is not limited to the marrying of underage girls. Women married to polygamists lack the full and undivided support required by mainstream wedding vows. How can one man possibly completely serve each woman? Conflicts are bound to arise, too, between the wives. You cannot convince me that the women are not naturally jealous of each other, when each is sleeping with the same man on a different night.
The Texas case is firm evidence that, at least in some cases, polygamist marriages are not entered into freely by women, but are instead forced upon them. Even if the women "enter freely," they have probably been brainwashed since early childhood to do so by the fundamentalist leaders who raised them. This trend of forced marriage, combined with the emotional and physical abuse associated with polygamy, is reason enough to oppose the practice and its legalization.
2008 Woodie Awards
Be the first to comment on this story