A Matter of Principle: Fundamentalist Mormon Polygamy, Children, and Human Rights Debates

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article returns to questions involving fundamentalist Mormon polygamy first raised in articles by Martha Bradley and Lori G. Beaman in vol. 8, no. 1 (July 2004) of Nova Religio. While both authors acknowledged the potential for abuses in these communities, Bradley stressed their "effective adaptive strategies" while Beaman concluded that "[f]undamentalist groups, like those in Bountiful [British Columbia], are not perceived as a threat to the Canadian state." In response, this article argues that the fundamentalist Mormon communities of Colorado City and Bountiful have histories of polygamous marriages involving young, often underage teens, and on these grounds alone are maladaptive because they likely commit serious human rights violations against women in general and children in particular.