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Jul 31 2008

John Stossel: What does polygamy have to do with the government?

Posted by: Joshuah in Biblical Family

Source: Desert Dispatch

“Texas authorities on Tuesday indicted the leader of a polygamous sect … on charges of felony sexual assault on a minor, the first criminal charges to stem from a massive raid on the group’s West Texas compound,” The Los Angeles Times reported last week.

The Associated Press and other media used similar words: “indicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs … charges of felony sexual assault of a child.”

Straightforward reporting? In my “20/20” special “Sex in America”, polygamy activist Mark Henkel said no, it’s an ignorant distortion.

“The media kept saying, ‘Polygamist leader, polygamist leader,’” Henkel told me. “But the case actually involved incest and arranged marriage of a girl with her 19-year-old cousin. There wasn’t anything [that] had to do with polygamy. [Jeffs] wasn’t called an incest leader. He wasn’t called an underage-marriage leader. He was called a polygamist leader.”

Henkel and his website, TruthBearer, campaign against the media and others who lump criminals like Jeffs with all polygamy.

Henkel won’t reveal his own family situation. In Maine, where he lives, even purporting to have more than one wife is against the law. Henkel complains that American laws are hypocritical.

“Someone like a Hugh Hefner will have a successful television show with three live-in girlfriends! And that’s all OK, and he’s making great money, and that’s all fine and great entertainment. But suddenly, if that man was to marry them, then suddenly he’s a criminal. That’s insane!”….

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