TresSugar

Guides Hope Public Will Have Big Love For Polygamy Tours

TresSugar — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:10:00 -0700

Has Big Love only intensified your curiosity about the mysterious lives of polygamists? Perhaps you should book your next vacation to Arizona, where former fundamentalist Mormons have launched a tour of a polygamous colony.

Starting next weekend, outsiders will get an inside look with "The Polygamy Experience: A Guided Tour of Colorado City." The tour is not for the passingly curious, as it lasts four hours and involves meetings with people who have been exiled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Even so, it promises to be respectful. The guides will educate tourists on the history of fundamentalist Mormonism and explain why they take more than one wife in the first place. Paying customers will also learn what's behind the prairie dresses and long braids.

The tour costs $70 for adults and $60 for children (children, really?). Would you shell out the money to see polygamy up close?

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People Checks In With Polygamous Ranch Children Year Later

CitizenSugar — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:00:47 -0700

Last April, authorities in Texas seized 439 children from their homes, thanks to suspected sexual abuse on the FLDS polygamous compound where they lived. The children were returned to their homes after the Texas Supreme Court found that the state had illegally seized the children from the FLDS ranch. One year later People magazine has checked back in with the families that captured America's attention.

The parents are still transitioning the children back into life on the compound, after the kids were kept from their families for two months and "exposed" to mysterious modern marvels like baseball, bikes, and TV.

The caretakers dressed them in mainstream clothes such as shorts(!) and introduced the children to a different way of life. One mother said her children "had so many toys thrown at them. Toys tend to teach children to be selfish. We make it real and useful to them. Gloria loves to do the dishes. If you cultivate that, then they're happy."

Will you be picking up this issue of People to learn more about life on the polygamous ranch?

Iowa Flooding and Polygamy Cause Debate Within Religions

CitizenSugar — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:07 -0700

What do the recent floods in the Midwest, and the attention garnered over the FLDS polygamy case have in common? It might not be obvious on the surface, but they're both instances where headlines are having a big impact on religion. First, the floods:

One grocery-store owner in Iowa, who is a devout Muslim, saw his business of six years washed away along with hundreds of others in the severe flooding last month. But whereas other businesses are signing up to receive federal loans at low interest, he cannot; it is forbidden in the Quran for any believer to pay interest. The store owner claims he will need $18,000 to replenish his stock, a sum he does not have, yet his faith has not faltered: “With all of our losses here, even the loss of a six year effort, I still feel we were blessed.”

In Utah, a somewhat different religious struggle is taking place between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the more renegade Fundamentalist groups, most of whom practice polygamy. To see what's causing the debate, read more.

Each group believes they have a rightful claim to the appellation “Mormon.” The LDS Mormons believe that since traditionally the word Mormon has been used to describe their church that they are the ones whom it should refer to exclusively. The more fundamentalist branches, including the group recently raided in Texas, disagree stating that it is their belief in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon is all that is needed to be called “Mormon."

Should a religion's name be proprietary - does the LDS Church have a rightful claim to it? Would you refuse government assistance because your religion dictated?

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Front Page: Iran Fires Missiles, Polygamy Leader Hospitalized, Darfur Peacekeepers Attacked

CitizenSugar — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:59:24 -0700

Iran Fires Missiles:
Iran has test-fired nine missiles today, including one capable of reaching Israel. The tests coincide with escalating negotiations over Iran's nuclear program as well as US and UK warships conducting naval maneuvers in the Persian Gulf. The tests make this quote from yesterday stand out. A senior Iranian official said yesterday that Iran would respond to any military attack by striking Israel and America’s vital interests around the globe. He said, “In case that they commit such foolishness, Tel Aviv and the US fleet in the Persian Gulf would be the first targets to burst into flames receiving Iran’s crushing response.”

