Quote:
Originally Posted by mrscardero
I don't see where the government had anything to do with excommunicating those who choose to continue polygamy. I see the government solving problems to aid in those who have no say or cannot make choices on their own due to being raised with the beliefe that the girls (women) should be married to one man and bare his children.
|
You're missing something here, Mrs. Cardero. Prior to 1862, polygamy was not illegal in America, and when the Latter-day Saints settled the Salt Lake Valley, what is now Utah was not even part of the United States. Despite the efforts of the Church leadership to clarify the doctrine, to explain rationale behind its practice and to point out that it was, in fact,
not illegal, Americans from all religious backgrounds united against the Latter-day Saints. Anti-Mormon literature exposing “the truth” about polygamy and the degradation of Mormon women was everywhere. The Morill Anti-Bigamy Act, signed into law in 1862 by Abraham Lincoln, banned plural marriage. Since nobody had bothered allocating any funds to actually enforce it, though, this law ultimately had very little effect on the Latter-day Saints.
In 1882, Congress passed the Edmunds Act, which declared polygamy to be a felony. The law made it impossible for anyone living in a polygamous family to hold public office, to serve on a jury or to vote. But that wasn’t all. It wasn’t just the civil rights of polygamist members of the Church that were affected, but the civil rights of all members of the Church who believed in the doctrine of plural marriage, regardless of whether or not they were participating in it. Adulterers and fornicators, on the other hand, had no such penalties applied and did not lose their rights. The Edmunds-Tucker Act, which was signed into law five years later (in 1887) effectively imposed fines of up to $800 and imprisonment of up to five years for anyone convicted of practicing polygamy. It dissolved the corporation of the church and directed the federal government to confiscate Church property in excess of $50,000.
This was not a matter of the government coming to
anybody's aid. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints never forced anybody into polygamy. Don't misunderstand me; I'm not saying the same is true with the polygamists in Texas. I am convinced there was some pretty widespread abuse going on in that compound. But you're implying that polygamy
in and of itself is characterized by a controlling, manipulative man lording it over a bunch of brainwashed women and their abused children. All jonny's saying is that that's
not the case.
04-15-2008, 09:32 PM
If they are not attacking you, that means they are not worried about you. ~ Kevin Madden ~ 
