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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Big Love and Sister Wives: Comparing Bill H. with Kody B.

Since Sister Wives is on hiatus, I thought it would be fun to take a look at HBO's Big Love - the series that literally put polygamy on the prime time TV map.

So here's the first installment, a general comparison between Bill Henrickson and Kody Brown.
I know a lot of you were fans of Big Love, so feel free to add your own comparisons.

And for those of you who are in the process of watching Big Love, unfortunately, it would be difficult to prevent spoilers, so be warned...


SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT






KODY BROWN…
BILL HENRICKSON…


Is a reality show polygamist with 4 wives.
Was a fictional polygamist with 4 wives (one wife left him)

Use to live in a big house. wives now live separately in 4 houses on 4 different streets, but hope to purchase 4 adjacent homes in a cul-de-sac that will share a common backyard.

His wives live separately in 3 adjacent houses that share a common back yard, but hopes someday to move all his wives and children into a big house.

Was a sign salesman. Currently works in an unknown capacity for a MLM company.

Was a businessman, owned 2 retail stores called HomePlus.

Third wife Christine Allred is the granddaughter and grandniece of 2 leaders of the AUB, a polygamous religious group.

Second wife Nicolette Grant was a daughter of the prophet of the UEB, a polygamous religious group.

Refuses to discuss the subject of his sex drive or if he has to use Viagra to keep up with his wives sexual  needs.

Has to use viagra to keep up with wives sex drive.

Extremely autocratic in his approach to his family and wives.

Extremely autocratic in his approach to his family and wives.

Wives gave him a gun for Christmas.

Right after giving birth to his 17th child Sol, Kody's wife Robyn offers to be a surrogate for Meri.

Gave his wives guns for Christmas (season 5)

When Nicki discovers she has unexplained infertility, 3rd wife Margene offers her eggs to be implanted into Nicki. Nicki declines, saying (among other things) she didn't want to give birth to one of Margene's big headed babies.

Drives a $60K Lexus sports car while his wives drive clunkers that were falling apart (seasons 1-3). Kody's Chevy Suburban blew an engine on the way to Wyoming in season 2.

Drives a $60K GMC Denali while his wife Barb drives a well maintained but extremely ancient Ford LTD station wagon.


Friday, July 27, 2012

Latest in Sister Wives Legal Documents - Sister Wives Blog

Background: The motion from May where it was stated that prosecutes won't prosecute the Browns, and to avoid prosecuting any consenting adult polygamists later. Courtesy of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Sister Wives state's motion to dismiss for mootness.053112


The Brown's Response:
Brown Response to Motion to Dismiss for Mootness.070212

The State's Rebuttal:
Sister Wives state Reply Motion.071312

Kody's Declaration About his Family:
Kody Brown Declaration.072312

Read Away! Note: Robyn has not changed her name legally.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Sister Wives Blog Family Confessions or Tell All, What Would You Ask?


Sooo... we all remember the snoozefest called "BROWN FAMILY CONFESSIONS" where we heard no confessions. What if they actually HAD to answer questions? Then the wild TELL ALL?
On this post you are the reporter. You have to ask the Browns a question, and it has to be in a way that would appear on TV. What would you ask them, and if they squirmed as in Kody answering for Meri, or not answering honestly, would you push? How?

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Judge questions dismissal of 'Sister Wives' lawsuit challenging Utah bigamy law





SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge wants to know whether Utah County's assertion that it would not prosecute the polygamous family featured in "Sister Wives" is a ruse to avoid a legal challenge of the state's bigamy law.

U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups' blunt questions had a state attorney on his heels for much of a 45-minute hearing Wednesday as he tried to defend Utah County Attorney Jeff Buhman's recent policy change regarding the statute.

"Is the act of the Utah County attorney simply an attempt to avoid the issue of what consenting adults can do constitutionally?" Waddoups asked assistant attorney general Jerrold Jensen.

In May, Buhman said in court documents that his office had adopted a formal policy not to prosecute the practice of bigamy unless it occurs in conjunction with another crime or if a party to the marriage or relationship is under 18.

The change came about 18 months after Buhman's office said it was investigating and might prosecute Kody Brown and his four wives under Utah's bigamy law. The Browns later filed a lawsuit, claiming the statute violates their constitutional rights to due process, equal protection, free exercise of religion, free speech and freedom of association.

