From the Archives

I just thought I'd share something with you I wrote a while back....

Plurality

I’ve been fascinated by plural marriages for a long time. Some call it polygamy, or polyamory, or polyandry, but with the recent raid on the Yearning for Zion compound, the scrutiny of polygamy has reached heightened levels.

In many ways, I don’t know what to do with ‘it.’ It is disturbing, surely, all of the reports that many of the female children take from the YFZ compound were underaged mothers and/or pregnant; reports that young boys were victims of abuse; reports that many of the children were injured, some with broken bones when they arrived to protective custody. Disturbing– it almost seems too benign a word.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching Big Love on DVD at home for the last week or so, that I’ve been thinking more and more about the YFZ sect. I’ve always had a fascination with the LDS faith– ever since that day as a small girl when two young men came to our house. My mother asked if they wanted something to drink and invited them into our living room. They talked to my mother about their faith and then they left. As an adult I told myself that if Mormon missionaries ever came to my house, I would do the same thing. One summer after my folks died it happened and I listened and took what they said to heart. I even prayed that God reveal whether this was the path I was to take. It wasn’t then. Maybe it is now? I doubt it, but I’m still fascinated nonetheless.

One of the most compelling, disturbing, fascinating, arresting tidbits from the stories of the raid, is the discovery of beds in the temple on the compound grounds. I am in no way saying that any bed, any where, that is used for unconsentual sex is okay. I am in no way saying that the underage ’spiritual’ marriages between middle-aged men and young girls is okay. But there is something to be said about the sanctity of sex and the spirituality of sharing your body with the person you love. There is a part of me that finds the thought of sex being ‘ordained’ is a beautiful thing. Instead of cheap one-night stands (hell, more like 15 minute stands), instead engaging in the act as a deeply spiritual and privileged act. I know, I know… it’s all hokey but maybe we need to return to the notion of sex being a gift, versus a fast-food drive-thru. Hi, can I help you? Intercourse in a bathroom? Okay, that’ll be 2 shots of tequila. Drive around to the back of the house, please. What have we lost by making sex as common as walk around the block? What have we lost by creating an industry where women are the highest earners, only to ‘empower’ them with multiple partners captured on video for generations and generations to come, no pun intended?

Perhaps the greatest perversion isn’t at the YFZ compound, and that is the most disturbing of all.