UPDATED: Video added...After 12 Years of Waiting, Great News About Ruby Jessop

We Welcome Troy Bowles Back to SWB!  

Incredible news! First of all, 12 years ago, I got involved with Flora Jessop. She was trying to get her sister, Ruby out of Hildale, Utah. Ruby had been placed into a forced marriage at age 14. She had tried to run away but Utah law enforcement and DCFS sent her right back to her abusers where she had to go through with and endure this forced marriage.


My colleagues and I worked very hard to get the right people interested in this case. I spoke to the Utah Senate Judiciary Confirmation Committee because not long after Ruby was forced to go back to Hildale to live under her uncle, Fred Jessop, the Washington County attorney, Eric Ludlow was appointed to serve as a judge on the 5th district court. I presented evidence at his confirmation hearing that we had contacted Ludlow via certified letter explaining our concerns. Ludlow ignored our letter, but he did indeed receive it. That was undeniable. It held up his confirmation for six weeks, but Ludlow had powerful people on his side. He's now a judge.


We didn't stop with that. Orrin Hatch has a lot of FLDS friends, or at least he did at the time. He has even played the organ in their Colorado City chapel. That's hardly an honor they'd allow a typical "gentile." We challenged Hatch to go into Hildale and meet with his friend, Fred Jessop, and find out why Ruby was living under virtual house arrest and being forced into an arranged marriage. Hatch completely ignored us. Ruby is now 26 years old and she has six children.


I'm filled with emotion over all of this. It has driven me to a considerable amount of effort to make sure no politician can ever lie to me again. This is what made me decide to become a human rights philosopher. But today, after 12 years of involvement, I got the first good news I've had in years. Ruby and her six children have finally managed to escape Colorado City and the FLDS. This has been a dream-come-true for my friend Flora Jessop who is now reunited with her sister. For Ruby, in the end, human rights prevailed. Now, there are others who are trying to escape, but as we can see, the Utah State Government will do just about anything to avoid getting involved. It wasn't until the Mojave County, Arizona law enforcement got extra funding from the state that they could help us. Many thanks to the state of Arizona for finally stepping in to help this young woman.


Some important people involved in the failure to rescue Ruby Jessop 12 years ago:


Orrin Hatch: Senator, United States (Utah)
Mark Shurtleff: Former Utah State Attorney General
Eric Ludlow: Judge, Utah Fifth District; Former County Attorney, Washington County, Utah
Bill Hickman, Senator, Utah (Washington Co.)


Between Shurtleff and Ludlow's offices, it seems nobody could decide who should have been responsible for our complaint about Ruby's forced marriage. The matter fell out of the attention of the public and Ruby disappeared, even losing contact with her sister, Flora. Hatch apparently felt the sting from my colleagues when he praised the FLDS for their hard working ethic and their strong faith. We challenged him and he went away for good. He had no interest in Ruby's forced marriage. He refused to believe that forced marriages were even taking place among the FLDS and wouldn't even listen to our arguments. Governor Mike Leavitt had appointed Ludlow to serve on the Fifth District Bench. We never heard from his office throughout this whole affair.

Reports about Ruby Jessop:
https://www.azag.gov/press-release/colorado-city-woman-escapes-forced-marriage

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55679319-78/jessop-ruby-flora-arizona.html.csp

http://onesearch4-2.newsvine.com/_news/2013/01/23/16668091-ruby-jessop-the-incredible-story-of-child-bride-who-escaped-warren-jeffs-polygamous-sect

 Written By:Troy Bowles 
Here are some other interesting posts from Troy:

http://sisterwivesblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/philosophy-and-polygamy-ins-and-outs.html

http://sisterwivesblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/troy-bowles-growing-up-mormon.html

Also Troy was on the show Polygamy: What love is this? He gave some great interviews, one in which he discusses Ruby, The Dargers book, and they are very informative on the Mormon Fundamentalist Beliefs. I encourage you to watch them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J-lOpUzR4M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4iWj0N6lYA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrnu55jlT2Q

UPDATE on Ruby, watch her live segment with Anderson Cooper here, courtesy of Anderson Cooper 360.

Check out Cosmo's Corner on SisterWivesBlog!

Hey Everybody!

Make sure you check out our newest section on Sister Wives Blog: Cosmo's Corner!