Jensen contends that because the Browns won't be prosecuted, their lawsuit is moot and should be dismissed.
"Is the act of the Utah County attorney simply an attempt to avoid the issue of what consenting adults can do constitutionally?"
–Clark Waddoups

Calling it an "important issue to many people," Waddoups took the case under advisement and said he would rule as soon as possible.

The judge noted that other than in court documents, Buhman did not publicly announce the change and there's nothing to preclude him or a future county attorney from enforcing the law. "That goes to the sincerity of this policy," he said.

Jensen said Buhman, who did not attend the hearing, should be taken at his word.

"I don't think you can question the sincerity of the adoption of this policy," Jensen told the judge.

Jensen said after the hearing that he would call Buhman to the witness stand if the ruling goes against the state.

The Browns' attorney, Jonathan Turley, said the "faux" policy does not repeal the bigamy statute and that Buhman still considers it constitutional and enforceable. He never explains the reasons for not prosecuting people for bigamy, but is willing to do so if it's connected to another crime, Turley said.

"It's clearly an effort to avoid a ruling in this case," he said.

The law, Turley said, still "dangles like a Damocles sword" over the Browns.

Brown, who did not attend the hearing, filed a court declaration Tuesday saying despite the "policy" change, his family still feels threatened and that Buhman has never withdrawn his statements labeling them as criminals.

"We continue to suffer harm as a result of the criminalization of our plural family and the public attacks made against my family with reference to this law," he wrote.

Please read the rest at:
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=21406358&nid=148&title=judge-considers-dismissal-of-sister-wives-lawsuit-challenging-utah-bigamy-law

(Written by Dennis Romboy, KSL.com Utah)

Monday, July 23, 2012

Warren Jeffs chooses 15 to father future FLDS children, sources say

HILDALE, Washington County — Rumors are flying about a new edict that sources say was issued from a Texas prison by polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs.
He has reportedly chosen 15 men to father all future children born to faithful members of his church.
Reports of Jeffs' new rules are second and third hand and remain unconfirmed by leaders of the Fundamentalist LDS Church. The reports are coming from outside sources who, in the past, have generally provided reliable information on the inner-workings of the FLDS Church. They acknowledge, however, that they have received only sketchy, unverified accounts.
Former FLDS member Isaac Wyler said he heard that the new rules were explained to lower ranking church members at a Sunday meeting two weeks ago. "They said there had been 15 men delegated or designated by God to sire the new, special children," Wyler said.
If the reports are true, it's one of the most bizarre twists yet as Jeffs attempts to maintain control over nearly 10,000 followers, most of whom live in the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.
Late last year, Jeffs reportedly instructed his followers that sex was forbidden, even between married people, at least temporarily. That's because existing marriages in the group were considered invalid and needed to be re-solemnized by Jeffs himself.
Jeffs, however, is serving a life prison sentence in Texas for child sexual assault stemming from two young followers he took as brides. He won't be eligible for parole until he is at least 100 years old.
Now the faithful are apparently being asked to accept the resumption of sex, but only by a select few.
Private investigator Sam Brower, who wrote a best-selling book called "Prophet's Prey," said relatives of faithful members also told him about the 15-men edict. "These men are now breeding stock, essentially," Brower said, "and it's their assignment to breed with the women in town."
The new practices seem to reflect a sharp push toward hard work and rigid social rules in the group.
Last year, Jeffs banned most toys and recreational equipment. In Hildale and Colorado City, there are vivid reminders of that strict policy. Church leaders blockaded one set of basketball courts with huge bales of cardboard. At another court, they blocked it with fences and took down the basketball hoops.
"They did that because Warren doesn't want people playing ball any more, of any kind," said Wyler, who still lives in the community even though he left Jeffs' church several years ago.
According to the second- and third-hand reports circulating among outside critics, most men in the group will remain under the no-sex ban. Their wives, though, will be made available to the 15 chosen men.
Brower said husbands will become "caretakers" for their families, earning a living for their wives and for children fathered by others.
"The sex act itself is going to be a priesthood ordinance," Brower explained, "which is witnessed and carried out by these 15 men."
Please Read the rest at:  http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54315360-78/flds-barlow-leave-conference.html.csp)

 

I know that leaving would be would be scary if it was the only world you ever knew, and
had been told your whole life that the other people on earth were all evil monsters that were out to get you and should never to be trusted... You will find that's so NOT true. So many want to help you and see the world for yourself. If anyone is reading here and wants help, please know there are caring people prepared to help you. Contact Flora Jessop : brkway1@aol.com
Leave a message for Flora at (602)373-0793
Write Flora Jessop
P.O. Box 71038
Phoenix AZ 85050

(Courtesy of Desert News, Written by John Hollenhorst, clip: Ch 4SLC:)  

Sunday, July 22, 2012

FLDS Tear Down Recently Constructed Tower at Texas Ranch Read more: KCSG Television - FLDS Tear Down Recently Constructed Tower at Texas Ranch




(Eldorado, TX) - A 10-story building built by Warren Jeffs' followers in Texas that was completed last week has since been demolished.

