Hide the Women and Children (Well, not yet)

Earlier this week, the Utah Supreme Court overturned the criminal conviction of polygamist church leader Warren Jeffs, ruling that his performing the marriage of a 14 year old girl to her 19 year old cousin did not amount to facilitating a rape. The ruling doesn’t set Jeffs free yet, as prosecutors could decide to retry Jeffs on charges of first degree felony rape as an accomplice. Meanwhile, Texas is trying to extradite Jeffs to try him for his marriages to underage girls in that state. Nonetheless, the reversal of the conviction is bad news for the women and children of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), of which Jeffs is president and prophet. Absolving Jeffs would embolden other polygamist leaders to continue to force young girls into illegal marriages. FLDS is a breakaway Mormon sect, and the mainstream Mormon church renounced polygamy over a century ago. Nonetheless, there is a great deal of public confusion, and many people continue to associate polygamy with the Mormon church. This could turn out to be a nuisance for Mitt Romney during a 2012 Presidential Campaign. He was able to dodge questions about his faith and the Mormon religion during the 2008 Republican Primaries, but it is bound to pop up again in 2012. It also can’t help that the creators of South Park plan to launch a Broadway musical parodying the Mormon religion. As their prior episodes said, Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb. Do you think that Romney’s Mormon affiliation will hurt him in 2012?