You can read Part 1 of the series here.

Most any earthly population generally runs at about a 50/50 mix of males to females (provided people can actually figure out which one they are these days), so with men being assigned some dozen wives by the FLDS church, it doesn’t take long for a glut of males to form within the community—unwanted males. To avoid such an imbalance, the church directs specific families to “get rid” of their sons.

These are typically males between the ages of (roughly) nine and 18 years old. The method of disposal: The boys are driven out and away from the Crik, farther than they can practically walk back, and are simply abandoned along the side of the road with no resources or recourse. They are warned never to try to return home.

The girls of the community are assigned to “husbands” beginning at the age of 15, though I have made mention that there are accounts of girls as young as 12 years old being “married” off too much older men, to include the Prince of Depravity himself, Warren Steed Jeffs. I placed quotation marks around “husband” and “married” because there is no legal recognition whatsoever of such matrimony within the FLDS community by the United States government. Federal crimes are going unchecked in America today, mes amis.

The Prince of Depravity under arrest and on trial in Utah (Ethan Miller, Getty Images)

An inevitable eventuality, Warren Jeffs was caught during his time on the lam by a routine traffic stop. He faced charges in Arizona, Utah, and Texas. Currently, he is serving life plus 20 years for, among a multitude of lascivious crimes against humanity, “Coercing the marriage and rape of a 14-year-old church-follower to her 19-year-old cousin in 2001.”

Ms. Elissa Wall was that little 14-year-old dear who was assigned by Warren Jeffs to be the “wife” of her cousin, Allen Steed. She suffered physical/sexual and mental abuse at the hand of her cousin for four years until she managed to escape from the Colorado City FLDS at 18 years of age.

If there is any uncertainty as to why it’s not only vigorously frowned upon but illegal to marry your family members…well, I have one word for you: Hapsburgs. The Hapsburgs were a closed Spanish royal family up until such a point they literally destroyed themselves by inbreeding around the year 1740.

Unlike many societies on the Blue Marble, we don’t hap(sburg)hazardly dream up whimsical laws, we tend to lean on cogent reasons for our legislation. We put legislation into place to keep us from marrying our brothers, sisters, and cousins because we have it on good authority from Mr. Charles Darwin that we will completely cease to be a people if we do.