I was out east this week and went out to dinner with my clients and of course they asked me were I was from in the first two minutes, to which I replied, "Utah".

As soon as I said it, I realized I had just dictated the conversation for the evening and sure enough, the questions about Warren Jeffs and polygamy came flyng fast and furious. After the evening's fun, it occured to me that I should write a little FAQ about polygamy, the FLDS church and Warren Jeffs since the media is of course, sensationalizing this story for their own purposes.

So why would I presume to try to inform you on the subject? I've lived in Utah for eight years and taken a more than passing interest in its history and culture. I think I have every book published on Mormon polygamy in the last 30 years and have read many Mormon history articles, theses and other source material. I know and have discussed polygamy with actual polygamists.

I think I'll write a series of posts starting today and through the weekend to deal with various aspects of the practice and the current situation of polygamy here in the intermountain west. They'll be clearly marked, so if you aren't interested you can just skip to something else.

First up: History.

Polygamy in its most common form--one man, many woman, is more accurately referred to as polygyny, however polygamy is the colloquial term and we'll use it to avoid confusion.

Polygamous arrangements are as old as mankind, although far less common than monogamous relationships, largely due to the economic constraints providing for numerous wives and children imposes on a prospective polygamous man. Historically, wealthier members of the community engaged in polygamy, as did the nobility in many societies to insure dynastic succession.

U.S. polygamy differs from the practice elsewhere in that it is largely practiced out of religious conviction rather than for the more prosaic reasons. Almost all polygamous groups today trace their lineage back to the 19th century Mormon church and its settlement of the intermountain west.

The doctrinal underpinnings of the practice of plural marriage or the principle as it is often referred to, require a discussion beyond the scope of this overview. For our purposes, we'll just have to accept a superficial explanation that the Mormon practice of plural marriage was a matter of religious faith rather than sexual license. Regardless of the reasons for it, the social impact was substantial and I want to explain some of it because it bears on the social structure of current polygamous groups to some degree.

The Mormon church introduced polygamy more or less discreetly (not discreetly enough by most accounts) while the church was still centered in Nauvoo, Illinois. The practice was acknowledged publicly after the Saints (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints refer to themselves as saints, or LDS. The term Mormon was originally a pejorative which LDS accept as an outsider reference to the church and its members). In LDS soteriology (philosophy of salvation), marriage is required to attain the highest degree of celestial glory, and faithful LDS women naturally preferred to improve their chances at heaven by marrying demonstrably faithful men.

Demonstrably usually meant men who held positions of responsibility in the priesthood hierarchy (all male church members are entitled to receive the priesthood if they are worthy, i.e. faithful). Thus Brigham Young and the apostles of the church were also the most eligible prospective spouses, with men holding important but lesser offices right behind.

Consequently, a young man was at a significant disadvantage when competing with a middle-aged Bishop of the church for the attentions of the girls in his peer group. The bishop represented a path to heaven AND economic and social security, compared to which young men had little to offer except good looks and promises.

Furthermore, a second or third wife merited a dowry of 150 acres, which meant that the established settlements were dominated economically by polygamous patriarchs. Young men sought to obtain social bona fides by serving proselyting missions and settling new sites in the intermountain west where they had a chance to be a founder. Their spouses came from the continuous stream of female immigrant converts from Europe, often met at the train station by hordes of eager young men. The social pressures created an enormous incentive to settle new areas in the west and the saints prolifically created 500 such new settlements, some with now-familiar names like San Bernadino and Las Vegas.

The church progressed relatively unmolested for about 10 years in their new local until James Buchanan order Johnson's army to put down an alleged Mormon rebellion. The army came and went and the church reaped a financial windfall in the final analysis as it bought army supplies for pennies on the dollar, but in spite of the civil war, Congress still managed to pass the Morrill act in 1862 that made bigamy a crime punishable by 5 years in prison. The Edmunds-Tucker act of 1887 was far more punitive, disincorporating the church and resulting in much greater efforts at enforcement. 1,300 cohabs--the term used to describe polygamist men, were imprisoned in this period. Mormons were disenfranchised in Idaho and church leaders had to go into hiding to avoid arrest.

The pressure became so great that the church president issued a manifesto in 1990 that pledged the church to perform no new solemnizations of plural marriages. Utah's statehood was considerably delayed due to suspicions about the church and Utah's state constitution has some interesting (and probably unconstitutional) provisions in it that deal specifically with polygamy.

The upshot of all this is that while the federal government achieved a victory of sorts, it did not achieve a defeat. Many saints resented the capitulation of the church very deeply, particularly after having sacrificed so much to remain faithful to divine precept. The solemnization of plural marriages continued unofficially into the early 20th century, particular in Canada and Mexico. Some groups like the FLDS, considered the main body of the church to have apostatized and made a claim to prophetic authority based on accounts that John Taylor, the successor to Brigham Young, and precedessor of Wilford Woodruff who signed the manifesto abandoning the practice of plural marriage, had conferred the authority to solemnize plural marriages on the founders of many of today's polygamist groups. The main body of the church found itself in the odd position of rooting out "subversives" still practicing the principle while attempting to maintain their membership in good standing. Church leaders cooperated with state and federal authorities to suppress so-called fundamentalist groups as well.

The continuous pressure of polygamist groups produced a practiced furtiveness. To this day, polygamists live throughout Utah, often without the knowledge of their neighbors.