Polygamy Leader Hospitalized:
Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs has been taken from jail to a Las Vegas hospital for an unknown medical problem. President of the now well-know FLDS sect, Jeffs was sent to prison after a conviction by a Utah jury last year on two counts of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice. His health has been in jeopardy while in prison because of a self-imposed fast as well as attempted suicide combined with throwing himself against the walls and banging his head.
Darfur Peacekeepers Attacked:
Six members of the joint peace mission between the United Nations and African Union in Sudan's Darfur region have been killed in an attack. A convoy of 40 armoured vehicles ambushed the peace force while on patrol in North Darfur. Reports say that about 17 peacekeepers are still missing. The UN-AU mission struggles against the violence with only 9,000 of the planned 26,000 troops. It's unclear at this point who was behind this attack. Since the conflict began in Darfur five years ago, the UN estimates that 300,000 people have died and another two million have fled their homes.

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Texas Loses, Found To Have Illegally Seized Polygamy Kids

CitizenSugar — Fri, 30 May 2008 07:30:31 -0700

A divided Supreme Court of Texas agreed 6-3 yesterday that the state had illegally seized 468 girls and boys from the FLDS ranch last month on unproven grounds of physical and sexual abuse. State officials said they would now begin moving swiftly to return the children.

A spokesman for the Department of Family and Protective Services, who took custody of the children after a raid on April 3, said,

“We are disappointed, but we understand and respect the court’s decision and will take immediate steps to comply. Our goal is to reunite families whenever we can and make sure the children will be safe. We will continue to prepare for the prompt and orderly reunification of these children with their families."

One man who has authored a history of polygamy and who is now a member of the mainstream Mormon Church said, "this will embolden them. It’s definitely a big win for the polygamists.”

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Polygamist Parents Must Learn "Evils of Polygamy"

LibertySugar — Wed, 21 May 2008 06:00:54 -0700

Chaotic custody hearings for the children removed from a polygamist compound began yesterday and will continue for three weeks. Texas' Child Protective Services (CPS) has come up with a vague plan for what to do with the 460 children removed from the polygamous compound: return as many children to the FLDS parents as possible.

If all the children were to remain in the most basic level of foster care next year, it would cost the state $21 million. While the details are still being worked out, CPS has articulated some of the conditions for custody. To see what they are, read more.

Parents who want their children to return will have to: live independently and off the compound, find a job, and attend counseling and parent classes. A lawyer for one of the eight-year-old girls told NPR that the state wants the parents to understand the "evils of polygamy."

Currently, polygamous parents are traveling across vast Texas to take advantage of the hour visitation time granted for each child each week. Do you think they will be wiling to meet the state's custody preconditions? Would it be better to try to place as many children as possible with relatives outside of the FLDS?

Does the framework, which seems to dictate a lifestyle that does not include communal living, offend your notion of individual freedom? What about freedom of religion or a parent's right to raise their children? Have the parents sacrificed these rights by subjecting their children to crimes like abuse and rape?

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Polyglamorous? Oprah Visits Polygamists, Gets Hair Secrets

CitizenSugar — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:00:36 -0700

It's good to be Oprah. Well, most of the time. Dreams of infiltrating polygamist compounds come and go, but daytime's queen got to live it, going as she is with a TV crew. Thank goodness for that! Though she didn't get any FLDS secrets - unless you want that poof!

So what was she told? The FLDS is definitely not racist. Sister wives? Learn about themselves through conflict. Kids? No need for play when there's work. Teen girls? Trust their parents will choose the right husbands. Underage marriage? Um. Answers ranged from "absolutely not" to "not really, no." Oh.

But she did get straight answers on their long hair. BTW, poof height does not correspond with righteousness. "It's just a style," Oprah's told, "come back in 10 years." Will do! To see how they get the look, read more.