Judge James Doyle has been flying over the Yearning for Zion Ranch for years, documenting an enormous amount of FLDS construction work. A year ago, aerial photos showed the start of the tower construction, using expensive heavy- duty steel and concrete. Last week, The Eldorado Success newspaper photographed what appeared to be a large air control or watch tower on FLDS property. But Thursday, when Doyle flew over the ranch, it was gone.

"We flew out this morning and we made a circle and sure enough, as you saw, it was all destroyed," Doyle said.

Outside of the FLDS group that constructed the massive building, nobody can explain its purpose or why it was torn down just a week after its completion.

"And it was massive. Gosh, it had 4-foot thick walls on it," said Author and Private Investigator Sam Brower. "Everybody was trying to figure out what it was. Nobody really knew what was going on."

Mysteriously, construction stopped late last year, and last month, construction suddenly resumed at a frantic pace. Doyle said he thinks FLDS people worked around the clock in late June and early July.

The Eldorado Success photos show it completed, with an observation platform on top. Some believe it was a watchtower to keep an eye out for Texas Rangers.

"I don't know, they're paranoid that they're going to launch an attack from the outside," Doyle said. "But we're pretty sure they're more or less watching the inside to make sure everyone is working as hard as they can work. … And maybe to prevent some of the younger people from escaping."

Doyle said it is not conceivable that the tower in Texas simply collapsed by itself. He told KSL he saw heavy equipment that the FLDS people used to tear it down. Brower believes Jeffs was involved, though.
"The one thing I do know is that they wouldn't have built it and they wouldn't have torn it down without Warren Jeffs' OK," Brower said.
**More on other key FLDS News coming soon, please stay on topic.

20 More Tee Shirts added on post #2! Check them out!
(Written By John Hollenhorst, KCSG Television. 
http://www.kcsg.com/view/full_story/19465688/article-FLDS-Tear-Down-Recently-Constructed-Tower-at-Texas-Ranch?instance=home_first_stories)

Saturday, July 21, 2012

thestar.com : Meet the modern Americans who still have faith in polygamy

By Ward, Olivia
Foreign Affairs Reporter

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—The dusty prairie morning chokes in the midday heat, but inside her spacious kitchen Lucy is crisp and in control, the captain of all she surveys.

She’s a solid, handsome woman with bright blue eyes and upswept greying hair: the embodiment of good pioneering stock. Her life has been a series of trials she’s faced and triumphed over on this unforgiving land. At 57, she has earned her laurels.

But there is no rest for Lucy. There’s an active career as a consultant, and an aging husband to care for — along with five other wives and an assortment of children, the remainder of 47 who have been born, nurtured, bidden farewell and sometimes mourned during five turbulent decades.

This multi-layered house south of Salt Lake, designed by Lucy herself (“never had a lesson in architecture”), is filled with comfortable, come-lately flourishes. But the past is not a foreign country here. Its daily presence presses in on the large extended family, its weight inescapable.

Lucy and her 78-year-old husband Sam are fundamentalist Mormon polygamists — cast out by the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), which suspended the practice of plural marriage in 1890 and insists that they have no right to call themselves Mormons.

They speak on condition of anonymity, because officially they are outlaws. But they make up only a fraction of the estimated 40,000 polygamists in the United States, many of them spread across the southwestern states of Utah, Arizona and Nevada. And most live not in fortresses bristling with guns, but uneasily blended into communities that greet them with puzzlement, don’t-ask-don’t-tell tolerance, or outright hostility.

They are perhaps the last living imprint of their Mormon ancestors, carrying the beliefs that burned within those forebears as they settled in the inhospitable pre-Utah state of Deseret: an embattled, hardscrabble society that their mainstream descendents now fervently hope to leave behind, like some wandering tribe that, embarrassingly, will not stay lost.

