Father sues to teach his 10 year old daughter about polygamy?
 

Dad sues to teach daughter about polygamy
Monday, December 8, 2003 Posted: 2:56 PM EST (1956 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/12/08/po....ap/index.html

Stanley Shepp wants the right to teach his daughter about polygamy and his religious beliefs.

HALLAM, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Tracey L. Roberts isn't trying to stop her ex-husband from voicing his support of polygamy, a belief that broke up their marriage.

But she doesn't want him teaching their 10-year-old daughter, Kaylynne, about the practice or exposing her to it in any way. She's won her point in a lower court but now her ex-husband, Stanley M. Shepp, has taken the case to the state Supreme Court.

"Religious discussion in the home between a parent and a child has got to be the most sacred freedom-of-speech issue ever," Shepp said.

Counters Roberts: "It's not an organized religion -- it's in his mind. Polygamy's illegal everyplace, and it's illegal for a whole lot of reasons."

A judge in May 2002 granted Roberts and Shepp joint custody, saying Kaylynne would continue being raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

But Common Pleas Judge Stephen P. Linebaugh prohibited Shepp from "teaching (Kaylynne) about polygamy, plural marriages, or multiple wives," at least until she is 18.

Shepp's belief in polygamy, Linebaugh wrote, "if he would follow through with it, would be not only illegal in Pennsylvania, but would also be immoral and illogical. The issue is not having such a belief, but his interest in pursuing that belief, which the testimony indicates he clearly would."

Shepp's lawyer, Dann S. Johns, filed an appeal November 12 to the state Supreme Court. Roberts must respond by December 15.

Shepp and Roberts met in 1991 at a Mormon church in York -- both had converted to the religion as adults. They married the following year.

As Shepp's interest in polygamy grew, Roberts brought the matter to the attention of church elders. Eventually, the couple split, and the church excommunicated Shepp for his views.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints renounced polygamy in 1890 as part of a deal to grant Utah statehood, and the church now excommunicates those who practice or advocate it. But some fundamentalist Mormons continue to believe in polygamy, and an estimated 30,000 in the West practice it.

The state Superior Court panel based its decision in part on a finding that exposing Kaylynne to polygamy posed a substantial threat to her.

Roberts' lawyer, Richard K. Konkel, said learning about polygamy from her father could put Kaylynne at risk of "child abuse and sexual abuse and whatever else."

"In a custody case, the best interests of the child is always paramount," Konkel said.

Shepp said if he loses in the state Supreme Court, he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case. Johns wrote that he was unable to find a U.S. Supreme Court precedent directly addressing parent-child religious speech in a custody case.

Pennsylvania's law against bigamy bars married people from entering into an additional marriage. Among other things, Shepp's brief contends that taking a second wife in an informal "spiritual marriage," lacking legal documentation, would not run afoul of the bigamy statute.

I live just up the street from a large Church of Latter Day Saints, as well as north of "The Land of Zion" and the West in general is VERY heavily Mormon. I have had some LDS friends, coworkers, and so on, and even gone to some of their functions so I have some familiarity with the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS). I obviously am not LDS, nor am I a personal fan of it.

However, I really see nothing wrong with polygamy among consenting adults . If having multiple wives is part of their religion, and adults over the age of 18 really want to do that, why the hell not? I am completely against child brides and 12 year old girls being married off to 63 year old men. There are plenty of people out there with "open" marriages and that isn't outlawed. I think about the Constitution and the ideas of religious freedom, and think that the 1890 law against polygamy is unconstitutional, for legal adults. As the article states the only reason polygamy was outlawed by the Mormons was to have statehood granted for Utah, which I find irony in as the Consitution would then apply, yet they gave up their religious freedom for it.

I also find it outrageous that the mother's lawyer believes learning about polygamy from her father could put Kaylynne at risk of "child abuse and sexual abuse and whatever else." I am pretty sure I learned around that age about polygamy and nothing bad has happened to me. She is from an LDS heritage, she will have to learn about it sometime if she doesn't know about it already, it is a part of their history. We can always send her off to Tibet to observe polyandry to counteract it.

I am not LDS, but my dad is. From what he's explained, polygamy is totally against LDS teachings. I mean, they excommunicate people who do it, so it is rather apparent that they don't believe in it.
And many girls in these breakaway Mormon sects are married off against their will at terribly young ages (12, 13, even younger sometimes) and at times they suffer physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and profound poverty. Not to mention they are denied opportunities for education and the chance to develop mentally and socially. Definitely not something I'd want my daughter subjected to.

I guess this is what the mother means about the potential danger she feels her daughter will face. Not only will she be taught about it--she'll probably be exposed to people outside her family who practice it. She's 10, and that's terribly close to prime "marriage" age for some of these extremists. If the polygamy was limited to religious unions between consenting adults, it wouldn't be as bad. But, by allowing the little girl to be exposed to men who are not looking at her as if she's just 10--looking at her as a potential lover--the father really is putting her at the risk of abuse.