I wish to make merely one observation. There are apparently several unmentionable hater-harpies who cannot contain their tooth-gnashing over this. From what I understand, the Dargers are decent people with normal kids and a moderately successful lifestyle. The hate crusaders will rant on ad nauseam about child brides, lost boys, baby cemeteries, incest, maleducation, welfare fraud, and God knows what else, but none of that applies to the Dargers.
Truth is, there is no such thing as a "typical" polygamist family, so you cannot make sweeping generalizations about people from this culture. I know the Mother Church is cringing over this new, happy band of polygs stepping into the cosmopolitan limelight. Shurtleff is at a loss as to what to do. The Browns want to show they have been threatened by a felony bigamy statute, and Shurtleff insists that the statute is there, not to prosecute polygamists, but rather to teach the people of Utah the wisdom of their elders.
I would never try to tell a gay man he is evil not to be attracted to women. Likewise, the haters can whine on endlessly about the wrongness of plural marriage, but they cannot argue with reality, and now reality is staring us all in the face. I understand that one of the approaches recently taken by the haters is to say that the Dargers' book is poorly written. I just read the book, and I can tell you that the content and linguistic delivery are both impressive, so I can only assume that the haters cannot read, or that they did not in fact read the book. Truth is - the message of the book is entirely autobiographical. It is hard to argue with facts, and it is not easy to argue that another person's feelings are not really his or her feelings. The Darger family explodes the prevailing stereotypes. The Dargers' television appearances have silenced many critics. Their very existence neutralizes all of the tabloidy, sensationalistic squawking about polygamy in general. I cannot wait to see Dr. Drew do a '180' on his own show.
