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Former LDS members say there is ―quiet respect‖ for polygamists because men with
multiple wives are living the life commanded by LDS founder Joseph Smith. Mormons,
therefore, refuse to provide substantial assistance to those fleeing the fundamentalist
polygamist communities on the Arizona-Utah border. (John Dougherty, Phoenix New Times,
Internet, 10/7/04)
Issue in Campaign
When candidates for attorney general in Utah this fall debated Polygamy, Democrat Greg
Skordas called the institution ―an embarrassment ...not so much a crime about religion as
it is about crimes against women and children.‖ Republican incumbent Mark Shurtleff
agreed, noting that women in the polygamous communities of Hilldale, UT, and neighboring
Colorado City, AZ, are treated as ―chattel.‖ Both candidates agreed on the need to enforce
the law.
Libertarian Andrew McCulloch, who campaigned four years ago for less intrusive
government, argued: ―While there are some abuse problems going on down there, I think
the practice of polygamy in a religious setting is protected by the Constitution.‖ (His law
firm filed an amicus brief on behalf of convicted bigamist Tom Green.) ―I don‘t think you can
look at a polygamist community and say crimes against women and children are any more
prevalent than in any other community.‖ (Nancy Perkins, Deseret Morning News, Internet,
10/8/04)
“Groupthink” and “Brainwashing” Alleged
Andrea Moore-Emmett, author of God’s Brothel, based on her interviews of 18 women who
left polygamous families, says: ―This is an issue of violence and oppression against women
...and abuse against children.‖ Speaking at a program sponsored by the Women‘s
Resource Center in Salt Lake City, she denied the ―myth‖ that plural-marriage families are
constituted by consenting adults. She says women succumb to ―groupthink,‖ which
―brainwashes‖ them. Moreover, polygamous wives socialize their daughters to conform to
the system.
Moore-Emmett also said the Department of Child and Family Services doesn‘t want to break
up polygamous families because it‘s hard to find homes for so many children. She adds that
politicians are afraid to prosecute polygamists for fear of committing political suicide.
(Amanda Fritz, Daily Utah Chronicle, Internet, 11/18/04)
Book on Alleged Harms Given to Lawmakers
Utah State Senator Ron Allen has given copies of Andrea Moore‘s book on polygamy, God’s
Brothel, to 104 colleagues in the legislature, saying he wants to dispel the idea that
polygamy is harmless or ―a laughing matter.‖ The book, which contains 18 vignettes about
women who escaped polygamous families, is called by a critic ―a stinging indictment of the
hidden practice.‖ (Kirsten Stewart, Sal Lake Tribune, Internet, 1/19/04)
Guide for Public Service Personnel
The Utah Attorney General‘s office has produced The Primer, a manual aimed to assist law
enforcement and social services personnel who are called upon to help victims of domestic
abuse coming from polygamous communities. The manual, which contains a history of
polygamy, a glossary of terms, descriptions of fundamentalist groups and their practices,
training exercises, and a list of resources, is on line at
http//attorneygeneral.utah.gov/polygamy.html.
The Executive Director of the Utah Domestic Violence Council said the manual ―will help us
reach out and respond to calls that are coming in from polygamous families.‖ The widowed
plural wife who heads Principle Voices of Polygamy, a Utah group that represents

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2005, Page 61
polygamous families, says the manual will ―build some bridges,‖ because it has the dual role
of educating agency workers about how to deal with members of the culture and letting
plural wives know the government is willing to help them with benefits and other services.
(Pamela Manson, Salt Lake Tribune, Internet, 1/7/05)
Republican State Sen. Carlene Walker said she was offended by God's Brothel and defended
polygamy as natural and not necessarily harmful. She said she‘s known polygamists who
are "fine, honest, educated, wonderful people. To characterize the whole polygamy
community as abusive to children and the welfare system is inaccurate," she said. (AP in
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Internet, 1/22/05)
Marriage Challenge “Inevitable”
It is likely that there will be a challenge to laws prohibiting polygamy in Canada, and that
the argument will be made on civil rights grounds similar to those that were recently put
forward in favor of same-sex marriage. The government has thus far refused to move
against polygamy, says University of Alberta sociologist Steven Kent, because it is afraid of
such a constitutional challenge.
Attorney Vaughn Marshall says that if polygamists do launch a constitutional challenge, the
government will have to argue that polygamy harms children, a consideration which trumps
freedom of religion. "This has to be framed from the standpoint of the children born of these
parents," he says. "The courts are going to have to stop it for that reason." (Mindelle
Jacobs, Edmonton Sun, Internet, 1/25/05)
Rajneesh
Life as a Child among Rajneeshees
Tim Guest keeps telling his girlfriend of five years that he doesn‘t feel ready to have children
because of his experience growing up with a mother who became a devotee of the guru
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. She left Tim, when he was four, with his father, from whom
she was already estranged, and went off to Rajneesh‘s ashram in India. Tim eventually
joined her, living for seven years in Rajneesh communes in India, England, Germany, and
Oregon. All the while, he says, she was rebelling against her strict Catholic girlhood, seeking
enlightenment through, among other things, free love and drugs.
Even as Tim‘s mother abandoned the consumerist dream, ―we [children] fought over Legos
and ‗E.T.‘ toys.‖ While she built spiritual togetherness as a model for the world, ―my mother
and her friends ignored some of the more practical needs of the children under their feet —
forgetting, for example, to take us to the dentist or to clip our fingernails.‖
At ten, feeling very lonely ―in a houseful of people,‖ Tim returned to his father, but ―over
time, my family‘s abandonments accrued into a sorrow that I struggled with for years
after.‖
When he was born, Tim‘s mother swore she would not raise him strictly, as she had been
brought up. So she let him run free. ―At some point, I made a similar vow not to inflict the
particular agony I knew — of abandonment and absence — on my children. Even if that
meant not having kids at all.‖ (Tim Guest, New York Times Magazine, Internet, 9/30/04)
Murder Linked to Rajneesh Influence
A judge in San Rafael, CA, has refused the appeal of Friederike Kruse that she be released
from a state mental hospital where she has been confined since her conviction for
disemboweling the housekeeper of people she had met in the group led by Bhagwan
Shree Rajneesh. The Chief Deputy District Attorney said Kruse has been mentally ill for
most of her life and that the murder was connected to her commitment to Rajneesh. (AP,
Internet, 2/1/05)