What Does It Mean To Be a Willing Child Bride?

Two fundamentalist Mormon girls.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been camped out in a west Texas courtroom watching the trial of fundamentalist Mormon polygamist Raymond Merril Jessop unfold. Sentencing begins today, and Jessop could face up to 20 years in prison for impregnating his underage “celestial” wife in 2004. The victim, 16 at the time of the sexual assault, never took the stand, and all the evidence in the case seemed to indicate that she was Jessop’s willing bride. But what does that even mean in an environment where girls are conditioned from birth to believe that marrying an older, powerful man is the highest honor?

In the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, girls are taught that being a plural wife and mother is the only way to reach the highest rung of heaven. In this atmosphere, getting married at 14 or 15 becomes the next logical step in a girl’s life. They are into placed in marriages—"sealed for time and all eternity"—whenever the sect’s prophet deems them worthy, regardless of their age, according to the testimony of former FLDS member Rebecca Musser. Once married, girls must show perfect obedience to their husbands, who are viewed as their only connection to God.

Raymond Jessop, the son of the ranch’s leader Merril Jessop, is a man with considerable clout within the church, making him a desirable prospective husband. Now 38, Jessop has one legal wife, eight spiritual wives, and a sizable brood of 22 children and stepchildren. (And it’s worth noting that four of his wives were teenagers when he married them.) Things get more complicated when considering that the victim in the case was spiritually married at 14 to Jessop’s brother Ernest in Utah. A year later, FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs excommunicated Ernest Jessop and reassigned his three wives to Raymond.

This victim’s personal photo album, which the prosecutor used to prove that she lived with Jessop, spans both marriages but does not even take note of her husband swap. In the photos, she looks like a happy young girl as she interacts with her sister wives’ young children and helps out with the chores. It almost could be any teenager’s album but for the prairie dresses. In a later picture, she beams in a light blue dress as she clutches her own tow-headed toddler, looking every bit the devoted young mother. It is easy to imagine the defense returning to these images during sentencing, using them to suggest the state overreached and is now tearing up a happy family.

Others in the sect are convinced the state of Texas has had it in for them since their arrival in 2003, when the fundamentalist Mormons bought up a parcel of land twice the size of Central Park on the outskirts of Eldorado. Once Texas legislators discovered this, they voted to raise the state’s legal marriage age from 14 to 16 and tweaked the bigamy statute. Willie Jessop, the church’s folksy, baby-faced spokesman, saw these targeted changes as evidence of persecution. “Why would the legislature change the law to specifically target us?” he asked during the trial. “The government decided they didn’t like me but I’m not a criminal—so they decide to change the law so I am a criminal.” However, the FLDS formally renounced underage marriages a year after the raid at the YFZ ranch, perhaps in an attempt to ward off further scrutiny.

Photograph of two girls in Hildale, Utah, one location of Warren Jeff's sect of polygamist Mormons, by George Frey/Getty Images.

Tags: polygamy, raymond jessop's trial, statutory rape

Sonia Smith is a Texas-based freelance writer.

Comments

Willing Child Bride

By: fincenMIB | Wed, 11/18/2009 - 23:38

If it was an honor to be a human sacrafice, it would still be murder in a civilized society. The FLDS are unique in that from birth the women are taught to expect and defend this life style. There is jealousy, older wives do mistreat the young pretty ones and inspite of their belief, they experience the same emotional issues as women/girls outside the culture.

In the year 2000, I was the Tri-State rep. of FOR KIDS SAKE a child abuse prevention non profit and I lived 25 miles from Colorado City, in Hurricane Utah. I know the culture, the belief, I have friends up there, I have 550 of Warren Jeffs audios to know from his mouth what he believes and has taught the faithful.

In 2000 I filed complaints on both Police agencies in Hildale Utah and Colorado City Arizona, including being the sole source to Attorney General Janet Napolitano then in that states 30 day preliminary investigation. Beyond the child abuse and laws violated, there is the issue of Fumarace Disease, a recessive gene that causes mental retardation and other genetic problems, the highest rate in the world amongst the FLDS. There are many reasons to address this now, while the numbers are still manageable.

Just because a child is willing to be obedient unto his or her parents religion, is not an excuse to allow the parents to exploit their children. The FLDS is a society where men exchange their daughters, some have made babies with their own biological daughters.

fincenMIB

I'm just sayin..