Too Much of a Good Thing? This Cat Has 86 Wives

CitizenSugar — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 07:00:19 -0700

While we may have been shocked by the FLDS polygamy case in the US, this Nigerian man has that beat by a harem. Mohammed Bello Abubakar, 84, has 86 wives. Yes, that's right: 86 wives and at least 170 children. Far from recommending the practice to others, he says it takes a very special spirit to be wedded to scores of brides. He says, "A man with 10 wives would collapse and die, but my own power is given by Allah. That is why I have been able to control 86 of them." He has a reputation as a healer, which is why they're drawn to him. "I don't go looking for them, they come to me. I will consider the fact that God has asked me to do it and I will just marry them."

To find out how he cares for an Economy-Sized family, and how the women feel about it, read more.

The Nigerian Archbishop says polygamy flies in the face of Christianity, and Islamic authorities have branded the family a cult, but the big question remains: how does one man provide for a brood so big? Abubakar says by the grace of God. He doesn't work, nor do any of his wives, yet they still manage to pay the giant cost of feeding and clothing an army - they eat almost $1,000 of food per day. One of the wives says sometimes the children are sent out to beg, and the wives live three to a room in an unfurnished house. He doesn't allow any of his family to take medicine, and denies that malaria exists.

The wives, however, seem content. One says, "I am now the happiest woman on earth. When you marry a man with 86 wives you know he knows how to look after them." He's had a lot of practice, to be sure!

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Here Comes the Bookmobile With Hot, New Summer Pages!

CitizenSugar — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:45:18 -0700

What to read, what to read? With serious beach towel time or an empty nightstand, you might just be looking for a new book. Here are some brand spanking new releases that I'm checking out right now.

Goodnight Bush
With lyrical rhymes and Where's Waldo? detail, this parody of the childhood bedtime favorite Goodnight Moon bids farewell to the Bush administration. Here's a little sample:

Goodnight Constitution and goodnight evolution. Goodnight
democracy and goodnight privacy. Goodnight old growth trees, goodnight detainees. Goodnight allies, goodnight Abu Ghraib 'Cheese!'

OK, I might not be ordering that one, but there's more - polygamy! Fascism! Oh, my! For more Citizen-approved books, piquing my interest read more.

Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs

A memoir by the 21-year-old star witness in polygamist Warren Jeffs' 2007 trial. Elissa Wall tells all about her forced marriage, the impenetrable mindset of the FLDS, and her long-awaited escape.

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning

Today "fascist" is usually an insult slung at conservatives. National
Review editor Jonah Goldberg reminds us that history's great fascists were first socialists (liberal is pushing it). Look for controversial connections between fascist themes and American pop culture.

Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives

Imagine having the job of knocking on doors to tell mothers and fathers their child was dead. Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Jim Sheeler did. He spent two years shadowing the marine in charge of casualty notification to give us vignettes of insight.

What's on your reading list this summer?

Nigerian Archbishop: Polygamy Makes a Mockery of Christians

LibertySugar — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:00:00 -0700

Polygamy isn't limited to America, where a second child was born to an underage member of the FLDS in custody. Archbishop Peter Akinola, the leader of Nigeria's Anglican Church, is telling Christian polygamists to cut out the big love.

Nigeria is religiously divided: the north is predominately Muslim, while the south is mostly Christian and animist. As a sort of recruiting tool, Muslims converting to Christianity were allowed to maintain their polygamist lifestyle.

Not any more. In a letter to his congregation, which includes 17.5 million Nigerians, the Archbishop wrote:

The observation [of polygamy] will destroy our witness if not firmly addressed. We cannot claim to be a Bible-believing church and yet be selective in our obedience.

Women that give up the polygamous lifestyle - which the Archbishop says is necessary - often remain single, even though they are free to remarry in the church. Their children remain with their ex-husbands.

Should women converts be forced to separate from their husbands and leave their families? Since Christians inevitably are selective in what they follow in a sometimes contradicting Bible, should an exception be made for Muslims who want to convert, but don't want to break up their families? Or, should these converts accept monogamy as a crucial tenant to the faith to which they hope to convert?

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