UNLV forward Joe Darger scored 18 points yesterday in leading the Runnin’ Rebels to a 71-58 win over Kent State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Darger, a junior, is a good player, but what interests me about him isn’t his game, it’s his family.
Darger’s father is a polygamist. His dad has two wives. One wife has 10 children and the other has eight. Although Joe Darger doesn’t talk to the media about his family, his father, John Darger, has spoken proudly about his polygamist lifestyle, about how he supports both his wives, and about how all his children are growing up to be well-adjusted young people, as Joe Darger is, from all accounts.
But make no mistake: Darger’s father is a criminal. He’s flagrantly violating the law, in both his home state of Utah and every other state, and the Utah attorney general’s web site makes clear that it’s a law Utah takes seriously. If the authorities choose to, at any time, they’ll have absolutely no trouble proving his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and throwing him in prison. If Darger’s father is thrown in prison, would that be OK with you?
If it wouldn’t, you’re in the minority: Polls consistently show that most Americans believe polygamy should be illegal. President Bush and most members of Congress believe we should amend the Constitution to ensure that marriages like those of Darger’s father will remain illegal.
The criminalization of polygamy will remain the law of the land, and John Darger will remain a criminal. And the longer Joe Darger is on American television sets during March Madness, the bigger target his father will become.
A reader commented:
Just because this is weird, and it is weird, I don’t think the government has the right to tell people how to live.
After watching several documentaries on this (and there seems to have been a bunch of them lately, likely because of the HBO show Big Love) I think that there are many of these situations that do work. However, I see the other side of this where there are so many of these little sects and compounds (look up Warren Jeffs) where there is abuse. This is what we need to need to address so that the people who are involved in this are doing so of their own free will.
So this guy has 18 kids? How many pro athletes have multiple kids with several mothers and don’t take care of them? How many is Travis Henry up to already? How about Shawn Kemp?
It obviously worked for this kid so far. He is in college and is successful and has a shot at the sweet 16 tomorrow.
Before we judge what other’s beliefs are we should realize that we all don’t have to agree on how to have a family. There are a lot of single parent and homosexual couples raising kids. Those are also situations that work in spite of everyone judging them. Just because it isn’t something you or I choose doesn’t make it awful.
People in this country need to get off their puritanical high horse and let people live the way they want. Your beliefs are not right for everybody. Judge not lest ye be judged.
Another Comment:
Let me see …
There are men (many, many men) who have been married more than once – they marry; they fall in love with another woman; they divorce and marry again; they meet and fall in love with another woman, divorce and marry again, etc.
Families are torn apart, but, hey, it’s legal! …
Now a man who marries and then meets another woman and falls in love with her and then adds her to his family by marrying her without tearing his first family apart by divorcing his first wife – this man is a criminal? …
Wait a minute, am I missing something here?
Another Comment:
The laws of the land are really screwed up, if you’re allowed to have mistresses, legally cheat on your wife, but you get thrown in jail for practicing polygamy, which is sanctioned in the Bible.
The purpose of polygamy is to provide a woman with shelter, family, and love…
Whereas you can go sleep around with a bunch of girls, father a few children, and you’re in the clear, as far as laws go…
Polygamy is very normal and practiced in the middle east and all of Africa. We’re in the minority here.
Uh… I think the laws need to be adjusted.
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