Enforcement (or persecution as the polygamists would refer to it...) reached a cresendo in 1953 in what was called the Shortcreek raid. Shortcreek is the former name of Colorado City, AZ/Hilldale, UT (the town straddles the state line) where the FLDS is headquartered. The Arizona governor authorized a raid on the town. All the children were declared wards of the state and the entire population bused to nearby Kingman, AZ. At this point the media became involved and the polygamists received a sympathetic portrayal. The expense of the prosecution of polygamist became a sore point and governor Howard Pyle of Arizona failed to be reelected because of the unpopularity of the actions regarding Shortcreek.

The change of social morays begun in the 1960s, made prosecution of polygamists more problematic as many of the statutes were no longer practically enforceable (seen any prosecutions of adulterers lately?). However recent years have seen an increase in prosecutions on the basis of child protection and welfare fraud. Independent polygamist Tom Green was bold enough to go on the Oprah show to talk about his lifestyle, but is currently residing at the Point-of-the-Mountain state prison. He is due for release next year.

In 1999 David Ortell Kingston was convicted and sentenced to 10 years for having sex with his 16 year old niece. The Kingston clan is distinguished by the fact that control a 150 million dollar diversified financial empire that includes coal mines and commercial ice-making among other things.

The apprehension of Warren Jeffs is the latest battle in the ongoing war, but its unclear whether this is the end or simply an episode of martyrdom that will only reinforce the underlying dynamics of polygamy in the U.S.

We are perhaps, by reason of the war on Islamofascism, in a better position to understand the power of faith and the ability it confers on believers to endure almost any sacrifice. Polygamy isn't going away because Warren Jeffs is in a cell.

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.

Harry Reid is calling for a federal investigation of polygamy in the wake of Warren Jeffs arrest in Nevada, Reid's home state.

"For too long, this outrageous activity has been disguised in the mask of religious freedom," Reid said. "But child abuse and human servitude have nothing to do with religious freedom and must not be tolerated."

I am wondering what Reid's motivations are here? Reid is a Mormon convert, having joined the LDS church will attending university in Utah as a young man (I am told you can be Mormon and Democrat, although I remain somewhat dubious about the harmony of such a mixed marriage).

Polygamy has gotten a lot of press lately for a variety of reasons. Law enforcement has been stepped up in recent years as anti-polygamy activists, almost all of them formerly involved in the practice, started organizing and agitating for redress of their concerns for the abuses allegedly common in the polygamous lifestyle.

Previous to the existence of Tapestry Against Polygamy and other organizations, polygamy was romantized to a degree by the large mainstream Mormon populations in the western states. Many Mormons have polygamous ancestors. The revelations of child brides and wide spread sexual abuse provided both the political impetus and legal strategy for prosecuting polygamists.

Coincidentally, gay activists advocating gay marriage, have hit on polygamy as a lever to advance their own agenda.

Big Love was created by a pair of gay-marriage advocates, who use the show to highlight the analogy between same-sex unions and polygamy. And Big Love is merely a hint of things to come. Radicals have long seen same-sex marriage as a lever with which to break the grip of monogamy. Should gay marriage be safely legalized, the radicals will emerge in force. Mainstream liberals like Sanford Levinson (who has a soft spot for experiments in multipartner marriage) openly advise the gay marriage movement to distance itself from marriage radicalism until after gay marriage is legalized. Big Love notwithstanding, that advice is largely heeded.

Polygamy rearing its "ugly head" has been an inconvenience for Mitt Romney, governor of Massachusetts and descendant of polygamous Mormon ancestors. Supporters openly worry that voters may get confused about Romney's mainstream Mormonism and Warren Jeffs "fundamentalist" Mormonism. Romney has taken it all in good humor, making polygamy jokes on occasion (I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman, and a woman, and a woman....)

For Harry Reid, Mormonism is politically a net positive, allowing him to cross-over to the substantial Mormon Republican vote in Nevada, yet the Big Love perception of polygamy has yielded to the child-sex abuse image. Reid is probably worried that some of that might get on him if he isn't careful.

By calling for the investigation, Reid establishes a public record that he is against child sex abuse--always a good idea.

In truth, a federal component in the prosecution of polygamists for taking child brides is probably a good idea. Utah AG Mark Shurtleff's investigation has yielded information about new communities being established in states with no previous history of polygamous communities. Texas in particular has a developing presence, and signs point to communities being established in the Dakotas.

Transporting minors across state lines for immoral purposes is probably still against the law...

I've not posted on the topic of the raid on the FLDS compound in Eldorado, Texas, largely because I've been waiting for more information about what is really going on. After several days, all that is really know is that Texas state officials are removing women and children from the ranch by the hundreds.

More than 400 children, mostly girls in pioneer dresses, were swept into state custody from a polygamist sect in what authorities described Monday as the largest child-welfare operation in Texas history.

The dayslong raid on the sprawling compound built by now-jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was sparked by a 16-year-old girl's call to authorities that she was being abused and that girls as young as 14 and 15 were being forced into marriages with much older men.

Dressed in home-sewn, ankle-length dresses with their hair pinned up in braids, some 133 women left the Yearning for Zion Ranch of their own volition along with the children.

State troopers were holding an unknown number of men in the compound until investigators finished executing a house-to-house search of the 1,700-acre property, which includes a medical facility, a cheese-making plant, a cement plant, a school, numerous large housing units and an 80-foot white limestone temple that rises discordantly out of the brown scrub.