Yes, Troy Bowles now has an upfront spot on the blog, giving you easy access to ask those burning questions we know you have, and easy access to read Cosmo's (Troy Bowles) answers.

No more searching through the blog's archives - just ask your question in Cosmo's Corner and he will answer in the same section!

Just click on the link Cosmo's Corner located just under "Pages" at the top, on the right hand side of the blog to enter Troy's new home!

And to get back to the blog home page, just click the link for "Home".

Enjoy!

Cynical Jinx

Troy Bowles - Growing up Mormon fundamentalist

I've had an amazing experience lately and it opened my eyes to a lot of things.  My colleagues and I have been reading the book Love Times Three and in the process I even met them at a book-signing.

The book was very boring to me, having grown up around polygamy.  The subject may seem very unusual and even exotic, and this may be why it has become popular to view polygamists with a sense of curiosity that blinds people to the actual abuse.  But there is simply no way for a society to allow men to marry as many women as they choose.  Doing this creates an elitism among polygamous men and inevitably casts of excess bachelors who are under no less "divinely" obligated to practice polygamy themselves.  In a polygamous society it's simply impossible for everyone to have the option to get married.  Most men in these societies end up leaving, but if you're female and you're living in such a society, it is against the better interest of the elite men to allow the women to slip away so easily.  The whole situation is chaotic and ends up exploiting people as a result.  The power structure between men and women is heavily slanted to the male in this situation.  The Dargers are nice people and seem to take care of themselves, but it is irresponsible to engage in practices that affect the whole of society in a negative way.  If the god of Mormon fundamentalism truly demands polygamy, then that god cannot possibly be just.  It reduces women to objects to be collected by the elite and casts aside whole parts of its humanity as troublesome if not undesirable.

The only time this book got interesting was when Valerie started discussing what polygamy ends up being for so many people.  Just a week after high school, she became the fifth wife of a man more than twice her age, and was obliged to raise children with this abusive man.  Before she married Joe Darger, she was married to a more typical Mormon fundamentalist who kept his family in penury while he indulged in his weaknesses, like perpetual gambling.  This is more like what I'm accustomed to seeing in polygamy.  What the Dargers portray may appear pleasant to some people, but only to someone who refuses to see how their own behavior affects others: an immoral person.  Society cannot provide for men who want to collect multiple wives.  All of us are in this together and to take more than society can provide is selfish and immoral.  Morality goes much deeper than the Dargers' strained attempt to portray their relationship as sexually-puritanical.  For instance, they give great emphasis to the fact that they waited until the day Joe married both Alina and Vicky.  Is this the point of chastity?  Is this really what God wants?

The Dargers are nice people, but this book is just another attempt to portray polygamy as loving and normal.  Perhaps Joe treats his wives more kindly than most polygamists, but the whole system is backward and misogynistic.  Repeatedly I hear polygamous women referring to polygamy as a challenge in which they must prove themselves.  But it always sounded silly to hear this from the men.  They are the ones in control.  They do practically nothing to raise the children but they typically pride themselves on being able to keep a harem happy.  Fundamentally-speaking, in a polygamous society, if you're male, you're superfluous and if you leave, people will barely notice.  But if you're female, there is no option to leave.  You can't just fade out of that society.  My dear friend Flora Jessop can explain that situation.  She was kept under virtual house arrest because she tried to leave.  But look at how that society values their young men.  Despicable.

Love Times Three is not worth your money.  There's an ulterior motive behind it and Brooke Adams has apparently been hoodwinked as well.  For being a reporter on the polygamy beat, she certainly has taken a one-sided approach.  If you want to learn about the realities of Mormon-based polygamy, you'd be much better off starting with Church of Lies, by Flora Jessop.  Polygamy is abusive in every situation in one way or another.  When men collect women and use them as status symbols, it is an abuse of their dignity and decency.  Don't contribute to people who do this.

Troy's review on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1IP0XJAIBHPS3/ref=cm_pdp_rev_more?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview#R3PQK2HILP6M0

Thanks Troy! We hope to hear your teaching on the Muslim religion soon! (hint)!

Philosophy and Polygamy: Ins and Outs, with Troy Bowles

  I'll be the first to admit I know very little about Polygamy and Fundy Mormons. Having a brother that graduated from Cornell in Philosophy, educated parents, and too lively conversations of politics, war, and religion in the 60's when I was a wee child and everyone else in the house was an adult -- probably turned me off of all things other than my own Christan religion. Until now. Heck, I just wanted to play Battling Tops!

