Article - Religion - Polygamy Battle

In raid on a family, Utah Welfare Department said they would take the children, unless the Blacks would sign an agreement to

1) give up polygamy and
2) raise the children according to the law, i.e., teach them that polygamy is wrong in the eyes of the state

Vera Black said:

"Ours is a nation of equal rights before the law. Why should I be required to sign . . . any oath of any kind in order to keep the children I have honorably borne unless all mothers in our state be required to sign an oath?"

Vera Black and most of the other 400 residents of Short Creek on the Utah-Arizona border are called Fundamentalists and believe that multiple marriage is the law of God. What they practice openly (TIME, Aug. 3, 1953) thousands of others throughout the West practice in secret.

"And it takes a real man to live it. It is not a matter of lust. To take plural wives, a man doubles, triples or quadruples his responsibilities. He has more problems to solve. He must create a home in which harmony and selflessness prevail. He must provide. And it takes a real saint of a woman. She must overcome human weaknesses. In the polygamous home, there can be no jealousy, no selfishness. The whole family must live for the family, not for individuals. The children are finer. They never acquire the pettiness of other children. They live in a home where all are true brothers and sisters and love and serve one another, as God intended it."