Modern American polygamy is a patchwork of fundamentalist Mormon sects, clans, independent communities and independent practiioners. Estimates vary from 30,000 to 100,000 polygamists in Utah and smaller populations in surrounding western states, Canada and Mexico. The estimates are notoriously unreliable because aside from polygamous communities like Hilldale, UT and Colorado City, AZ, those living the principle are in the closet. The modern phenomenon of single motherhood, cohabitation and casual sexual relationships make it much easier for polygamists to integrate unobstrusively in the greater society.

Modern American polygamy really came into its own in the 1930s--over forty years after the mainstream Mormon church suspended the practice. In the previous post on this subject, I mentioned the claim that John Taylor, the third president/prophet of the LDS church was alleged to have conferred the priesthood authority to solemnize plural marriages on a group of men in attendance at a special meeting. Notably, only after all the men except one--Lorin Woolley, had died, did Woolley make the claim to have received this authority. Initially through active proselyting of the amenable LDS community--still smarting from the federal interference with their religious rights; the fundamentalist Mormons prospered.

Its bears mentioning that the term fundamentalist is a rhetorical and not taxonomic term. The polygamists sought to represent themselves as old line Mormons, but objectively their belief system bears only a superficial resemblance to the mainstream church. The polygamists are "fundamnentally" about polygamy and little else, whereas the role of polygamy is the mainstream church was, although important, more incidental to the church's doctrine, structure and goals (as demonstrated by its subsequent growth, prosperity and influence of the church without the practice of polygamy...)

An active pushback by the mainstream church, state and federal authorities made this progressively harder to accomplish, but some polygamists such as the Allred group and the True and Living Church of Manti still manage successful proselytizaion, although on a very small scale. These groups are also more or less immune from legal prosecution because they do not engage in the practice of marrying child brides, thus avoiding the basis of every successful prosecution of polygamist in the past decade or so.

Polygamists can flout anti-polygamy laws for much the same reason that homosexuals have been able to flout long-standing sodomy laws--the current cultural climate in this country makes such prosecutions politically undesirable. While it is commonly thought that mainstream Mormons must still secretly support polygamous relationships, the real political protection comes from liberal social mores that tacitly condone any and all types of relationships between consenting adults.

Ironically, the groups that fly under the legal radar in this way are the small ones. The Allred group is estimated to comprise 10,000 members but that is by most accounts rather optimistic. Nevertheless, the group has established communities in the Salt Lake and Utah valleys along the Wasatch front, in Cedar City, Montana and even overseas in Germany and Mexico.

Yet the well-led and well-mannered polygamist groups are the exception rather than the rule. The intensely patriarchal and dictatorial nature of polygamist groups virtually guarantees the worst kinds of excesses. Its notable that the Allred group, like the progenitor mainstream church, is run by council. On the other hand, the notorious groups like the Kingstons and FLDS are dictatorships.

The form of government is largely a matter of cultural defensiveness. The more besieged a group feels, the more likely that it will have a very authoritarian leadership.

For polygamous groups, the biggest threat is clearly the ideals, values and excesses of American society. The positive elements of American society--self-actualization and democracy among others, are a direct threat to the authority of the group leadership. The negative elements are similarly problematic--materialism, self-indulgence without personal accountability are a siren call to the young.

The universal response by all polygamous groups is isolation, but that is getting progressively harder, particularly as the intermountain west undergoes unprecedented economic and population growth. The FLDS has responded to this by establishing new colonies in Texas and in the Dakotas

Additionally, polygamist groups exercise total control over all aspects of the lives of church members. The Kingston group is well known for have extensive commercial interests that employ church members exclusively. While serving the financial needs of the group, it also assures that the group can dominate the economic as well as the spiritual destiny of their members.

Finally there is costume. Women in particular are forced to adopt styles of dress and hair that easily distinguish them from women of the mainstream culture. St. George, Utah is the closest major city to the Colorado City/Hilldale and consequently residents and visitors (it is a popular tourist destination thanks to its temperate climate, numerous golf courses and proximity to Zions National Park and the north rim of the Grand Canyon) can often encounter FLDS members conducting their shopping at Walmat and Costco. They are instantly recognizable because their hair is long, usually braided, often covered with an Amish-style skull cap. They wear dresses that extend to mid-calf and are long-sleeved and high-necked. The men also wear long pants and long sleeves, even in the triple-digit heat of southern Utah and northern Arizona. The polygamist stand apart, just like police officers, soldiers, or bikers do--each is making a statement about who they are and who they are not.

The most important element of control however, is the belief of the church member in the divine authority of the leadership. Warren Jeffs has tested this power almost to it limits, by excommunicating men and giving their wives and children to others. For most people, this boggles the mind--not unlike Islam radicals willing to lay down their lives for a promise of 72 black-eyed virgins in the after-life, but it is by far the most potent weapon at his disposal for maintaining his control over the community.

Jeffs is believed by FLDS church members to literally hold the keys to heaven. To put it bluntly, FLDS doctrine holds that man becomes like God in the afterlife by having children--lots and lots of children. The doctrine is too complex to fully explain in a blog posting, but ultimately to attain heaven, one must procreate one's own worshippers and start as soon as possible. As the prophet, Jeffs holds the priesthood keys that allow him to seal wives and children to a man, and thus enable his eventual godhood. Jeffs is literally a godmaker

There is nonetheless a fascinating dynamic among polygamous groups that could be called god wars.

While for a given patriarch, multiple wives and as many children as each wife can bear are a significant advantage is establishing a baseline for numerous descendents, the next generation provides a living battleground for competing patriarchs. Under this system, daughters enhance the number of progeny accounted to other patriarchs, while sons enhance their progenitor's direct line progeny. Patriarchs would inevitably find themselves in conflict with each other as they seek to enhance the prospects of their own sons patriarchal destiny over the sons of rival patriarchs. Since prospective wives are a limited resource, the entire matter of becomes a zero-sum game.

As a result, we get the dichotomy between the doctrine of the church which stipulates that sons should be highly valued, and actual practice that has young men being put out on the street with the clothes on their backs.

The implications are fascinating--male members of the church other than Warren Jeffs and perhaps a few of his close associates, will never achieve their ambitions. They exist within the church to supply Jeffs and his male descendents with daughters. Spiritual eunuchs.

In Stephen Leavitt's Freakonomics, we learn that the vast majority of crack dealers make less than minimum wage, live with their mothers and a many times more likely to die than a prisoner on death row.

Why do crack dealers and FLDS male church members put up with it?

Why do kids sacrifice summer vacations to go to sports camps and their parents spend tens of thousands of dollars to keep them playing and developing skills?

On the off chance that they might reap rich rewards in the big leagues--even if the "off" chance is slimmer than slim.

This fatal flaw alone would probably doom polygamy in a few generations, but these groups now have to contend with a legal strategy by state and federal authorities that undermines the real foundation of American polygamy--child brides.

The child bride is a necessity because it locks a woman into the polygamous lifestyle before she is remotely capable of questioning it. Married soon after puberty, she becomes pregnant and may in fact have two or three children by the time she reaches her early twenties. Should a polygamous wife become dissatisfied with her situation she is faced with the reality that she has no education, no skills and no contacts outside the community. If she manages to overcome those obstacles, she is faced with abandoning her own children--a formidable challenge to say the least.

There is already a significant support network in place for young women who want to abandon polygamist communities, and if the practice of child brides is curtailed by aggressive prosecution, the trickle of runaways will become a stream and then a river.

When that happens, American polygamy will be imminently consigned to the dustbin of history.