Polygamy

If anyone's been watching the news recently, you might have caught this little tidbit.Warren Jeffs jailed for forcing girl to marryBy Catherine Elsworth in Los AngelesLast Updated: 8:54am GMT 21/11/2007Warren Jeffs, the polygamous sect leader, yesterday received the maximum sentence of five years to life in prison for forcing a teenage girl to marry her cousin.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/21/wjeffs121.xmlNow I find a few things about this interesting,

• First off, the sentence is pathetic. For aiding a rape one should be getting a lot more than a mere five years. But that's a different issue.
  
• Secondly, what place does marriage have in the law? I've been thinking about this for a time. Should the state ban polygamy, same-sex marriage, or any other similiar contract relationship? Part of me thinks that the federal government has no business in defining something like this and that at the very least we need to give this over to the states if not just to the individuals. The Constitution doesn't discuss gay marriage.
  
• Another part of me thinks however, that marriage is the bedrock of religious and civil society. Why must a state redefine what has been defined by government and religion for thousands of years? All research points to a breakdown of family, which in turn is a breakdown in society, when we redefine marriage.
  
• Fourthly, I find mainline Mormonism's reaction to illegal polygamy interesting. Gordon B. Hinkely, the LDS church's "prophet", says that he finds polygamy undoctrinal and wrong. The LDS authorities have condemned Jeffs polygamous practices. But let's look to prior Mormon leaders, who are still venerated in the LDS church, and compare them with Warren Jeffs.
  
  Jeffs: polygamous, ran from the law, arrested.
  
  Hinkley: monogamous, hasn't run from the law, hasn't been arrested.
  
  Smith: polygamous, has run from the law, has been arrested.
  
  Young: polygamous, has run from the law, has been arrested.
  
  I find this slightly amusing.