They are also the worst nightmare of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and others who hope that Mormonism can blend seamlessly into the American social and political landscape. The presence of polygamists is all the more dangerous because “they” and “we” are joined at the historical hip by a common ancestry.

“We’ve had harassment,” says Lucy, matter-of-factly. “It’s wherever you go. Some people are friendly, others . . . ” She gestures at the green-and-brown landscape stretching beyond the rambling suburban house, where the only shade is from the clumps of trees she planted by hand.

But the fact that this group of old believers exists in relative peace and obscurity is something of a victory, considering its adherents more than a century ago resigned themselves to the fringes of society and the Mormon faith. They rejected the mainstream church’s decision to fall in line with U.S. laws and abandon the practice of polygamy. The edict was like a silver bullet through the heart of their beliefs.

“The family, and particularly the plural family, became the foundation of the social order God desired,” historian Matthew Bowman writes of the early Mormons in his book, The Mormon People.

Polygamy began with an Abrahamic revelation from Mormon founder Joseph Smith, which declared that plural marriage was not only sanctioned by God, but “sealed by the Holy Spirit,” allowing the participants to inherit “thrones, kingdoms . . . exaltation and glory” in the afterlife. Without “celestial marriage,” or polygamy (more properly known as polygyny), the prospect of eternal salvation was dim.

It was not an easy sell in the mid-1800s. At a time when prudish Victorians were draping their “naked” piano legs with frills, followers of Smith and successor Brigham Young wrestled down their scruples and plunged into plural marriage, believing it would ensure that “Mormon societies were stable, their members committed to the health of the community, and they lacked the poor underclass that fostered crime and debauchery in the United States.”

The thousands who practise polygamy today flow from that bloodline. They include those whose families abandoned the practice but later returned to the fold, and those who fled — like Romney’s ancestors — across the Mexican or Canadian border to continue the “true faith.”

Sam, a soft-spoken shepherd of his little flock of a few dozen families, is one of the former.

“I didn’t start out as a fundamentalist,” says the slight, silver-haired man, clad in the sober black that is a uniform of the fundamentalist church faithful: a symbolic holdover from a pre-Technicolor world where revelation and reality merge.

As a teenager in a mainstream Utah LDS household in the 1950s, Sam felt there was “something missing,” as though the emptiness of the land had somehow invaded his life. He prayed. Fundamentalist leaders gave counsel. The answer came.

“There were principles that the church had done away with,” he says. “I didn’t think it was right.”

Lucy chimes in: “There was more meat in what those leaders were saying. The LDS church had the milk.”

By the time he was 20, Sam had already married a teenage bride, who soon became pregnant. His new faith embraced plural marriage. Obediently, he took a second wife.

Two decades later the Lord would intervene again in Sam’s marital affairs. And then it was, if not a coup de foudre — anathema to fundamentalists who decry sexual attraction before marriage — then a heavenly bolt from the blue. One that, felicitously, hit the unworldly and homebound 20-year-old Lucy at the same time.

“I had made up my mind that I wanted to be in a plural marriage, like my own family,” she said. “My mother had numerous children and the family was huge. I had offers of scholarships but I didn’t want to stay in school. All those pep rallies and dances and football games just seemed frivolous.”

In spite of her father’s opposition, she dropped out before her high school finals and stayed home to grapple with the demanding vocation of polygamous householding.

After “three years of praying,” she knew her husband would be the quiet, 40-year-old Sam, who taught a youth group she attended in his home, and whose wives and children she had come to know. With down-to-earth practicality, she reckoned it was better not to be the first wife of a young man with unproven husbanding skills.

When the revelation first struck Lucy, Sam was unaware of his impending union. But one day, as he saw her walk through the door of the church, looking even younger than her years, “something hit: that girl would be my wife.”

Lucy, meanwhile, was eager to begin a new life that fulfilled the doctrines of her childhood. “My mother taught me that I had made a promise, a covenant with somebody before I came to this earth. And that we would marry and have a family. We made covenants with the (unborn) children we would bring here.”

The promises — which underpin the practice of plural marriage — would be fulfilled with Sam’s and Lucy’s more than half-dozen children, adding to the swelling family ranks.

But on their wedding night in 1976, Lucy says, “we just talked all night. We didn’t have any real contact before we were married. It was the first time I could find out about him and about the household.” But she adds quickly, love was in the picture, too. “When we came to an agreement that we’d marry, I started to think, ‘Do I really love him?’ I prayed about it.”

