https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/02/10/why-does-the-united-states-still-let-12-year-old-girls-get-married/?tid=pm_opinions_pop

"While most states set 18 as the minimum marriage age, exceptions in every state allow children younger than 18 to marry, typically with parental consent or judicial approval. How much younger? Laws in 27 states do not specify an age below which a child cannot marry.

Unchained At Last, a nonprofit I founded to help women resist or escape forced marriage in the United States, spent the past year collecting marriage license data from 2000 to 2010, the most recent year for which most states were able to provide information. We learned that in 38 states, more than 167,000 children — almost all of them girls, some as young 12 — were married during that period, mostly to men 18 or older. Twelve states and the District of Columbia were unable to provide information on how many children had married there in that decade. Based on the correlation we identified between state population and child marriage, we estimated that the total number of children wed in America between 2000 and 2010 was nearly 248,000."


"Despite these alarming numbers, and despite the documented consequences of early marriages, including negative effects on health and education and an increased likelihood of domestic violence, some state lawmakers have resisted passing legislation to end child marriage — because they wrongly fear that such measures might unlawfully stifle religious freedom or because they cling to the notion that marriage is the best solution for a teen pregnancy."



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/2017 09:12PM by anybody.

To bring the problem of child brides to greater public attention, some activists in Norway (the rape capital of Europe), introduced blonde, blue-eyed "Thea, the 12-Year-Old Bride," as a shock campaign. The logic is, "If you're shocked at this very Scandinavian girl being married to an older man, why aren't you shocked at the Sharia-enforced marriages of immigrant girls?"

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/meet-thea-norways-12-year-old-child-bride-9782495.html

This isn't about Sharia. Conservative, traditional Christian thinking is keeping these laws alive. Even in the eighteenth and nineteenth century most girls married in the 18-22 age range and not as young teens.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/2017 09:28PM by anybody.

Do you have data that church-involved (not nominal) Christian girls are getting married at 12-15 in significant numbers? Sometimes multiple demographic groups get conflated with Islamic and Third-World populations.

Did you read the article? It makes it clear that this is happening across racial, ethnic and religious lines right here in the U.S., and several of the examples are Christians.

In addition, the states where it's happening most are heavily conservative Christian. The article cites one of the primary reasons as young pregnancy after which the girls are pressured into marriage with older teens or men, and gives several examples.

It's about any belief system that forces children to marry or that allows for raping them.

I'm only allowed so many articles on the Washington (com)Post. They denigrate Christianity wherever possible, and go very light on Islam. "Im-Moral equivalency," I suppose.

Um...There was zero denigration of Christianity in this article, the focus wasn't any one religion at all. Merely the transmission of facts about a form of abuse that takes place here, which we love pinning on other countries but don't want to address in our backyard.

I fail to find in the article the definition of "Christian". It would seem that is a term that everybody uses (this board included), but few if any can agree on what the actual definition is.

There's no "actual definition." That's why. Ask any Christian and you'll get a different one.

I fail then to see how the article is relevant. A generalization is made on a group that can't be defined.

How convenient to attack a group.....

It's about underage teen girls being forced to marry.


i.e. "you got pregnant, now you have to get married."


Even if you are in middle school.

Look, if you didn't read the article your opinion is irrelevant. Your comment shows you didn't. The article isn't about Christians. It's about underage marriage in the U.S. Multiple religious backgrounds, as well as secular child bride arrangements, are mentioned. Yeesh.

.
if she is 12 ~


ziller is 12 ~

Joe got parental consent when he married Helen Mar Kimball, so I guess he's in the clear.

And they sometimes beat them into submission if they try to refuse.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2017 07:38AM by Cheryl.

Not if the law required judicial approval and certainly NOT where Joe was already married and bigamy was NOT legal!

Great divides in our culture such as this are reasons why I believe our country could end up splitting apart sometime within our lifetimes.

Dolly Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great divides in our culture such as this are
> reasons why I believe our country could end up
> splitting apart sometime within our lifetimes.

Do you really think there is a "great divide" on this issue, with half (or even a significant portion at all) firmly on the side of allowing 12 year old girls to be coerced into marriage?

I don't. I think any such groups are quite firmly in a very tiny minority, and have no overall public support of any kind. Laws that allow such behavior are largely ananchronisms, and merit updating. Somehow I don't think such updates are going to draw vast protests from millions of Americans concerned that their rights to force 12 year old girls into marriage are being attacked...

When I lived in Arizona my 30 year old neighbor married a 15 year old girl from a TBM family. I thought it was strange since she was so much younger than he was. Then this TBM mother asked me if I would marry her 16 year old daughter. There are some crazy people in the world.

My sister in law was 13. Her Mom didn't consent so the couple gave a homeless woman a pair of shoes to pretend to be her mom.
Afterward, the mom accepted the marriage. Against all odds they are still married 40 years later. I got married at 15. I was a child that was not able to fight off abuse or even understand I had a choice.

Religious folks always want to make it about themselves. This article isn't about Christianity, it's about child brides in our country. Way to make a serious situation about you and your offense.

Before marriage equality was the law of the land, I had a conversation with a guy who was complaining about the law would allow a 16 year old have sex with a 12 year old. At the time, I found a site that listed the ages of consent and the age differences between partners. Almost with exception, the states where the law was the strictest were states like California and New York while states with the most lenient laws were across the Southern US and Midwest. I wouldn't be surprised to find that marriage laws vary similarly for these regions of the US.

Does anyone from outside the US know what the incidence of child marriages are for their countries?

Joseph Smith must be thinking "you mean I could have had a 12 year old too?! Damnit!"