2008 Woodie Awards
Religious Criminal Should Do Hard Time
Claire Webster
Issue date: 9/19/07 Section: Opinion
In 2001, a 14-year-old girl was coerced into marrying her 19-year-old cousin by Warren Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints in Utah.
Now the girl is known in court as Jane Doe. But to the followers of the polygamist sect, she is known as a girl who wanted out of her marriage, and for those who have transgressed against her to be held accountable.
According to Doe, she married her cousin because she believed that being married and obeying her husband were the only ways to get to Heaven.
Doe believed this because it had been taught to her by Jeffs. There were even sermons he recorded onto tapes that she constantly heard.
These sermons spoke of women who were not comparable to men, and how they had to be married to go to Heaven. They also spoke of African-Americans as filth.
In court, Doe testified that Jeffs taught that a woman who was not married was to act as if there was a wall of bars between them and the opposite sex.
It was later taught to her that the "wall of bars" would be dropped once she was married. To her, this meant that she was to let her husband have his way with her.
After Doe was married to her cousin, she sought a meeting with Jeffs and told him she was unable to have a family with her husband and could not do what they expected her to do. She was then instructed to repent, and return to her husband to attend to his needs. She did as she was told, but was depressed.
Arranged marriage is not something an average person would be up for, but when it is taught to someone their entire life it is seen as normal. Even though Doe did not feel right, she was still under the impression that she had to go through with the marriage.
Doe did not choose the life she had; she was born into it. Unlike Sara Hammon, who was able to flee the polygamist church at age 14, Doe was not so lucky.
Many other people who have fled or been banished from the sect are going to be part of the trial, claiming that the church was a popular site in which "child molestation and spousal abuse are rampant."
Now the girl is known in court as Jane Doe. But to the followers of the polygamist sect, she is known as a girl who wanted out of her marriage, and for those who have transgressed against her to be held accountable.
According to Doe, she married her cousin because she believed that being married and obeying her husband were the only ways to get to Heaven.
Doe believed this because it had been taught to her by Jeffs. There were even sermons he recorded onto tapes that she constantly heard.
These sermons spoke of women who were not comparable to men, and how they had to be married to go to Heaven. They also spoke of African-Americans as filth.
In court, Doe testified that Jeffs taught that a woman who was not married was to act as if there was a wall of bars between them and the opposite sex.
It was later taught to her that the "wall of bars" would be dropped once she was married. To her, this meant that she was to let her husband have his way with her.
After Doe was married to her cousin, she sought a meeting with Jeffs and told him she was unable to have a family with her husband and could not do what they expected her to do. She was then instructed to repent, and return to her husband to attend to his needs. She did as she was told, but was depressed.
Arranged marriage is not something an average person would be up for, but when it is taught to someone their entire life it is seen as normal. Even though Doe did not feel right, she was still under the impression that she had to go through with the marriage.
Doe did not choose the life she had; she was born into it. Unlike Sara Hammon, who was able to flee the polygamist church at age 14, Doe was not so lucky.
Many other people who have fled or been banished from the sect are going to be part of the trial, claiming that the church was a popular site in which "child molestation and spousal abuse are rampant."
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