  To understand WHY these folks, the "Sister Wives" crew, would be into polygamy, suffer constant jealousies and oppression to women, I have been trying to read and understand the AUB, Mormon, and all that follows. I am completely and utterly disturbed by WHAT I have learned so far. Throughout these pages are documentation of what they believe and why they must be polygamists to reach heaven. Feel free to browse through the past months posts if you haven't.

  I was lucky enough to meet so many great people on this journey. Through a new friend of a friend I have "met" Troy Bowles. He was raised in the AUB-and left, and has a vast amount of knowledge and understanding of the religious sect.  I think he reminds me of my brothers style of speaking and teaching. He is easy to comprehend and very interesting. Extremely fair-he is simply looking for the truth. You can almost tell he is weighing his words-so diplomatic in his style. We first printed his piece for the Salt Lake Tribune here.  http://sisterwivesblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/polygamy-and-religious-liberty.html

Troy was recently on the show, Polygamy, What Love Is This?This is an excellent place to learn about Polygamy. I really encourage you to watch the entire clip; however, if you are only interested in their thoughts on the "Sister Wives" show- start watching about 30 minutes into it. However, if you'd like to learn about this unsettling religion, watch this entire segment, and we will be posting more to discuss together.

Episode 4.35 Doris interviews Troy Bowles, formerly of the AUB fundamentalist group, about his story and the characteristics of modern polygamist groups.

He has graciously allowed us to reprint his recent post to learn from. Let's take a look.

The Basic Problem with Polygamy      By: Troy Bowles

 If a whole culture is operating under a belief system that mandates polygamy, it's safe to say a few things in general without making irrelevent stereotypes. By itself, marriage doesn't set up a situation for human rights abuses to proliferate. Religiously-mandated polygamy does. First of all, it is always patriarchal. Polyandry exists, but it is extremely rare. In the vast majority of cases, polygamy is polygyny. Also, in almost every case of religiously-mandated polygamy, the people who practice it isolate themselves into societies that are effectively closed to members moving in and out freely. In these societies, polygamy inevitably sets up a situation that throws human rights out of balance.

Women in polygamous societies are under no ordinary pressure to marry. Each of the men are trying to marry at least three wives in order to set up his "future kingdom," which is exaltation to godhood. The men compete intensely and the women are under implicit, but severe orders to provide themselves as means to the exaltation the men are striving to reach. As more men become polygamists, the available women become scarce and the pressures intensify. All Mormon fundamentalist societies show evidence of this imbalance with the problem of excess unmarried men too. Most of them are driven off while they're young, since they are competing with senior priesthood holders for the few available women left. Of course the polygamous men start marrying the women ever younger, since they are the only ones who are "available." Underage girls are under severe pressure and indeed, underage polygamous marriage is rampant in these societies. Excess men are cast off, even though all are commanded to practice polygamy, and women are held hostage since they are a means for the men to reach exaltation. The women are not ends unto themselves as they should be under a human rights conception.  In these societies, women are the means by which the men succeed.  If their goals don't align with this, it spells trouble for them.  They're not allowed to conceive their own goals.

It is the polygamists who are following a religious mandate who are trying to get polygamy legalized. We can't do it for their sake; not with the way it throws things out of balance as soon as men start taking extra wives. But for non-religious polygamy, many would argue that they are not putting anyone's human rights at risk. But we have to consider what we're trying to prohibit and weigh the odds with due concern to the pressure to legalize polygamy in the interest of maximizing people's liberties. But is this "liberty" to practice polygamy such a desirable thing? Since when is polygamy necessary for anyone? One may argue that "marriage" isn't perfectly necessary either, but if everyone just takes one spouse at a time, isn't that a reasonable thing to ask? It's quite reasonable and fair to limit everyone to just one spouse. Gender need not be any kind of deciding factor either. But monogamy is what human rights theory best supports and the risk of legalizing polygamy is too great to outweigh the potential added "liberties" we may receive by doing so. I don't care who sleeps with whom, but if it causes human rights abuses in some way, we can't allow it. That is a public matter.

So put your philosophical hats on and tell us what YOU think~!

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