General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Should Polygamy be illegal? [View all]Squinch
(50,932 posts)arrangements that piss me off about the FLDS and other fundamentalist polygamous sects.
First, they abuse MOST members of their society, including women, children and men, but most egregiously the women and children. Incest is rampant in these communities, and a forcibly enforced part of the religion in one of them. Women have no rights - and I mean NO rights. They are traded among the men like baseball cards, and they have no say who "gets" them. The children are often neglected and abused.
Second, they wildly abuse the state and the welfare system in the practice known as "bleeding the beast." The FLDS took all their kids out of public school, declared themselves a school system and took state funds for it, which they then used to pay for things like an airplane and runway. The kids get no education.
Most wives who are not first wives receive welfare which enriches their husbands, most of whom have already grown wealthy off the free labor of children and young men. Often the husbands will take the money and leave these wives without a means to feed their children.
If the human rights abuses and the RICO activities were prosecuted and ended, I wouldn't give a fig if they ALL married each other. But as it is now, I think a lot of these monsters should be thrown in jail.