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Colorado City Arizona Polygamists


Nottawayfer
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These people are part of a Fundamentalist Latter Day Saint Church residing in the Northern part of Arizona since the late 1800s. There were raids on their compounds in the 30s and 40s due to the polygamy. Now the law enforcement doesn't have time to deal with the kind of thing. The local law enforcement in the city is all ran by people involved in this religion. Only county law enforcement would step in to enforce any real issues, but it seems they are slow to move. The school superintendant (also involved) is elected by these people, yet they do not send their children to the shool. It is rumored that the superindentant sends the money to the prophet of the religion. Their city is one inhabited almost exclusively by people in their religion.

They all live and work together. The men obviously have several wives and more children than they probably even get to know. It's sad.

Girls are shoved off to an arranged marriage to men 3 times or more their age when they are 16 or so and are expected to bare children all their lives. Boys have been kicked out of the "camp" to reduce the competition with the older men for wives. It is a sick situation.

Their motto is to "leach the beast", meaning they live off of the government. Only the first marriage is recognized by the State, so the remainder of the wives live on welfare.

Today, some of these people came to my office because they are splitting up their property tax bills. I work for the assessor in my county. These people were respectable and very nice. They brought in doughnuts, cookies, fruit, juice and milk for the employees in our office. But all day long, I was think "they are another cult with the same kind of BS mentality as TWI". They actually think they are exclusive to God and doing His will. They, too, have an "us" and "them" mentality.

One woman in our office jokes with one of the men by asking him, "Dude, do you know how to dance?" In his culture, it is not proper for a woman to act or address a man that way. He blows off her question even though they have had many conversations over the last 20 years or so that she has worked there. Yet, he is still polite.

I began to think about these girls who grow up in this city. They don't know anything else. They are taught from a small age that they will marry in their teens and have babies until they can't anymore. It is all for the sake of the religion. Heck, in biblical times kids married as teens. I guess if you live a secluded life-style, you don't know what you are missing.

But they are missing out on a lot. They dress like school marms from the 1800s(like Amish). They don't watch TV, they don't learn anything except wifely duties unless they are one of the lucky ones allowed to go to nursing school which will only benefit them in delivering all of the babies born in the community.

The boys aren't taught any kind of skills, and they aren't schooled enough to be able to get a job outside of this community.

It is sad to see things like this going on. I thought about it all day today because these people were in our office. It is slavery and sexual abuse of children. Sad

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My understanding is that polygamy is illegal.

However, the law seems to turn a blind eye to this. And it's terrible that our tax dollars help support this.

On a different slant...

A few guys can get many wives, and I cant find one. icon_frown.gif:(-->

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Wayfer Not!:

"Have you seen the women from these groups Z? They look like they are still living in the 1800s. Long hair pulled up, no makeup, and long dresses, with birkenstock type shoes"

WOW

Sounds like some 'hot' girls there.

[remind me to never show you any pictures of my wonderful wife, Bonnie]

:-)

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Fascinating.

Tom Green with his five "wives" in 2001.

art.jpg

If he had only "married" women over the age of 16, he probably wouldn't have gotten into trouble with the law. The amazing thing to me is these women that seem to be perfectly happy with this type of arrangement. I don't understand it at all.

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quote:
Originally posted by Zshot:

My understanding is that polygamy is illegal.

However, the law seems to turn a blind eye to this. And it's terrible that our tax dollars help support this.


It is illegal, but there is nothing illegal about having a wife and other women living with you who you sleep with and take care of. In groups like this in particular, they even marry family members who are below 18, and can probably find some way to claim them as dependents. They are sick bastards, but they find ways to not be illegal if they can, and even when they do break the law they usually get away with it because the law enforcement in their town participates as well.

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A great book to read on fundamentalist Mormons is "Under the Banner of Heaven: a story of violent faith" by Jon Krakauer.

Cheating the government out of tax dollars is not just a common practice among them, it is thought to be smiled upon by God...a religious duty.

Not all young ladies are happy with the way things go in these groups, but most don't know anything else. They have been brain washed from a very young age to think that to be a great woman of God you want a man to pick you as one of his wives at a young age. It is less polygamy and more religion sponcered pedophilia under the guise of the "covenant" of "spiritual wifery".

Read the book. You thought TWI was strange the story of the LDS and the FLDS is one crazy history.

It is not just in Colorado City. The FLDS is alive and well in many areas of the country and our neighbors to the north and south. For ex. the Elizebeth Smart case.

Quite a sick bunch of freaks.

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I have a book in our library:

“Guests of the sheik: an ethnography of an Iraqi village.

By Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, a Doubleday Anchor book

In it the author describes moving into an arab village and living among the locals, as her husband [an anthropologist] gathers data from governmental officials and the sheiks themselves. They lived in their own camel-dung sun-baked brick home, where she was able to communicate with other women and learn about them. She was allowed to visit and go into the homes of harems and gather information from them about their lives, their lifestyles, and their views on life.

It is also very good for gaining an understanding of that polygamous society.

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Wayfer Not!:

"I'm sure your wife doesn't look like an Amish woman. I sure didn't mean this as an insult. It's just not a common thing to see in our culture."

LOL

We use a Mennonite curriculum for Homeschooling our children. All pictures of ladies in those books show them 'looking' like what is being described in this thread.

We have on occassion moved among circles of 'Reformed' Mormons as well as Mennonites, and yes Bonnie does look like that.

On recent trips to Maine, shopping for land, one of the first things to 'hit' me was that a lot of the ladies up in Maine also 'look' like that [long hair, long dresses or work clothes, no make-up, boots as often as sandals, little or no jewelry]. Plain and yet as attractive as their creator made them.

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