This is from another forum, but it might make for a discussion here:
Quote by Moksha:
From what I can tell, no teenage girls want to engage in arranged marriages with fifty years old guys.
Quote by Fiannan :
Maybe not the arranged part.
Well, let's take a hypothetical polygamy case then: Say there is a fifty year old polygamist, we can call him Humbert-Humbert and a fourteen year old girl, we can call her Lita.
What you are saying is that Lita would not like to be in an arranged marriage with middle aged Humbert-Humbert, but perhaps on her own accord would be happy to be in this duo.
How long would Lita's happiness last? Might it be just a passing schoolgirl fancy, rather than a commitment for time and eternity? Also, there would be the statutory consideration as to whether Lita is really mature enough to make such a commitment to Humbert-Humbert.
What if these FLDS Polygamists were able to institute the Amish idea of a Rumspringa for their adolescents (a period of time where they could live away from the compound and taste the outside world) then at the age of 18 could decide for themselves if they wished to get hitched to the Humbert-Humberts of their world?
People know that to really hook people into a religion, they've usually got to do it while they're young. The success rate of successfully hooking a child into one's religion is orders of magnitude higher than the success rate of converting adults to it. Not all children raised in a religion stick with it, and some adults do convert, but nobody should dispute that the rates are orders of magnitude apart.
This being generally understood, if even at just a visceral level, by most people involved in religions, there is great emphasis placed in some religions on getting the children hooked before they've really had a chance to understand and choose an alternative.
I have to wonder if there isn't something Darwinian about this 14-year old bride thing. It may just be something as simple as that 14-year old brides tend to stick with the religion at a higher rate than 18-year old brides do, for the simple reason that 14-year olds never really had a chance to object and understand and choose something else, while 18-year olds may be more assertive about thinking for themselves.
If this is the case (and I don't know that it is, I'm just hypothesizing), then there would be pressure against waiting to marry off the girls, and towards marrying them off as young as they possibly can be.
This is related, I think, with LDS seminary. My mother-in-law is trying very hard to influence my daughter to "choose" to take released-time seminary during the school day, for all four years of High School. My MIL thinks that this is absolutely critical. I asked her what it is that a child would learn in seminary that they couldn't learn throughout the rest of their life as an adult. She fumbled around for some cogent answer to that, but ultimately her desire is that my daughter be taught this stuff while she's still inclined to trust authority figures, and before she's grown up thinking for herself. Ie: my MIL knows that the likelihood of my daughter staying TBM through adulthood go down if she's not been indoctrinated through seminary, and go up if she has. To her this is a matter of great eternal consequence. To me, on the other hand, I think seminary is undesirable precisely because of this effect.
I think it will be very hard to ween truly die-hard religious fanatic polygamy believers off the 14-year old bride thing for this very reason. Their prime directive is to propagate the belief system, and keep as many family members (except the teenaged boys of course) in it as humanly possible. They achieve this more effectively through 14-year old brides than they do with 18-year old bridges, or, heaven forbid, 23-year old brides.
Mormonism ceased being a compelling topic for me when I finally came to terms with its transformation from a personality cult into a combination of a real estate company, a SuperPac, and Westboro Baptist Church. - Kishkumen
What if these FLDS Polygamists were able to institute the Amish idea of a Rumspringa for their adolescents (a period of time where they could live away from the compound and taste the outside world) then at the age of 18 could decide for themselves if they wished to get hitched to the Humbert-Humberts of their world?
That would be a great idea for the polygamist girls and boys. I'm sure some of them would probably choose the world and culture they are familiar with, but given a fair chance, most would probably leave.
So, that's why it would never happen. Not in a million years. It's all about control. Their entire goal is to keep these people ignorant of the outside world so they won't know any different, and will be willing to continue to live a life of servitude and deprivation. Saddle the girls down with a few kids before they are 16 and they won't be going anywhere.
That would totally be the undoing of their religion.
On a side note, there is an excellent documentary about rumspringa called "Devil's Playground". It follows a group of Amish teenagers as they journey out into the world, and then decide whether or not to return.
cinepro wrote:On a side note, there is an excellent documentary about rumspringa called "Devil's Playground". It follows a group of Amish teenagers as they journey out into the world, and then decide whether or not to return.
Definitely worth checking out.
What a shame that title is taken. It would be great for a movie of these young FLDS women turned loose on the streets of Salt Lake City.