I'm telling the truth.

Some of the members within your ward might be polygamists.

There are hundreds of small plyg groups and thousands of non-group associated plyg families wherever there are mainstream mormons. The polygamists and plyg sympathizers often have callings and attend regular ward meetings. They like the community and some of them have faith in temples and like to keep a TR to participate in the rituals.

Some of my relatives are polygamists who particpate in regular wards while keeping their fundamentalist beliefs secret.

The bishops and other members are usually unaware or they sometimes look the other way.

I grew up in a home where we harbored polygamist wives married to our prophet of choice in trailers on our farm. On Sundays we attended mainstream mormon meetings and on Friday or Saturday nights we held meetings in our living room for polygamists. It was a small group with a dozen or so men half of whom had more than one wife and one prophet. This went on from the time I was six to about fifteen when the group fell apart and scattered.

I doubt the story I read on RfM this morning about a MP recruiting sister mishies as wives. But I can vouch for stories of polygamists in mainstream wards since I lived it and still have relatives continuing in the same way. Busy members often don't notice and not all wards are affected, but in a few parts of Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, Idaho, and California it's more common than you might think.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2013 10:54AM by Cheryl.

There are some individuals in my ward that I have been suspicious of for a while. There are just too many things that jump out as red flags.

Cheryl, you once posted some things to look for in ward members that might indicate they are secret polygamists. Could you list those qualities again because I have one family in DH's ward I'm very suspicious of. The husband makes a lot of trips for "business" to Southern Utah. Although he works with retirement investment funds and I guess St. George has a lot of retired people so I may be way off base.

Women usually wear little or no makeup.

Females often don't cut their hair.

Girls and women usually talk in a soft sugary voice and don't swear.

They are usually more modest in every way than mainstream mormons.

Polygamists sometimes do drink coffee and beer.

The men might seem humble and earnest, but they expect women and children to comply with their directions and preferences without question.

The women are often quite passive/aggressive since they usually have little power or respect.

They are fearful of "the world" and always afraid of "the last days."

They don't keep up to date on fashion.

The father of the family is often away on business.

Sometimes two or three women share a home and there's a story about one being the wife and the other a relative who is helping out or is in need of help.

Those are obvious red flags that come to mind.

The family I'm thinking of:

> Women usually wear little or no makeup. - Yes
>
> Females often don't cut their hair. - Wife cuts it, daughters don't
>
> Girls and women usually talk in a soft sugary voice and don't swear. - Yes
>
> They are usually more modest in every way than mainstream mormons. - Yes
>
> Polygamists sometimes do drink coffee and beer. - Haven't seen it.
>
> The men might seem humble and earnest, but they expect women and children to comply with their directions and preferences without question. - Very much so.
>
> The women are often quite passive/aggressive since they usually have little power or respect. - Yes although she can be quite pushy too. If there are other wives, I'd guess she is the favorite/head wife.
>
> They are fearful of "the world" and always afraid of "the last days." - Fearful of the world, yes. Last days stuff, not so much.
>
> They don't keep up to date on fashion. - Yes.
>
> The father of the family is often away on business. - Yes.
>
> Sometimes two or three women share a home and there's a story about one being the wife and the other a relative who is helping out or is in need of help. No one else in the house but they it seems like they are never home - always doing something with family. They keep to themselves a lot. Not a lot of close friends in the ward.
>

I had a young elder from California, in California,ask me to be his first wife in his wedding proposal. English being my favorite subject in high school, that didn't sound right. I wanted not only to be the only wife but better grammar or maybe higher expectations. Not sounding quite right to me, I passed. besides actually I wanted to go away to college- I told him so, he said, but _ you can go to _ state (the local university) if you marry me. I own a _ (name a business)
I should have caught on he kept mentioning he had relatives in the Mexican colonies I'm thinking half my elementary school is from MExico so waht.
He meantsomething different. Saw him hiking, me feeling old on a day hike with my spouse and sure enough there he was walking with another (pregnant) chick. And I know he had couple kids with the girl he married instead of me. Don't know however if its ripple effect (wife after wife divorce after divorce) or pure polygamy. Except his plan was, that I be his FIRST wife, and he told me so - directely , when he proposed to me.
either way he didn't plan to stay LOL

It happened in my ward. I was so shocked. It was way back when I was first going to church, but I imagine it still happens today.

It was a 16-year-old friend of mine, who had been recruited by another couple in the Ward. She bore a son by the guy as well.

They were all exed, but she worked hard to get re-baptized 5 years later. She didn't stay active for very long after that though.