She glances fondly at her husband. “Now, when I look back on it, I didn’t need to pray, because I fell in love with him very swiftly. My prayers were answered.”

That didn’t prevent Sam from dividing his time among five other wives. Some had been “compassionate” marriages, harking back to patriarchal biblical times when widows were rescued from loneliness and destitution by polygamous unions. “There needs to be a father figure, someone to lead the family,” says Lucy.

But, “nobody here was underage and nobody was forced,” she adds, leaning forward, as though expecting a familiar argument: “I think there’s too much made these days of people marrying young.

“Even at 15, I wanted to get married. I think it’s a modern phenomenon that people marry older now. Who’s to judge? When you look at the immorality and the unwed mothers today, isn’t it better to have people taking responsibility at young ages?”

The question hangs in the air.

It’s one of the most crucial issues under debate as polygamist families struggle for decriminalization. A struggle they have only just gained confidence to wage in public.

“We aren’t asking for plural marriage to be legalized,” says activist Anne Wilde, who spent most of her adult life in a “totally happy” polygamous union that was nevertheless carried on in secret. “We believe that as long as the people are consenting adults, and there is no underage marriage or abuse or (welfare) fraud going on, it should be treated like other kinds of unions. People recognize diversity now.”

But the struggle for acceptance is difficult. The polygamy that makes headlines is of the most lurid kind — murderous clan leaders, fake prophets, authoritarian brutality, virtual imprisonment of young women, casting out of young males who might compete for eligible females, forced marriage, genetic disease and child abuse. The five-alarm case is that of Warren Jeffs, who once played a role in British Columbia’s Bountiful colony and is serving a life sentence in Texas on child sexual assault charges.

Mainstream Mormons look on and shudder, seeing their own claim to legitimacy in American society sink with each sensational new report that links them with a practice they reject and revile.

The backlash against fundamentalists — which includes excommunication and economic exclusion — puts more fear into pluralist communities than crackdowns by the state authorities, which have abandoned sweeping raids in favour of a policy of tolerance, in the absence of serious criminal behaviour.

Bigamy and plural marriage remain illegal throughout the United States. But by supporting community groups that help troubled polygamist families, Utah and Arizona authorities have reached a working truce.

“We’re concentrating on the safety issue,” says Paul Murphy, director of communications for the Utah attorney general’s office. “We believe a lot of it is education — preventing crime, not focusing on prosecution. We try to help people under the radar.”

The daunting alternative is jailing thousands, breaking up families and putting the children under the care of the state.

Priscilla and Marlyne Hammon remember a more perilous time.

The two women, now in their 50s, have an American Gothic air: scraped back coifs, no makeup and modestly cut skirts and jackets. Their families have survived extraordinary travails in the service of a faith that was publicly ridiculed and condemned.

In 1953, when Priscilla was an infant, Arizona state authorities raided her parents’ polygamous community of Short Creek — later (confusingly) renamed Colorado City — straddling the border with Utah. It was described as the largest mass arrest of its time.

“About 100 police surrounded it at gunpoint, at 4 a.m. All the men were put into the schoolhouse and the women were taken to Phoenix. The plan was to adopt out all the children, to destroy all the records and destroy polygamy,” she says, recounting each detail as though it were yesterday.

While 100 men were briefly jailed then released on a year’s probation, the women were forced into distant parts of the state. But Arizona authorities balked at relocating their more than 250 children. The mothers and children were scattered, forced to live in “nursing homes or old sheds,” the forerunners of today’s immigration detention centres.

Within a few years they had trickled back to their husbands and communities. Predictably, there were more marriages and more children. As in other polygamous groups cast out by the Mormon church, their own priesthoods carried out the ceremonies.

Even in Utah’s increasingly cosmopolitan towns today, the fear of discovery is pervasive, and polygamous parents and children live watchfully, expecting the unexpected. The fear is palpable: of humiliation, of exclusion, of the collapse of businesses and the bullying of children in school. It is hard to pursue legal protection for plural wives and children, to obtain documents such as birth certificates and to get medical help for prenatal care and childbirth.

For some, constant subterfuge leads to a siege mentality, a sense of persecution and pariahood. For children, it can be a psychologically splitting experience, forcing them to move between two different, even opposing, worlds.

Fed up with their furtive lives, some polygamists are fighting back, urged by Wilde and her Principle Voices advocacy group, which seeks to educate the wider community on the “real facts” of contemporary plural marriage.

