Information regarding polygamy history and modern polygamy.

Having written previously about polyamory (maintaining multiple romantic relationships) and polygamy (well, really, polygyny - having more than one wife at at time,) I have been intensely interested in the on-going case in Texas, in which more than 400 children of polygamists were put into temporary state custody following allegations of physical and sexual abuse at the Yearning for Zion compound near Eldorado. The group in question is the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), one of a number of polygamy-practicing sects that broke away from the mainstream Mormon church when that church banned polygamy in 1890. Read more »

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Lyndonville, Vermont - Lyndon State College Professor Janet Bennion knows a thing or two about polygamy. As the country's leading expert on the subject, she has spent the last 19 years researching and living with polygamous sects in Montana, Utah, and Mexico, and that's why she's disturbed by what's taking place in Texas.

"This is absolutely the wrong way to go about it. This is a group of people that are already against the government and the outside world, and then you get raided by state troops, kidnapping the children," said Bennion. Read more »

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Some Christians are sloughing off the Bible's "one wife" injunction and practicing polygamy. Thanks to the Internet, their search for superfluous spouses is getting easier.

Mark Henkel, founder of Truthbearer.org, estimates that 50,000 Christians have become polygamists since the movement (unconnected to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) began around 12 years ago. Read more »

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This humorous promotional article about A.J. Jacobs' The Year of Living Biblically speaks of his investigation into the world of polygamy. He investigates because of the Old Testament's laws governing plural marriage. Personally, I think he got some bad advice from the polygamy expert he interviewed. But this promotion is funny and shameless. In true Esquire style!

As his author archive on Esquire.com can attest, A.J. Jacobs is a man of many, many words. For the last year, Mr. Jacobs has somehow managed to generate even more of those words, writing a book about the year he spent living his life according to biblical law. These words have been collected into book form, given the catchy title of The Year of Living Biblically, and can be found on sale in a bookstore near you for the low, low price of $25. This is an interview again with even more of those words he's so famous for in which Mr. Jacobs shamelessly self-promotes this book in a blatant attempt to get you to click that link right up there and buy a copy. Read more »

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This article from Slate.com simply uses polygamy (polygny) as one of many examples of laws that usually aren't prosecuted. It gives a lot of history about many "splinter" groups in the US - Amish and Mormon Fundamentalists in particular. This article gives specific instances where governement agencies have turned a blind eye to broken laws - social security, education, allegations of sexual abuse, tax evasion and more. Very interesting read.
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This is a letter to the editor of a Kansas newspaper. This gentleman, like many others, is perplexed over the discrepancies in the Jeffs case. I don't think anyone would disagree that Jeffs was a predator of young women to marry off. But why wasn't the one that actually did the apparent rape charged equally? The writer also encourages the state of Utah to allow and regulate polygamous relationships. This is a very interesting take on what is becoming quite a controversial topic. Read more »

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