What polygamy looks like from the inside

By Daphne Bramham, The Vancouver Sun November 25, 2010 7:53

This story contains graphic descriptions that some readers may find objectionable.

When lawyers talk about the harms of polygamy, there’s scarcely one that Kathleen and Rena Mackert haven’t personally endured. The sisters have had front-row seats in B.C. Supreme Court for the opening week of the constitutional reference case to determine whether Canada’s anti-polygamy law is valid.

“It’s a redemption to feel that we can make a difference,” Kathleen said during the Tuesday afternoon break. “To go through all the abuse we endured for most of our lives and turn it around for future generations is very redemptive.”

Rena agrees and says it’s also part of her long healing process.

Both are witnesses for the B.C. attorney-general, who has filed their video affidavits as evidence.

Both support Stop Polygamy in Canada and run a non-profit in Anacortes, Wash., that helps victims of domestic violence and polygamy.

The sisters are seventh-generation polygamists. Their ancestors have practised polygamy since soon after Joseph Smith had his revelation.

Their father had four wives, 27 children and four step-children. Their mother was his third wife and she had seven children. Rena is one of her older children and she was born in a chicken coop near the Utah-Arizona border.

That’s where their mother lived and was grateful for a place of her own, even if it was unheated and had no running water or electricity.

Rena says her father began molesting her when she was three.

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/What+polygamy+looks+like+from+inside/3881125/story.html#ixzz16JEW4RrQ

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

4 Replies to “What polygamy looks like from the inside”

  1. It depends on the group, some polygamous groups practice incest and others don’t, I know that there are reports of incest among all of the Mormon communities that are currently practicing polygamy.

  2. He got that right, but we have been this bad before and survived, with Gods help we will again, but he only helps those who held themselves.