In the past decade, they have joined rallies and spoken out for plural marriage. The reality show Sister Wives brought polygamous daily life to American living rooms, and it gained a new gloss in the popular TV series Big Love.

Unlike the mainstream LDS church, the fundamentalists are divided among about a dozen groups and categories, ranging from gun-toting survivalists to the family next door in Salt Lake.

Nicole, a young woman in her 20s, escaped a tightly wound community that exemplified the darkest stereotypes of polygamy.

“My mother was a plural wife and I had problems with physical and sexual abuse,” she says. “I was kicked out of school in eighth grade. On my 16th birthday my father gave me a choice of two men and insisted that I marry one.”

But many other polygamists lead lives more ordinary and middle-class, if challenging.

“Our kids get teased because of our lifestyle. It’s a dynamic we just learned to ignore,” says Valerie Darger, one of three wives of businessman Joe Darger — and with her sweep of dark hair and form-fitting clothes, a glamorous poster girl for plural marriage. Last year the family published a cover-blowing book, Love Times Three, with writer Brooke Adams, to “fight the misunderstandings” that make polygamists outcasts.

Unlike some urban polygamists, whose husbands lead covert, nomadic lives among different houses, the Dargers live together under one roof, with Joe portioning his time among the three wives. “There’s Vicki’s night and Alina’s night and my night. He’s able to see all of us,” says Valerie.

Sharing began early for the Dargers. Both Vicki and Alina — cousins and rivals for Joe’s affection in high school — knew they wanted to marry the husky, blue-eyed football player with the rakish smile. His polygamous mother suggested they all join hands. After some soul-searching and an unsurprisingly awkward courtship, the trio was married in 1989.

Two decades later they became a quartet. Valerie, Vicki’s twin sister, was broke and depressed after leaving another unhappy plural marriage with her own five children. After urging from Vicki and Alina, and a rapidly igniting spark with Joe, she agreed to join the family, which already boasted about a dozen kids.

“Joe came home from work one day and suddenly I was seeing him differently,” she recalls, smiling. “I found out he saw me differently, too. It just evolved from there.”

But she admits, “everyone has to make adjustments. There are jealousies and misunderstandings.”

There’s also economics. With 24 children to care for, food bills alone can reach $700 a week. Clothing is recycled, entertainment is at home and everyone pitches in to keep the wheels of the household turning. The wives have worked at a variety of businesses and Joe must be diligent to maintain the family income.

For men, polygamy is no bargain. Those who are seeking sex can find it more easily and cheaply in an extramarital affair where the financial responsibilities are fewer and problems of numerous wives and children don’t have to be thrashed out on a daily basis.

For women, “sister wives” may ease the burden of childcare and household chores. But even in a celestial marriage, the human intrudes on the divine. A husband’s divided loyalties may be worrying, as well as emotionally taxing. With only the first, or legal, wife entitled to a man’s property if he dies or they divorce, the others must stay in his favour to avoid being cut off and destitute.

For children, too, polygamy is a tense lifestyle of secrecy from the outside world. “I found out the hard way that some people’s attitudes changed once they knew about my family,” wrote Alina Darger’s 18-year-old daughter Laura in Love Times Three. After a school chum discovered how they lived, she recalled, “the other girls ostracized me . . . I learned to change the subject whenever I was asked personal questions.”

That could change if polygamists gain legitimacy. But their struggle for decriminalization is only beginning. In the eyes of many LDS members, they cannot even call themselves fundamentalist Mormons, so estranged are they from the mainstream church.

But, says Becky Johns, a professor at Utah’s Weber State University, “those who practise it truly believe this is the way they must live to attain the highest degree of celestial paradise when they die. ‘It’s the way God wants us to live.’ A commandment, not an option.”

The ultimate challenge to the anti-polygamy laws would be a constitutional one in court. For mainstream Mormons, a victory for plural marriage would be an unwelcome blast from a past they have spent more than a century burying.

The first shot has been fired by reality stars Kody Brown and his “sister wives,” who are going up against Utah’s anti-polygamy law on the grounds that it violates freedom of association and the right to privacy in intimate relationships.

But if polygamy is decriminalized in the future, it may be because of growing liberalization of American society, accepting relationships such as gay marriage as part of the changing social scene — an ultimate irony for a fundamentalist faith firmly rooted in the hard moral soil of the 19th century.

