Strange Plural Marriage Law

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That means, in reality, what matters is whom he thinks you ought to marry. So some guy who looks like this:. The process by which they pick brides for husbands is the creepiest part of all, and we'll get to that later hint: My church was a fundamentalist offshoot of the Church of Mormon called the Righteous Branch, and that snowy-haired manwich above would sit down with every year-old girl and tell her whom she ought to marry and fuck.

And in that respect, we were lucky -- most of these fundamentalist Mormon groups start earlier, sometimes when the girls are as young as Thankfully, I was barely an adult when I was told who would be my husband. Every six months our church held a conference. We'd gather at the temple, hear the word of the lord, etc. I'd just turned I was a skinny young thing, and attracting boys. I was conflicted between wanting to find my own love and wanting to follow the path of the Lord, and I asked the Prophet for a blessing. I didn't know that, in reality, the decision had already been made. At the time, I was living with a friend of the family and his wife let's call them "Bill" and "Beth" who were members of the church.

If you think it odd that nobody would have concerns about a married man inviting a year-old girl to live under his roof, well, you've already guessed the next plot twist: Meanwhile, I just thought they were nice people giving me a new start in a new city fundamentalist Mormon teenagers can be on the naive side. So, during the blessing, the Prophet told me that "my salvation" lay with Bill. Beth his existing wife wasn't crazy about that, but for the next few weeks Bill and the church leaders bullied her into accepting me.

Eventually she gave in, and the wedding was set for five days later. To understand this, let me give you a quick and dirty history of Mormonity's seedy underbelly Polygamy was an official part of the mainstream church's doctrine until Non-creepy Mormons view this ban as a positive development. Dudes like this, however This small chunk of true believers in their need to take child brides broke away from the Mormon Church. All of these groups are formed around prominent families, in a very Game-of-Thrones ian manner.

For instance, the Kingston Group is known for intermarrying, including marrying brothers and sisters to each other. The LeBaron family is notorious for putting hits out on people. Brian Hales, via Wikipedia. Some of the members of the latter, in fact, murdered the head of one of the largest fundamentalist polygamist churches, a guy named Rulon Allred. A man named Gerald Peterson Sr. Allred's son, Owen, wasn't about to be denied his inheritance by some ghost story. He fought back and took most of his dad's church. But a small chunk splintered off with Peterson, and that's how my church -- the Righteous Branch -- began.

In , the mainstream church the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or LDS allowed black people to be ordained for the first time, which convinced my father that the church had lost its way "Everyone knows the real Jesus was in favor of polygamy and was a bitter racist! He sought out one of the fundamentalist sects that agreed with him on that issue and that would let him collect a bunch of hot, young wives.

Yeah, let's be frank here: He wanted to find wives who were younger and skinnier than my mom, so he could add babies to them. At one point before we joined, he even left my mom to pursue a much younger woman, convinced he'd been called to it like a sacred task. It was quite a disappointment to him when he finally got assigned his first official second wife when I was about She was about his age, postmenopausal, and overweight -- which is the downside of having some old dude choose for you I'll get into the disturbing reason he got stuck with her in a moment. Our wedding ceremony took place in Bill's cousin's family room.

My father officiated, and the first wife had to give her blessing. When it was done, he kissed me on the cheek and we were married. There was a wedding party after -- I was excited. I really wanted to sit next to my husband. But his wife was on one side, his daughter on the other, and they didn't make any room for me. They also made it clear I wouldn't be allowed to take pictures alone with him, only with the family. In North America polygamy has not been a culturally normative or legally recognized institution since the continent's colonization by Europeans.

Polygamy became a significant social and political issue in the United States in , when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints LDS Church made it known that a form of the practice, called plural marriage , was part of its doctrine. Opposition to the practice by the United States government resulted in an intense legal conflict, and culminated in LDS Church president Wilford Woodruff announcing the church's official abandonment of the practice on September 25, Polygamy is defined as the practice or condition of having more than one spouse at the same time, conventionally referring to a situation where all spouses know about each other, in contrast to bigamy , where two or more spouses are usually unaware of each other.

Polygamy in North America

Polygamy is the act or condition of a person marrying another person while still being lawfully married to another spouse. As this is the very definition of bigamy , it is illegal in the United States. The crime is punishable by a fine, imprisonment, or both, according to the law of the individual state and the circumstances of the offense. Many US courts e. For example, if a person has the mistaken belief that their previous spouse is dead or that their divorce is final, they can still be convicted of bigamy if they marry a new person.

