It’s been a long long time since I’ve been inside a Mormon temple. Stuff is always changing, so I did feel compelled to ask.

http://166.70.44.68/blogs/trent/

I am not 100% positive but i believe the cheese and cement factory were used for the ranch only. They did not sell any items outside of the ranch. They were a city of their own. They had a doctor/clinic on the ranch, they also had their own dairy. the huge temple made of limestone was made by the men on the ranch. They even mined the limestone from the land and made the cement wall that surrounded the temple. If you google eldorado texas a link will come up that the citizens of Eldorado made many years ago, it has photos of the ranch as it was built.

As for the whole “consenting adult” issue: minors cannot give consent, their parents/guardians must do it for them. So if a 13 year old’s parents force her to consent to a marriage, that is, tacitly, legal. So it’s confusing.

Maybe the answer isn’t to strengthen stat rape laws, but change “age of consent” issues so that minors ARE allowed to give consent? I dunno, legally this is tough call.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t give a shit about the civil rights of predatory perverts. I do, however, worry about the precedent that’s set in cases like this. Don’t misunderstand, I think Warren Jeffs and his little feifdom are totally fucked up, and if what they are doing is not illegal, we need to make sure it somehow becomes illegal.

But on the other hand, I don’t think that unconvential family structure is a good enough reason to take someone’s kids away- I’d hate to see a loving, non-abusive, poly family (Big Love?) get tarred by the same brush that the FLDS has.

Because that’s the thing: I don’t have a problem with the consenting-adult variety of polygamy/polyamory, and I don’t have a problem with people choosing to create a subculture that is somewhat removed from mainstream society. I have a problem with child abuse, period, that’s it.

I am really interested to see how any civil liberties challenges play out here. Does being a religious nutburger give you the right to rape 12 year-old girls and beat them up? No. And I cannot imagine the court that would place religious freedom above the well-being of children.

As one who lived in a queer polyamorous family for most of my twenties, I appreciate the comments above that polyamory inherently excludes the unwilling or coerced. (And as a slightly-but not entirely- tongue-in-cheek response, it *might* be polyamory if the wives got to choose who their next husband(s) would be and/or if the sister-wives were getting it on with each other . . . )

Bottom line: the abuse that goes on in isolated communities as well as in urban centers, in often-religious-based insular groups requires the light of day and public scrutiny. Secrecy, even/especially when “designed” to protect so-called sacred rituals, is usually toxic.

(And although I’m not practicing polyamory anymore, it was great relationship training and has made me a much better monogamous partner to my girlfriend now. Communication skills practiced and learned in healthy relationships of all stripes are invaluable.)

I totally agree!!

I know we weren’t there because of polygamy. We were there because this place is engaging in organized child exploitation and abuse all along trying to play it off as religion.

If you want to practice polygamy with concenting adults, more power to you. But the second you decide a 13 year old should be your newest wife, you cross the line. Besides i would argue most of the adult women there arent capable of being concenting adults. They have been under such control for so long i cant imagine they are able to see through all of their fear and make decisions for themselves