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Senate Judiciary Committee Holds Hearings on Polygamous Sects

By Howard M. Friedman

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has posted the testimony presented by eight witnesses at yesterday's hearings on Crimes Associated with Polygamy: The Need for a Coordinated State and Federal Response. The hearings, which coincided with Utah's Pioneer Day, received wide coverage in the media. Some of the most extensive coverage appeared in yesterday's Deseret News , in the Salt Lake Tribune and at CNN. Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, who is a convert to Mormonism and the Senator who has led the call for hearings and the creation of a federal task force, told the Senate panel:

We do honor our pioneer ancestors by condemning those who have wrongfully cloaked themselves in the trappings of religion to obscure their true criminal purposes.... I am here to tell you that polygamist communities in the United States are a form of organized crime.... The most obvious crime being committed in these communities is bigamy, child abuse ? teen and pre-teen girls are forced to marry older men and bear their children. But the criminal activity that goes on in these places is far broader. Witnesses at this hearing will describe a web of criminal conduct that includes welfare fraud, tax evasion, massive corruption and strong-arm tactics to maintain the status quo.

(See prior related posting.)

Full post as published by Religion Clause on July 25, 2008 (boomark / email).