By: Jewellya | Tue, 11/10/2009 - 18:01

I was speaking in terms of how the laws relate to the "child bride," not the husband.
We inact the statutory rape laws to "protect the children" yet the definition of Child changes.
We inact the Bigamy laws to protect...who again?
I'm not saying that laws were not broken, I was just trying to illustrate that all else remaining equal, a 16 year old can be legally married to a 25 year old man and bear his children without any consequence for the husband. but that same husband better not take another 16 year old as his "spiritual" wife. the question "to think about" is this: Can we logically say the second wife being abused?
Polyamorous relationships occur in this nation all the time. Many move in with one another as a pseudo-marriage. Most do not get prosecuted.
I think as many Texans do and that this little community is plenty weird. and I don't doubt that they twarted the laws of the state and the nation. i don't even doubt, like in many families, secluded communities, and "cults", that there was physical and sexual abuse of children. But as I also think that just as there is no victim in Homosexual monogomous marriages (legal or not), so too, my hypothetical 16 year old second wife has not been victimized.

What are you talking about Jewella?

By: JBiggs | Tue, 11/10/2009 - 14:40

There are two separate issues: Statutory rape (having intercourse with a minor regardless of whether it was consensual) and Bigamy (being married to multiple partners).
They are separate crimes though one can be guilty of both crimes at the same time. I do not understand why you are state it is "something to think about...".
First off, every state or local province may enact any law they wish. If they wish to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16, then so be it. Once it is done, it is thereafter illegal to have sexual relations with someone who is 15 years and 364 days old and until their 16th B-day, they cannot legally consent. Let's make a comparison to drinking laws. Most states have passed laws barring individuals under the age of 21 from purchasing alcoholic beverages (some states it's 18). So even if a person is 20 years and 364 days old, they cannot legally buy a beer and if that person does, legal consequences will follow. The real question is: was the legal age raised from 14 to 16 just to go after the FLDS? My answer...doesn't it matter? Laws are passed by elected officials. If the residents didn't like it, they need to vote out the officials.
As for the bigamy...it doesn't matter how old you are...if you are married to more than one spouse, you will be found guilty and sentence for that offense.

Re: Abitrary Much?

By: PinkGrapefruit | Tue, 11/10/2009 - 12:56

The arbitrariness is in our definitions of "adult" and "minor." That is why Texas has a 2-year buffer law that does not consider sexual intercourse between an adult and his/her underage partner to be statutory rape if there is a 2-year or less gap between their ages. Therefore,an 18-year-old, by the usual legal definition, may be considered more of an adult than a 16-year-old. However, the law recognizes that in sexual terms, the 18-year-old and 16-year-old are at similar maturity levels.

The law is attempting to protect minors from exploitation by adults. Thus, the burden is on the adult to prove that his/her relationship with the minor is not exploitative or harmful. Limiting sexual contact between adults and minors to legal marriage with the consent of parents is a fairly rigorous standard. I think it's clear in this case that not holding the FLDS to this standard would allow the continued exploitation of minors. I think the law is working as it's supposed to in this case, which is great to see.

of course, we're all conditioned by our environment

By: you know it is | Mon, 11/09/2009 - 16:34

But what does that even mean in an environment where girls are conditioned from birth to believe that marrying an older, powerful man is the highest honor?

True. But on the other hand, no matter what society you grow up in you're going to be exposed to what it considers success and what its status symbols are. For example, one might point to pro athletes and ask how willing they were to become pro athletes, given how they grew up in an environment which presented it as the ultimate status profession (or at least, one of a handful of high status ones). Or people who pursue the amassing of ever increasing amounts of wealth, because they received societal messages that this means that you're "winning" and therefore a worthwhile person, and so on.

One could just as well ask how "willingness" there is in anything anyone does. If one wishes to take it to its conclusion, ultimately we're all programmed by our innate characteristics and our environment, and what people refer to as "free will" arises because the links between that programming and people's actions are too complicated to be transparent.

Please note that I am not saying that question like the one I quoted from the post are silly and fatuous questions that should not be asked. I think that they are good and excellent questions.

arbitrary much?

By: Jewellya | Mon, 11/09/2009 - 13:58

If the legal age of marriage was once 14 and raised to 16, then why is sex at 15 with your 20+ (or 60+) year old husband called rape the day after but not the day before? If a 16 year old can consent to marry whomever she pleases for a legal union (first wife) then why it is child abuse when another 16 year old marries the same man as a second, third, fourth wife? Does the legal status of a government, which you don't recognize anyway, change the action, the result, or the emotional consequences?

something to think about...