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 Hundreds of teenage boys - as young as in the seventh grade - have been kicked out of a controversial polygamist settlement on the border of Utah and Arizona and left to fend for themselves over the past few years, says the New York Times in a bizarre report this wekeend.
Boys are kicked out for small infractions - watching movies, TV, or using the Internet. They are forbidden to stare at girls, let alone ask them out. Short-sleeve shirts are banned because they are "immodest." More:
Some boys end up in unsupervised group rentals they call “butt huts”
because of the crowded sleeping, while others live in cars or end up in
jail.
Utah officials say they realized the extent of the
problem only about four years ago, when they learned that hundreds of
boys from the sect were roaming on their own and often in distress.
While most have construction skills to help earn a living, few have
more than a junior high education.
The underlying implication is that in order to have a society that mandates multiple wives (three to go to heaven), you need to get rid of some of the competition. One cast-off estimates that 70% of the boys in his school class have been banished.
The settlement, between Hilldale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, has
a population of about 6,000. The residents follow the teachings of the
jailed "prophet" Warren Jeffs, of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints (which has no official ties to the
mainstream Mormon church).
Another chilling excerpt, from one of the cast-offs:
“I was a good boy, working 13-hour days,” he said. But he had been
raising questions, especially after his father’s four wives were
assigned to other husbands. Then Marc got caught driving to a nearby
town to watch a movie.
One evening as he was making a chicken
sandwich, he recalled, “My two older brothers came and said that
because I’d gone to the movies, Warren said I’m out.”
“I went into my bedroom and my mother was already packing my things, and crying,” he said.
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