How long until something like this happens in Bountiful, BC?

“4 Homes Raided in Polygamist Enclave”
Read here for the full story

I noticed that none of the charges involved polygamy, just sexual assault or intereference with a minor. I think that’s important because it then is not a Charter of Rights and Freedoms issue, it’s a criminal matter.

Oh well, *fingers crossed*

14 thoughts on “How long until something like this happens in Bountiful, BC?

  1. Just some personal speculation but I suspect the recent rise in police interest is directly correlated with a rise of public awareness of polygamy because of HBO’s new series Big Love.

  2. Are you waiting for someone to ask why you’re crossing fingers?

  3. I used to live in Arizona and once in awhile (usually around elections) the Attorney General (AG) would make some kind of raid.

    There is a problem that no one really wants ot discuss and that is if you were to put all these people in jail, who is going to pay to support all of these families? It is you and I the tax payers.

    Is there any real difference between the polygamist and men who have children by different women? Or the woman who has 5 kids by 5 different men?

    Sex with children makes them perverts and perverts need to go to jail. I say the Government needs to track down perverts and punish them.

    Also – if any Polygamist is reading this – If you allow your son to be turned out of your home onto the street at any age under the age of consent (18) because some man tells you to – YOU ARE DENYING FAITH AND YOU WILL NOT GET TO HEAVEN. That practice is almsot as wrong as giving your daughters to old men for sex. Let them wait until they are old enough to decide for themselves.

  4. In most places I’ve lived, 16 was the legal age for sexual consent. I take it the age for consent is 18 in Utah and Arizona? In my early 20s I slept with a few 17 year olds while attending BYU many years ago. No way I was a pervert; physically they were very willing adult women, not kids. I never even thought to ask how old they were and only found out later that some were still in High School. Bear in mind alcohol was involved.

    I am disturbed the driving force behind using law enforcement against these folks seems to be LDS embarrassment that the mainstream church not be confused with these groups. If so, should the authorities resist that pressure on separation of church and state grounds? Rather than prosecute individuals for child abandonment (the boys) and statutory rape (the girls), the real objective here seems to be to drive these groups to move somewhere else entirely.

    I will say the young women marrying old men is creepy.

  5. Steve, I see you’re still pointing with pride to your serial fornication days.

  6. Oh come-on Itbugaf, my point was not every adult having sex with a minor is a pervert, especially given the confusing patchwork of laws in the western world on this subject. I was/am hardly the only young single adult with that common weakness that I long ago repented of via marriage. Some orthodox LDS just freak because my past fall from grace occurred after serving an honorable mission, and perhaps that’s your beef with me. Tough ____. It can happen to anybody and most don’t make it back. I was very fortunate. I’m just glad my stake disciplinary council was kinder to me that you probably would have been.

  7. Yes, Steve, I know that was your point. And my point was that you seem to have a perverse pride in the way you describe the horrible sexual sins you committed while attending BYU. It comes off as bragging, to me.

    So now we both know each other’s points, right?

  8. Steve EM – Hope you don’t mind me asking personal questions. Did you repent before or after you were married?

    Assuming you waited to repent after you were married, do you feel like you would have been treated the same if you had confesed while still single?

    I aske this because it seems to me those who repent after marrying seem to receive a lessor punishment than those who confess while still single.

    I am interested in your thoughts on this.

  9. Bill

    How would you know this? Have you been involved in church courts or in Bishopric meetings where members have been disciplined for immoral activity?

  10. *fingers crossed* refers to my fondest hope that the RCMP will go in to Bountiful, B.C. and charge Winston et al. with abuse of minors.

    It would be a fitting end indeed if they happened to find Jeffs while they were there.

  11. Well Bill, it’s off topic, but to be honest, when I was having those difficulties, I never really lost faith and always kind of figured I’d settle down, get married and get right with the Lord when I met the right gal. In short, I knew I was too weak to repent outside of marriage and sort of self excommunicated. To your question, if my weakness was typical, and in such a case, a single, post mission, endowed Elder, serial fornicator confessed his sin and made an assessment the sin would continue in the absence of any marriage prospects, what choice would the church have but to discipline such an individual?

    To my personal situation, repentance plans were greatly accelerated a couple years after leaving BYU. I was living with an active LDS gal, who had replaced an earlier live-in gf. It was the first relationship I’d had with another LDS since leaving BYU, and things were so good, I asked her to marry me. She dragged me back to church to confess and asked the Bishop to marry us. In my case, the Bishop of course referred the matter to the stake. No hearing or action was taken against my wife-to-be. In my mind, I fully expected to get exed, not so much for the prior fornication, but as punishment for corrupting one of their own in that local unit. I know, screwy thinking, but that’s what was going through my head. To my amazement, almost the entire focus was on getting us married quickly to get out of the situation, and pointing us in the direction of preparing for Temple marriage down the road.

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