Idaho Evangelical Christian polygamists use Internet to meet potential spouses

By Zehra Mamdani
Columbia News Service
Published: Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008 10:19 a.m. MST
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NEW YORK — Albert Morrison is a religious man. He prays, he reads the Bible and says he has a deep connection with Jesus. It is this devotion that helps explain why Albert and his wife, Sarah, are searching for a second wife.

"David, Abraham, Jacob, Solomon — they all had multiple wives," he said, referring to four of the Bible's most revered prophets. "The Bible never banned polygamy, it glorified it."

The Morrisons are part of a group of Evangelical Christian polygamists who believe that polygamy, the practice of taking more than one wife, is spiritually and even economically more favorable than monogamy.

Taking multiple wives is essential for them, but finding them isn't easy. The Morrisons, who live in eastern Idaho, do not have a church or a religious community and have very limited social networks through which they can meet potential spouses, or sister-wives. All this is complicated by the fact that polygamy is illegal in the United States. So, the Morrisons and a growing number of polygamists like them are looking where millions of people seeking companionship, love and sex have ventured: the Internet.

"Sarah and I wish there were as many legitimate avenues for finding a spouse as there are for traditional relationships," said Morrison. "But, that's the beauty of the Internet. It eases the loneliness of being a Christian polygamist. You can connect with people all across the country."

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Albert, 44, who drives a truck, and Sarah, 31, a manager at a nursing home, have been married for six years. They started looking for a third spouse three years ago and put up ads on various sites like SoulfulHarmony.com, 2Wives.com and ChristianMarriage.com. Since then, they have heard from people in nearly every state and Canada.

Their personal ad reads like any other on the site: "Loving couple seeks to share life with like-minded woman. We don't care what color your skin is, we want to get to know your heart."

"It is not about the sex," Albert said. "It's about companionship."

Evangelical Christian polygamists have no connection to the Fundamentalist LDS Church, which openly practices polygamy and is an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While polygamy experts say there are about 35,000 FLDS polygamists in the United States, there is no exact number for Christian polygamists. Mark Henkel, the founder of TruthBearer.org, a Christian evangelical pro-polygamy organization, said that the polygamist movement has been growing steadily for the past 12 years. Henkel says there are less than 50,000 Christian polygamists, but experts cannot substantiate this.

"The advent of the Internet really put Christian polygamy on the map," said Henkel, adding that his Website and its sister site, 2Wives.com, received the most number of hits and new members in August 2006, when Warren Jeffs, the fugitive "prophet" of the FLDS, was caught by the FBI. Jeffs was later convicted of being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old church member.

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