Old Orchard Beach, MAINE, August 29, 2006 - Pro-Polygamy.com - Mark Henkel is the founder of the (non-Mormon) national Christian Polygamy organization, TruthBearer.org. As the originator of the renowned sound-bite, "'Polygamy rights' is the next civil rights battle," he has become the established National Polygamy Advocate. Representing the broader demography and geography of America than simply the regional "Mormonland area" of Arizona/Utah, Henkel's proven experience with assisting and educating the media about polygamy has helped accelerate the polygamy rights movement for all consenting-adult pro-polygamists.
In response to today's news that Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs - a fugitive who had been on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list - has been caught by Nevada police today, Henkel issued the following statement:
"Most pro-polygamists around the country are very glad that fugitive Warren Jeffs has been apprehended today. Jeffs is the reported leader of a specific brand of Mormon Polygamy called the "FLDS," the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints. But contrary to the misinformed stereotype which combines the definition of all polygamy according to one specific brand of Mormon Polygamy, the actual fact is that many other forms of polygamy exist - from secular polygamy to Muslim Polygamy and now even to Christian Polygamy. Indeed, for the last 12 years, there has been a growing movement of conservative evangelical Christians vocally advocating a benevolent form of consenting-adult polygamy called, Christian Polygamy. Such pro-woman Christian Polygamists, along with other pro-polygamists, have been wanting Jeffs to be apprehended ever since his alleged crimes were first reported. Now that he has been caught, Jeffs will rightly face trial. He will do so in a real court of justice for the factual crimes for which he had been placed on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted List. He will not be facing any charge of polygamy as that was never the crime anyway. He just happened to be the leader of a lone sect that was a rogue variant of Mormon Polygamy, yet which also committed real crimes. Expressly, Jeffs was only wanted by the FBI for one count of sexual assault of a minor, for one count of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor in Arizona, and for another count for rape as an accomplice in Utah. Such charges are crimes on their own; they are not about normal polygamy, at all. Jeffs should - and now he will - stand trial for those real crimes for which he is charged. However, normal pro-polygamists should no longer be libelously smeared by any implied association with Jeffs and his abhorrent variant of Mormon Polygamy. Indeed, most non-Mormon Polygamists have openly opposed Jeffs’ alleged crimes - and all of the underage issues - as much as any non-polygamist. Even many Mormon Polygamists have opposed his alleged crimes too. Accordingly, all normal pro-polygamists – and especially, Christian Polygamists - from around the country are very, very glad that Jeffs has been caught and that the process of justice may now truly begin.”
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Mark Henkel is available for media comment.
Contact via:
http://www.TruthBearer.org/media/mark-henkel-interview-example/
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Bibliographic URLs:
http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/fugitives/jeff_ws.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-08-29-jeffs_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060829-125053-8906r.htm