Polygamous families will carry on regardless, cocooned in their own moral universe — one that promises a peace that passes all understanding of skeptical unbelievers.

“Would I do it all over again if I had the choice?” asks Valerie Darger. “Totally. It’s our sacredly held belief.”

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1229480--meet-the-modern-americans-who-still-have-faith-in-polygamy

Friday, July 20, 2012

Thinking of those in the Colorado Shooting.

I want to say that we all should take a moment for all affected by the shooting at the Colorado Theater. We hope they all get the strength to move forward from such a horrible tragedy.
We will be thinking of all. SWB.

Tee Shirt #2 Time! Here's Your Shirt! .............SWB


SWB Style, Here’s Your Shirt#2!  
ALL made by our very own readers!


First name, Idea by/Second name, Made By - if there are two names. 

Two names are shortened: Caramel Brownie to CB, and Bargain Babe to BB; they were so kind to make so many. I give them a HUGE THANK YOU! 

See note below about permissions!















ABOVE FROM: ANNA C!

No particular order, we LOVE them ALL! Great Job Everyone! 
I loved the idea for folks to re post - please do on facebook, twitter, etc., for ALL our posts to help get the word out!

What do you want to do next?

Also loved the idea of trending, do anytime!
#sisterwivesblogrules

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Game of Groans

During the recent half season of Sister Wives have you been excited by the sister wives’ verbal sword play and emotional backstabbing?  Do you miss the intrigue, seduction, lavish costly adequate meagre sets and costumes of the Las Vegas casas del Browns?  Then you will love our very own

Game of Groans: the Sister Wives Edition
also known as: Browns Don’t Pay Their Debts / Cancellation is Coming


Do you know who made the following comments?

First prize is a no-expense paid vacation to Robyn’s house in Las Vegas to babysit her children while she and Kody have a second honeymoon.


1.       “Love should be multiplied, not divided.”
a.      Kody Brown
b.     Mrs. Brown, my 4th grade math teacher
c.      Reverend Brown, minister at the First Street Methodist church
d.      James Brown, Godfather of Soul: married 3 times, had 9
   Answer:  Score two points if you answered anything but “a”.  Unfortunately, however, it was Doofus who made this comment.  Apply brain bleach and deduct 10 points if you answered a.

2.     “We don’t do weird.”
a.      Meri Brown
b.     The Brown M&M
c.      Chris Brown (Rihanna’s ex)
d.      Bobby Brown (the late Whitney Houston’s ex)
   Answer:  The Brown M&M, of course.  After reading the Brown’s book, it is apparent that Meri is very weird; therefore, “a” cannot be true.  Five bonus points if you have the inside scoop on whether this comment is true.

3.     “Hold on there Johnny Appleseed.”
a.      Hunter Brown
b.     John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed’s real name)
c.      John McIntosh (discovered the McIntosh apple)
d.      Maria Smith (discovered the Granny Smith apple)
e.       John Cripps (developed the Pink Lady / Cripps Pink apple)
Answer:  Hunter Brown.  An extra 10 points if you know what the comment means. 

4.     “I’ve been praying about it ever since we met.”
a.      Robyn Brown
b.     Zac Brown (country singer)
c.      The unsinkable Molly Brown
d.      Dan Brown (wrote “The Da Vinci Code”)
Answer:  Robyn said this when providing Meri with her offer of surrogacy.  However, we think it would be better as a country song lyric.  Are you reading this Zac?

5.     “Modest is hottest.”
a.      Christine Brown
b.     Christina Hendricks, actress on “Mad Men” (has considerable “assets”)
c.      Christina Aguilera, singer (albums include “Stripped” and “Just be Free”)
d.      Christian Bale, actor (famous for his leaked on-set X-rated rant)
Answer:  Gee, this is a difficult question.  The answer is, Christiane Amanpour, CNN correspondent.

6.     “How do you date as a married man?”
a.      Kody Brown
b.     Kody’s friend Andy
c.      Kelsey Grammer
d.      Every married Mormon fundamentalist man
Answer:  While Kody’s friend Andy (married to Nicole) said the words, the quote applies to “e”.  Do you remember Andy and Nicole?  They belonged to the AUB, but hadn’t yet taken a second wife.  We hope they still haven’t!

7.     Toasters kill more people than sharks.
a.      Christine Brown
b.     The brave little toaster
c.  Jaws
d.  Cylons and Transformers disguised as toasters
Answer:  This was actually a clever marketing ploy by Kenmore to boost microwave sales.