In Canada the federal Criminal Code applies throughout the country. It extends the normal definition of polygamy to having any kind of conjugal union with more than one person at the same time. Also anyone who assists, celebrates, or is a part to a rite, ceremony, or contract that sanctions a polygamist relationship is guilty of polygamy.

Polygamy is an offence punishable by up to five years in prison. Scots-Irish settlers, and some Welsh emigrants, carried long-standing multiple partner traditions to the Americas from Europe. Polygamy has also been practiced, discreetly, by some Muslims living in America. Because polygamy has been illegal throughout the United States since the midth century, and in many individual states before that, sources on alternative marriage practices are limited. Consequently, it is difficult to get a clear picture of the extent of the practice in the past and at the present time. Latter Day Saints portal.

Mormon practice of plural marriage was officially introduced by Joseph Smith , the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement , on July 12, As polygamy was illegal in the state of Illinois , [13] it was practiced secretly during Smith's lifetime. Kimball took plural wives, any Mormon leaders that publicly taught polygamous doctrine were disciplined.

For example, Hyram Brown was excommunicated on February 1, In the territory that became Utah, and some surrounding areas, plural marriage was openly practiced by LDS Church adherents. However opposition from the U. The LDS Church's position on the practice of polygamy was reinforced by another formal statement in called the Second Manifesto , which again renounced polygamy. Although the Second Manifesto ended the official practice of new plural marriages, existing plural marriages were not automatically dissolved.

Many Mormons, including prominent LDS Church leaders, maintained existing plural marriages well into the 20th century. A small percentage of adherents rejected the change, identifying as Mormon fundamentalists and leaving the mainstream LDS Church to continue practicing plural marriage. Polygamy among these groups persists today in Utah , Arizona , Colorado , Canada , and some neighboring states, as well as up to 15, isolated individuals with no organized church affiliation.

Mormon fundamentalists often use an ambiguous September 27, revelation to John Taylor as the basis for continuing the practice of plural marriage. The Salt Lake Tribune estimates there may be as many as 37, Mormon fundamentalists, with less than half living in polygamous households. In , about 40, people living in Utah were part of a polygamist family, or about 1.

Thereafter, secondary wives attempt to be seen in public as single women with children. Some polygamous families use a system of multiple divorce and legal marriage as a loophole in order to avoid committing a criminal act. In such cases the husband marries the first wife, she takes his last name, he divorces her and then marries the next wife, who takes his name. This is repeated until he has married and divorced all his wives, except possibly the last one. This way the wives feel justified in calling themselves Mrs [husband's last name] and, while legally they are divorced from the husband, they still act as if married to him and expect those around them to acknowledge and respect this.

Our grandmothers accepted it.

Other women spoke bitterly of polygamy. They said their participation was dictated by an African culture of female subjugation, and linked polygamy to female genital cutting and domestic violence. That view is echoed by most research on plural marriages, including studies of West African immigrants in France, where the government estimates that , people live in 20, polygamous families.

They tell you nothing, until one afternoon he says, 'OK, your co-wife arrives this evening. Men, in contrast, tended to downplay the existence of polygamy, if they were willing to discuss it at all. Don't-ask-don't-know policies prevail in many agencies that deal with immigrant families in New York, perhaps because there is no framework for addressing polygamy in a city that prides itself on tolerance of religious, cultural and sexual differences -- and on support for human rights and equality.

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Islam often is cited as the authority that allows polygamy. But in Africa, the practice is a cultural tradition that crosses religious lines, while some Muslim lands elsewhere sharply restrict it. The Koran says a man should not take more than one wife if he cannot treat them all equally -- a very high bar, many Muslims say.

5 Things I Learned as a Mormon Polygamist Wife

When they come to our celebrations they dress the same, the same outfit, the same jewels. The husband is completely fair. Still, because only one wife can have entered the country as a spouse, the other is probably more vulnerable to deportation, she acknowledged. More typical, many immigrants said, are cramped apartments in the Bronx with many children underfoot, clashes between jealous co-wives and domestic violence.

And If the household breaks up, the wives' legal status is murky at best, with little case law to guide decisions on marital property or benefits.

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