I suppose this might have gone into the Mormon thread but nothing but arguements seem to happen there and not a lot of listening about polygamy.

Saw a show today about girls who managed to escape the Colorado cult of polygamists. There was a seventeen and eighteen year old who had recently excaped. There was also a guest lady who was proably thirty or forty something who had also escaped and now helps others who manage to.

It was the Dr Phil show and I'm sure some will have something to say about him or the source since since he doesn't bill himself as a Christian counselor/therapist/or other such label. What I want to get at is at the very beginning of his show he made a declaration that "this group IS NOT mainstream Mormon or Latterday Saint. They splinterd about one hundred years ago when they were told polygamy was no more." The leader does however claim himself to be a Prophet and his world true.

Girls as young as thirteen have been married off and start having babies. Family members are made to marry and procreate. The girls are taught how inferior and submissive they must be to men or suuffer eternal hellfire. Local government and law turn a blind eye. They are perported to be members themself or paid well by the cult. If girls are caught trying to escape, the local law enforcement take them right back. Even Child Protective Services seems to beleive keeping the family unit in tact is more important than anything else.

So, with all the Mormon bashing that goes on here, can this one issue stop being ressurected? There is a full length documentary about them. It's disgusting but informative. They used parts of the whole to provide overwhelming evidence that this is true.

hi. interesting topics. attended this one private school that was almost a cult[church funded]. seems powerhungry control freaks draw weak minded or just innocent folks into these cults. its sad. and its not just a mormon thang.any ''religion'' can fall prey to this trap. im not here to mormon bash. because where to draw the line when other churches do the same? Why pick on just one sect. [; i understand what you say here. and i watch dr. phil over oprah anyday.

It's really a shame what goes on within the polygamist communities in Southern Utah, Colorado and Calgary.

Sadly, the law enforcement folks are faced with a two edged sword on this. To do nothing means that this type of abuse continues. To track down and prosecute polygamists means to leave countless children fatherless and motherless.

What has happened lately is that Utah and other states have begun to prosecute polygamist fathers and leave the mothers alone. For the most part, they don't even prosecute on polygamy, but rather on unlawful cohabitation, because these people are rarely legally married. They also bust them on welfare fraud as many of the wives apply for and recieve welfare while the husband is actually gainfully employed.

All of you who live in Texas, lookout, because Warren Jeffs - the leader of the polygamists in questions has purchased a massive amount of land in Texas and is building a community there for everyone to move to since things are becoming so hostile in Utah.

A place where a federal marriage amendment could probably help...