8.     “_____ is a raging testosterone monster.”
a.      Hunter Brown
b.     Detective Sergeant Rick Hunter (Hunter, the 1980s TV series)
c.      Kody Brown
d.      Solomon Brown
e.      Solomon Grundy
Answer:  Kody said this about his son Hunter.  We think that Kody is actually the testosterone monster.

9.     Who was worried that someone might “proslight” about Mormon fundamentalism (Mormon pronunciation of “proselytize”)?
a.      Kody’s friend Ken
b.     The Pope
c.      Elton John
d.      Reese Witherspoon’s mother (accused her husband of bigamy)
Answer:  All the above, with special emphasis on Ken, who apparently lacks a dictionary.

10.  Who has the scarlet P?
a.      Kody Brown
b.     Kody Coxxx, adult film performer
c.      Buffalo Bill Cody, you know who he is
d.      Diablo Cody, writer
Answer:  As usual, Doofus put his foot in his mouth when he attempted to sound literate and compare “The Scarlet Letter” to polygamy.  The result sounded more like something that required antibiotics. 

11.   Who says they will be out of the house the day they turn 18?
a.      Madison Brown
b.     Helen Gurley Brown
c.      Sylvia Brown (the psychic)
d.      Jackson Browne, singer-songwriter
Answer:  Madison is apparently psychic (and feminist) as she says she will be will be supporting herself the day she turns 18, even if she is running on empty and that being a sister wife is definitely not for her.  You go girl!

Written by" Terrasola 

Monday, July 16, 2012

Video: Sister Wives - Health Insurance and Spiritual Unions

This is an old video - apparently filmed before Kody married Robyn, while the family was still living in the Big House in Lehi. Also I think the video was titled wrong...

Just a couple of things - notice the eye roll Mariah gives Maddie when she talks about not becoming a plural wife.

Also, the look Kody gives Janelle when she interrupts HIM. Never mind he interrupted Meri first and Janelle just wanted Meri to finish her thought.

Now that we've had a couple of years watching Kody's high jinks, seems like business as usual for Kody to want to comment on jealousy felt by sisterwives when he is the husband, and can't really understand Meri's perspective. What would he have to offer in the conversation when HIS need to marry more women is the root cause of the jealousy Meri is experiencing? And at least Maddie understands how jealousy is a major dysfunction of her parent's 'lifestyle'.

Jealousy is kryptonite? I'm thinking Kody has kryptonite for brains.




Your Thoughts?

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Tee Shirt Time! Here's Your Shirt! .............SWB

Ever Hear Here’s Your Sign??
Here it is SWB Style, Here’s Your Shirt!  
ALL made by our very own readers!


First name, Idea by/Second name, Made By - if there are two names. 

Two names are shortened: Caramel Brownie to CB, and Bargain Babe to BB; they were so kind to make so many. I give them a HUGE THANK YOU! 

See note below about permissions!
Watch more MORE Tee Shirts SOON!



Above 3, Lindsey

Above 3: Lobotomized, Bargain Babe, Mono4life 
 Above 3: Bargain Babe
Above 3: Lobotomized, Lobotomized, MegsMom  

Friday, July 13, 2012

I Scour the Internet: The Friday the Thirteenth Edition 7/13/12

After spending the better part of this morning scanning the internet for Kody and his Krew news, I've decided that today should be 'What's being tweeted on Twitter about Sister Wives' Day. So here are some of the tweets I saw, placed here for your amusement.

Since today is also Friday the 13th, and as I suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia, I must take my leave now for the safety of my bed.

Enjoy the tweets!



















Old news Carleigh. Kody has 17 kids since October last year so get with the program!

There's something so wrong about this...

That would be an improvement for both shows! Come on, TLC and ABC !


Oh Timothy, I don't think you want to look like Kody. At least not on purpose...















Molly, you must have been reading our minds!
Kody and his Pimpettes



Marcel, I totally agree with you...











OUCH!!   TRUTH HURTS!!


He probably charges. Anyway, he's too big time now to pose with just regular people now...
Kody still computing the number of mother in laws he has...
Really Amanda, you KNOW this question is gonna blow Kody's mind totally off this planet! Great question, though...Got the krazy eyes going now....


Now Meri, why would you tweet something like that to Kody? Don't you know this is how rumors get started?
Kody, fine example of rumor control....NOT!!

********7/14/12

Here's a post Friday the Thirteenth twit addition: