Religious rights don't supercede law
 
IN OUR VIEW
The Spectrum
 
The issue of polygamy has been a cloud over our state since before its inception. The banishment of the practice was an instrumental factor in Utah finally gaining statehood in 1896.

Since then, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have held to the practice of one woman marrying one man. But some groups, including the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- with a sect in the Hildale-Colorado City area -- have continued to practice the lifestyle that allows for one man to have multiple wives.

Polygamy again is in the headlines, this time because of a custody battle between Rodney Holm, a police officer in the Hildale area, and his third wife, Ruth Stubbs, now 19 years old, who fled the sect for reasons that include her not wanting her children to grow up in such an environment.

On Monday, Judge James Shumate granted visitation rights to Holm, allowing the couple's children to visit him in his Hildale-area home. Shumate did his best to balance the interest of the children. They get to see their father, but with the stipulation that Holm not have sexual relations with his second wife while the children are with him.

Shumate also ordered a full-custody evaluation to assess the parenting skills of the parties involved. That makes sense and looks out for the best interest of the children.

What doesn't make sense is why criminal charges haven't been filed in this case. Holm's paternity of the children hasn't been questioned. And that is all the evidence that should be necessary in this case.

According to Utah Code (76-5-401.2), a person at least 10 years older than a sexual partner who is 16 or 17 at the time is guilty of a third-degree felony of unlawful sexual conduct. Holm, a sworn police officer in both Utah and Arizona, was 32 at the time of the couple's spiritual marriage. Stubbs was 16.

The two children in this case -- and one that is expected to be born in June or early July -- are the evidence.

Let's be clear that religious rights are precious. As part of the First Amendment, we cherish the right to practice whatever religion we choose.

If three women and one man want to live together peacefully in their own home in the name of religious freedom, so be it. But while doing so, they shouldn't violate the laws of the land, the standards by which all citizens are expected to live.

In Utah, those laws, the same laws officers pledge to enforce, include laws that make it illegal for 32-year-olds to have sex with 16-year-olds.

Like it or not, those are the laws, and the facts are on the public record.

It's time for prosecutors to file charges against the people who break the law while practicing the polygamist lifestyle.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published Wednesday, June 5, 2002
 
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