Dixie newcomers get an earful on polygamy
 
By Nancy Perkins
Deseret Morning News
 
ST. GEORGE — A homeless anti-polygamy group was welcomed with open arms Tuesday by the Dixie Newcomers Club.

More than 90 members of the group met at Bloomington Country Club to listen to supporters of Help the Child Brides, an organization dedicated to helping young girls flee pre-arranged polygamous marriages.

"We just want to get the message out. I think you'll hear some things today that will shock and surprise you and make you think you live on another planet," said Curran, who lost his lease on a small office on Tabernacle Street in St. George.

Lenore Holm, a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who still lives in the polygamous community of Colorado City, Ariz., has become the movement's most visible figure of late.

Holm, who just won a court battle with the FLDS Church over its attempt to evict the Holms from their home built on church land, is featured in a Canadian-produced documentary and often speaks about the abuses she says are part of the polygamist lifestyle.

"It is so hard when your mind has been programmed," she told the group. "I was programmed as a child that I was to grow up and belong to a man. So I turned my will over."

Holm said she married her first husband because the church's leader told her to.

"I had only been out of Colorado City one time in my whole life, and that was to Salt Lake," said Holm, who was married at 17. "I had six children with him. He was always coming on to other women. I call it being a polygamist playboy. They use religion to be a playboy. It was 12 years of pure hell."

Curran accused local politicians and others who have the task of protecting women and children with failing to do their duty.

"It's hands off as far as any of those abuses out there," he said. "For some reason, the people in authority in this city do nothing. Those children have no advocates."

One woman in the audience asked Holm how anything could change in the twin polygamous towns of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, if children are still being taught the same doctrine.

"You can't do anything if people still support the belief," the woman said. "What is going to be the result?"

Holm and another former polygamous wife, who did not want to be identified, said growth in the surrounding communities could make a difference.

"There are so many people moving to this area who find this unacceptable," the woman said.

Holm's mother often was called a "polyg-pig" when she went to school with other children, she said.

"She just called them a monog-hog," said Holm with a giggle. "Personally, I believe polygamy abuses women. I will tell this to my own sisters who believe in it strongly."
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published Wednesday, June 11, 2003
 
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