From what I've seen and heard of MOVE, it looks as though, yes, marriage between teenagers does not generally appear to be frowned upon within MOVE, although the ages of 11-12 would appear to be an exaggeration. In Pennsylvania, teenagers under the age of 18 may marry with the consent of a parent or guardian or if they are an emancipated minor. Under the age of 16, the consent of both a guardian and an Orphan's Court judge is required. Pennsylvania also recognizes all common-law marriages entered into prior to 2005, and Pennsylvania statutory age requirement for common-law marriages was the age of seven.

As for pregnancy, a CDC study showed about 137,000 live births to American teenagers aged 10-14, between 1990 and 2002. For American teenagers aged 15-19, the CDC reported 425,000 live births out of a total of 757,000 pregnancies in 2002 alone. (Teen pregnancy rates reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation are much higher.) While pregnancy among the youngest teenagers is often risky, many of the risk factors such as low birth weight are in part due to other social factors as well. Over 80% of all American boys and girls [myself included! :-)] report having lost their virginity by age 19.

Of course, I am in no way advocating pregnancy among teenagers under the age of 16. All I am saying is that it is, in fact, quite common, in the United States as well as in the world.

Of course, NONE of this has anything to do with the fact that the Guiness Book of World Records is misrepresenting the May 13th, 1985 bombing as a "mass suicide" when in fact there was no element of choice involved, at least not for the five children who were killed in the bombing along with six adults. In fact, many sources indicate that those who did try to escape the blaze were fired upon while fleeing the house and forced back into the flames -- this does not appear to be the behaviour of suicidal people.

All I am saying is this: it is possible to state that the City of Philadelphia was wrong to drop a bomb on a private home that they knew had children inside, the City was wrong to let the fire burn out of control until an entire city block was destroyed, and the Guiness Book of World Records is wrong for trivializing the murder of children by misrepresenting and making light of the bombing, without "putting MOVE upon a pedestal."

It is also possible to say that jailing 9 people for a single killing is a sign of faulty judicial fact-finding, and that 30 years is enough time for anyone to be separated from their families, without "putting MOVE upon a pedestal." Finally, it is possible to support a group in the pursuit of such legal rights without subscribing to or even condoning their religion or their political views.

It is _certainly_ possible to support a group in the pursuit of those legal rights without commenting on the sex lives of their children, which is a private matter, best dealt with by the family and, if necessary, Family Court and the Philadelphia Department of Human Services. It is not, however, the responsibility of "investigative journalists" to ferret out, when the relevant authorities are already well aware of Philadelphia's teenage birth rates. Personally, I believe that independent journalists have a higher standard than stooping to smell our neighbors' laundry.