I was just streamed this show here (http://www.megavideo.com/?d=60ASGLAJ), and the view they presented about their version of polygamy is very, very different from the view they presented on the dateline (i think) special about 8 or 9 years ago. Did they blatantly lie about their views, or were the nuances cut out of the dateline special?

Here they say that men have no choice, and a woman has to choose the man. Not that their relative close proximity to the FLDS community in that area should make a difference, but I find it hard to believe that their practices are so vastly different from other hardcore, organized fundamentalist mormon groups.

If it is true that women get to select their man, what happens if they don't? At a certain age, are they thrown out like the FLDS lost boys? Or do they just remain with their parents, helping to raise their parents' kids, like an unmarried Duggar woman? Or at that point, do they end up in an arranged marriage?

What about they men, what if they aren't chosen? I imagine there's extreme pressure on men who don't have the minimum number of wives to get a planet.

So my question is for those with specific knowledge of the centennial park community (knowledge of others is interesting, of course, but I'm specifically interested in this community because they put themselves out there recently in a way that seems to contradict what they put out earlier in the decade), what REALLY goes on??

(on a side note, I found it interesting that the basketball team was called the Masada Warriors, you don't here too much day-to-day references to sites like that in Israel amongst LDS or fundamental mormons. I would have been less surprised to see them called Adam-Ondi-Ahman Apples)

**for context, I'm suspicious of this new face they are presenting, though it's clear why they do it. I don't really believe this is the way it is. I'm just wondering how off base it it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2011 12:43PM by wittyname.

Park are very simply a splinter group from the main flds run by W Jeffs in Hilldale and Colorado City. These folks (the men) had a struggle of authority with Jeffs, and some were fires from jobs or threatened with excom or had their families taken away & property stripped from them. (United Effort Plan)

The last time I was there in person 3 yrs ago, they were carrying on exactly the same......aprox 3.5 wives each on average, many many children, and a continuing heirarchy of authority based on Lowell Barlow and others at or near the top of the chain. They are slightly more friendly to outsiders and somewhat willing to talk/interview if not feeling threatened. Also, they are REALLY big on having the young children outside working their gardens.......authorities were recently up from Kingman AZ (Mojove County Seat) observing regarding possible child slave labor suits.

Thanks,for weighing in. that's really interesting. It's a big contrast from the way they are portrayed on this new feature. The approx 3 wives sounds about right, but they make a big deal about men not having any choices in the wives they have, and it's up to women to choose the man. So if a man has 2 wives, or 1 wife, its a waiting game till a woman steps up and says she wants to join the marriage. It seemed like a HUGE departure from the practices of even moderate plural-marriage practicing moromons. So I smelled a rat, well coached rat, but still. It was just odd.

One woman, a third wife, didn't get along with the second wife, so she went back, with her toddler, to live with her parents for 5 months. I did think that was a positive sign of change, that she had some parental-sanctioned ability to make her own choices, but it just seemed... off.

There were other inconsistencies, at least based on what I know of the fundamentalist mormon culture in general, and what I learned about Centennial park a while ago.

Since you have more in-depth knowledge, you might be interested in watching it. They interviewed 2 families, a high school girls basketball team, and a guy who felt suicidal in his teens, but the "village" came together to raise him and now he's happy and looking forward to the future (or something). Seemed like a polish job. If you watch it, I will be interested in your feedback!