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Polygamy Practiced Openly In American Towns

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May 14, 2009 10:00 pm US/Mountain

Polygamy Practiced Openly In American Towns

Written for the Web by CBS4 Special Projects Producer Libby Smith

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. (CBS4) ― In a remote area along the Arizona-Utah border there are twin towns where polygamy is practiced openly. Men have multiple wives and in many cases dozens of children. The lifestyle is common among residents in Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah.

Many of the residents have lived much of their lives as members of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, or the FLDS. The church teaches that a man needs at least three wives to get to highest level of heaven. Some residents have left the church but still practice the polygamist lifestyle.

"How big is your family?" CBS4 Investigator Rick Sallinger asked Marvin Wyler, a practicing polygamist.

"34 children," Wyler replied.

"How many grandchildren?" Sallinger continued.

"110 is approximate, it changes every year," Wyler responded.

Wyler is a former member of the FLDS. He's now a member of a different polygamous sect. At one time he had 3 wives, one passed away. Now he maintains homes with two wives. CBS4 visited the home of Wyler keeps with Charlette Chatwin.

"Is there any difference between your wife here and your wife there? Are they perfectly equal?" Sallinger asked Wyler.

"Yeah, they are both perfectly wonderful people added to my home," Wyler responded.

His wives have also added dozens of children to his home. One of the tenants of the polygamist lifestyle is to pro-create which members interpret as a need to have as many children as possible.

"I would never use contraceptives and I would take as many as the Lord gave me," Charlette Chatwin told CBS4.

"How many did you have?" Sallinger asked her.

"I had 16," she replied.

Dawna Bistline grew up in a family of 23 children. Her two mothers were sisters which was not a problem in this polygamist community.

"My dad married my mom then 5 years later he married her younger sister." Bistline explained.

"Did that seem strange at all?" Sallinger asked her.

"No, everybody in the community had another mother," Bistline said.

Polygamy has been practiced in these communities for more than 100 years. The residents here see it as a deeply religious practice and no more deviant than other lifestyles.

"As long as we're consenting adults and with the marriages of gays and lesbians and everyone else going on why is that a problem now?" asked Marvin Wyler.

The residents here don't understand why a practice they feel brings them closer to God should be outlawed, when society accepts other promiscuous behavior.

We should point out that the mainstream Mormon Church banned polygamy more than 100 years ago. 
 

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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