Lost boys (polygamy)

Lost Boys of Polygamy are young men who have been excommunicated or pressured to leave polygamous groups such as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS).cite news | first = Julian | last = Borger | url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1505997,00.html | title = The lost boys, thrown out of US sect so that older men can marry more wives | publisher = The Guardian | date = 2005-06-14 | accessdate = 2007-02-14 ] Most of the Lost Boys are between the ages of 13 and 21 when banished or pressured to leave.cite news | url = http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595081003,00.html | title = Krakauer still vexed by FLDS | first = Patty | last = Henetz | publisher = Associated Press | date = 2004-07-31 | accessdate = 2007-02-14 ]

Effects

Critics of the FLDS say that, given the fact that roughly equal numbers of boys and girls are born in any community absent of gender selection for female births, the practice of polygamy leads unavoidably to bride shortages and a surplus of boys. In particular, FLDS men are each required to marry at least three wivescite news | first = Julian | last = Borger | url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1505997,00.html | title = The lost boys, thrown out of US sect so that older men can marry more wives | publisher = The Guardian | date = 2005-06-14 | accessdate = 2008-05-30 ] , which is demographically unsustainable. Lost Boys are the surplus boys who are removed from polygamous sects in order to reduce competition for wives. While some boys leave on their own, many are ostensibly banished for misbehavior such as watching a movie, [cite news | first = Ned | last = Holstein, MD, MS | url = http://fathersandfamiliesblog.org/?p=501 | title = Texas Polygamy Case: Don’t the Boys Count? | publisher = Fathers and Families | date = 2008-04-15 | accessdate = 2008-04-24 ] watching television,cite news | url = http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/06/19/polygamys_lost_boys_expelled_from_only_life_they_knew/ | title = Polygamy's 'Lost Boys' expelled from only life they knew | first = David | last = Kelly | publisher = Los Angeles Times | date = 2005-06-19 | accessdate = 2008-04-24 ] playing football, or talking to a girl. Some boys are told not to return unless they can return with a wife. There are also young women [cite news | title = Man Accused Of Assaulting Kingston Polygamist Daughter Appears In Court | url = http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=39&sid=214468 | publisher = KSL-TV News | date = 2006-06-24 | accessdate = 2007-02-14 ] who have left or been pressured to leave because they did not want to be part of polygamous marriages. [cite news | url = http://www.cnn.com/US/9808/08/polygamy/ | title = Polygamy or abuse? Utah case stirs controversy | publisher = CNN | date = 1998-08-18 | accessdate = 2007-02-14 ] Warren Jeffs’ own niece, Naomi, left the sect at age 13. [ [http://www.drphil.com/shows/show/1078/ Dr. Phil Now: Secrets inside the Compound] ] While it is difficult to estimate how many boys have been thrown out, their numbers are estimated to be between 400 and 1,400.

After leaving

The Lost Boys are raised not to trust the outside world. In fact, leaving their communities is considered a sin worse than murder. [cite news | url = http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy246.html | title = Religious sect's outcasts caught between worlds | first = Angie | last = Wagner | publisher = Associated Press | date = 2004-09-04 | accessdate = 2007-02-14 ] [cite news | title = Boys exiled from polygamist sect seek new life in the outside world | first = Angie | last = Wagner | publisher = Associated Press | url = http://www.mazeministry.com/mormonism/polygamy/lostboys.htm | accessdate = 2007-02-14 ] These boys are usually left with little education or life skills and must learn to live in a world about which they know little, while dealing with the consequences of being shunned by their families and believing they are beyond spiritual redemption. The families of banished boys are told that the boys are now dead to them.

Dan Fischer, a dentist who left the FLDS church, works to help young men who have left or who have been ejected from polygamist organizations in cities like Hildale, Utah or Colorado City, Arizona.Fact|date=May 2008

ee also

* Population dynamics
* YFZ Ranch

Notes

References

* Krakauer, Jon. "" (2003).
* Emmett, Andrea Moore. "God's Brothel: The Extortion of Sex for Salvation in Contemporary Mormon and Christian Fundamentalist Polygamy and the Stories of 18 Women Who Escaped" (2004).
* Bistline, Benjamin G. "Colorado City Polygamists: An Inside Look for the Outsider" (2004). A Colorado City historian presents the beginnings of the group and its original religious doctrine.
* Bistline, Benjamin G. "The Polygamists: A History of Colorado City, Arizona" (2004)
* Tracy, Kathleen. "The Secret Story of Polygamy" (2001). Centered around the trial of John Daniel Kingston, who was tried for assault on his 16-year-old daughter.
* Llewellyn, John R. "Polygamy Under Attack: From Tom Green to Brian David Mitchell" (2004)
*cite news |title= Warren Jeffs' 'lost boys' find themselves in strange world|url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/07/lost.boys/index.html|publisher="CNN"|Author=Dan Simon and Amanda Townsend |date= September 7 2007

External links

* [http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/polygamy/story.html?id=4d7cd9a6-1c56-40d9-811b-185b9e5515c6 Lost boys are the forgotten polygamy victims] - Vancouver Sun article by Daphne Bramham
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/us/09polygamy.html Boys Cast Out by Polygamists Find Help] - New York Times article by Erik Eckholm, Published: September 9 2007
* [http://www.childbrides.org/boys.html The Hope Organization]