I probably didn't run into any polygamists in the Wards I lived in both in Oregon and California, and Utah BYU student Wards.

Judging from the "red flags" I'm hard pressed to think of a family or families that might apply to.
I've known some families for 40 years. No hint of polygamist families going on.

I suppose it's possible and does happen. I don't discount it. Just that I can't think of anyone that I knew for decades, spent time in their homes-them in our homes that fit those red flags.

I didnt know you lived in Oregon.

I grew up there. Lived all over the state. Salem, Gresham, Eastern Oregon, The Dalles, Coos Bay. Thats alot of info, if anyone knows me, they know who I am now.

There is little chance we ever met, but where did you live in Oregon?

Only a curiosity question.

Riverman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I didnt know you lived in Oregon.
>
> I grew up there. Lived all over the state. Salem,
> Gresham, Eastern Oregon, The Dalles, Coos Bay.
> Thats alot of info, if anyone knows me, they know
> who I am now.
>
> There is little chance we ever met, but where did
> you live in Oregon?
>
> Only a curiosity question.


Born and raised in Portland, OR, N.E side, watched the Lloyd Center being built, graduated from Grant High School, joined the LDS Church there in 1961. Met my husband to be there, (home from a mission after being drafted).

We have a favorite beach spot: Twin Rocks-next to Rockaway.
Been there a couple dozen times. Visited the North beaches also, Cannon Beach and Seaside.

I'm OK with people knowing who I am. :-)

When I was 18 and our family was living in the SF Bay area, an older man (70 something) came to my father and asked if he could take me for his 2nd wife. He was actually a family friend. Dad said no, and this gentleman was no longer welcome in our home.

However, after Dad had a stroke, he was in a nursing home. He started wooing his 19yrold nurse. Writing her love letters and buying her jewelry. He asked my mom if he could take her as a 2nd wife. Mom laughed. She thought he was kidding. He wasn't. It wasn't until we talked to his dr that we learned that stroke victims often lose their knowledge of social propriety. I now wonder if our old family friend had had a stroke and no-one knew.

I think Tom Phillips mentioned in his podcast that while he was SP in England of all places, he had to excommunicate someone for polygamy and fundamentalism.

Mormon fundamentalism in England? That one caught me off guard.

Back when I was in TSCC, I grew up in a ward that covered a lot of square miles. My H.S. was 80 percent TBM. We all 'knew' of a polygamist in the area. He never attended ward meetings, but everyone looked the other way; including the local authorities. They did not make waves.

My father was a businessman as much as a farmer, so he traded with them, which I found out from a neighbor shortly after my father's death, caused a lot of grief from the bishop. It was always odd, when Dad would deliver hay, he always did it to that place, I never went nor was I allowed to go there.

I also attended H.S. with two of the daughters that lived in the suspected polygamist 'compound' that were same age and they were half-sisters, they had every class together, they ate lunch alone and never socialized.

I just got done watching all 5 seasons of "Big Love." Based on what people are writing here, I'm even more impressed with how it was portrayed. There are many different characteristics to it, depending on where or how it is being practiced. Fascinating.

A close call for me. My convert father was a tall, very good-looking guy, and soon after he married my mother in the SLC temple and was living temporarily in Logan, he was approached by plygs and urged to join them. But my straight-arrow mother found this out and read my father the riot act, so he got his stuff together and that was the end of that. Toward the end of his life he grew disenchanted with the Morg, but never showed interest in plygs either. Navigating through the Morg was difficult enough, but at least I didn't have to put up with stuff like chalking a bedroom door to notify of the impending hurricane, as was said to be BY's habit.

Growing up in a small So. Utah town we had some of the FLDS kids go to school with us at the local high school. These were children of some of Uncle Leroy's favorites (Leroy Johnson was Warren Jeffs predecessor) and so their families were able to live on and run a large farm about 85 miles away from Hildale/Colorado City. To my knowledge they never even tried to tried to infiltrate any of the local wards as it would have been far too obvious and they were physically isolated from the nearest town (2-3 miles outside of it).

In 1983, I was asked (in a semi-joking manner) to become a 2nd wife by a man with a very famous Mormon surname. I thought he was kidding and laughed it off, politely saying "No". Then, he approached the Bishop's wife and asked her the same question. She was quite taken aback.

Just a question,

How do the "mainstream" plygs work it? I mean I know some attend mainstream wards etc,

What do they use as their temple? What do they claim is the priesthood authority they use to preform sealings etc?