I don’t often have time to respond in any depth to e-mail about articles I have posted. I’ve so many “irons in the fire” I barely have time to post, let alone debate. However reader and fellow blogger Swen Swenson of A Coyote at the Dog Show made some valid points:
FYI, there are still a lot of polygamists in the Rocky Mountain states and you rarely hear about one of them being prosecuted. Tom Green’s mistake – ‘marrying’ a 13-year-old and bragging about it. The first is statutory rape regardless of your religion, the second just plain asshole stupidity. With Green you could also make a case for chatel slavery. His ‘bride’ apparently had little choice in the matter.
I agree that the government has no business limiting the number or gender of those who would enter into a marriage contract. But in this situation you’d as well bemoan our attack on the religious freedom of the poor Taliban. They too were acting on their religious beliefs..
That is not the story Opinion Journal chose to emphasize. The titles weren’t of the form “Utah resident takes child bride in forced marriage“. They centered on the old Morman lifestyle. Had the former been the headline, I’d not have given the article a second glance. I’d have left it for someone like Karl “Defending The Indefensible” Hess.
Even the email replies Opinion Journal received and reported on focused on post-sellout (You vill sign ze papers old man!) Morman beliefs rather than the particulars of the case Swen pointed out.
