Jeffs: It's not about religion
 
Opinion
The Spectrum
 
Prosecuting a polygamist in Utah is a gutsy thing. David Leavitt became the former Juab County Attorney after his successful prosecution of Tom Green five years ago.

Green, an avowed fundamentalist Mormon who boasted that he lived with his five wives and 29 children, was the first high-profile Utah bigamy case in nearly 50 years.

"How can somebody claim to be a Mormon and say that plural marriage is wicked?" Green told the Reuters news agency after his conviction.

Apparently, enough Juab County voters agreed as Leavitt was defeated next time he came up for election.

Now that Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap has reeled in the biggest fish in the polygamy pool - Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - will it come back to bite him politically?

Most of the 30,000 or so polygamists in this country live in Utah, which was settled by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church abandoned the practice of multiple marriages in 1890 as a condition of statehood. However, you would be hard-pressed today to find a church family without polygamy in its heritage, which may be why not much has been done over the years to clean up this little mess in Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz.

The charges against Jeffs, however, should not be viewed as a matter of religious persecution, but as a matter of criminal prosecution.

Belnap, and his counterpart in Mohave County, Ariz., Matthew Smith - who has also brought charges against Jeffs - will take some heat from those sympathetic to Jeffs and the FLDS, but it shouldn't matter. Religious freedom does not give anybody the right to physically, mentally or emotionally do harm to anybody.

Jeffs faces felony sex charges for his alleged role in arranging and performing the spiritual marriage of a young girl to an older man. According to court documents, he coerced her into the relationship, threatening her eternal salvation if she did not cooperate.

And, that's the problem with this whole thing - the misuse of faith to hold complete control over an innocent mind. Never mind the talk of fraud and other abuses, this was a little girl, forced to become a woman before she was mentally and physically able to do so.

That's what Belnap and Smith are after, I think. This is a case where the prosecutors are seeking justice and morality, which don't always intersect with the law or religion.

Like I said, it takes guts to do this in Utah, where for years it has been tolerated or, at the very least, ignored.

But props to Belnap and Smith for taking a stand.

Call City Editor Ed Kociela at 674-6237. E-mail is ekociela@thespectrum.com. For more commentary visit www.southernutashblog.com.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published September 2, 2006
 
Back