One interesting and rather terrifying example would be the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism. A church led by a man named Warren Jeffs, who is currently jailed for life for sexual crimes. You see the young women below? They’re some of the wives of Jeffs.
Mind you — SOME of his wives. Not all of them; he has 78 wives in total. Some were mature women. Some as young as twelve or thirteen. Warren Jeffs is the son of the previous cult leader, Rulon Jeffs. Warren was one of at least 65 siblings, born to numerous wives of his father. This creepy cult kicks out boys as soon as they hit 18, and marries off girls in their teens to various older men in the community. The higher-ranking a male member of the community, the more wives he is granted. The cult beliefs that each man will have his wives, children and grandchildren with him in the afterlife, and they will form a “personal army” that dictates how much power he holds in the next life.
I’ve read an interview with one man belonging to this church, a few years ago. He was in his nineties and had about 500 living descendants — children, grandchildren, great- and great-great-grandchildren. There are quite a few Americans who run their mouths about Muslims, who are allowed to marry up to four wives… you’ll never hear them speak of their own home-grown polygamous cults.
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