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The Sixth of Seven Wives: Escape from
Modern Day Polygamy
M. Mackert
Salt Lake
City UT: Truth Publishing, 2000. 370 pages, paperback.
Reviewed by
Frank MacHovec, Ph.D.
The author was married at age 17
to a 50-year-old man, his 6th wife in a polygamous marriage, hence
the title. The book is her account of her life in a “fundamental Mormon” group
along the Arizona-Utah border. The book is an autobiography that reads much
like a diary. A personal account of her thoughts and feelings, there are no
enumerated chapters and no references. The Preface is 30 pages and is
functionally the first chapter and an overview of the book’s content.
She
describes how polygamous groups continue despite being illegal and felonies; the
law is seldom enforced. The Law of Sarah is considered to transcend federal and
state law. It is a Biblical reference to Sarah, Abraham’s wife who could not
bear children, so Haggar was brought to him for that purpose. When polygamous
men are arrested they make bail or serve light sentences. Though multiple wives
and children use different names, they often have the same address, phone
number, and physical resemblances, so they are relatively easy to trace.
Marriages are arranged through a church elder and it is not unusual for a man to
have dozens of children, and in many cases they require public assistance. It
is also not unusual for older men to marry a child bride. Women in the colony
accept this, but according to the author their acquiescence is due more to fear
than to religious duty.
She
suggests that the fear is real and based on “blood atonement redemption,” which
justifies killing anyone who violates temple oaths or reveals its secrets. One
such temple oath is being faithful in marriage. She cites a 1984 case of two
murders, a mother age 24 and her 15-month-old daughter.
The author
maintains that outlawing polygamy was a condition of Utah's becoming a
state, that it was only after Mormon leaders signed “the Manifesto” considering
polygamy unacceptable that Utah was admitted to statehood. Still, she cites a
1953 arrest of men, women, and children as an example of how polygamy continues.
The men in this case were bailed out, while 43 women and 177 children remained
in custody for 20 months. The author describes her own life situation to show
that polygamy continued after the 1953 incident. Despite fear of being killed
in “blood atonement” if her husband alleged she was unfaithful, his physical
abuse drove her to seek and follow the long delayed group policy of separation
and divorce.
The book
is recommended to anyone wishing to add a case study of one person’s ordeal as a
victim of religious belief and practices that deny individual freedom and
choice. The current world situation offers thousands of cases where religious
belief has gone astray and subjected followers to physical and mental pain. The
Taliban of Afghanistan executed men and women at soccer games, whipped on the
street women considered immodestly dressed and destroyed 1000-year-old Buddhist
statues.
It should
be remembered, too, that the polygamous groups described in this book are
breakaway or splinter Mormons not accepted by that church, just as Muslim
terrorists are but a fraction of worldwide Islam.
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