NEWS: Give Polygamy a Chance

CULTURE: Give Polygamy a Chance

Fundamentalist Mormons in Utah and Arizona are pushing for the legalization of polygamy on religious grounds. Although the practice of marrying multiple wives was made illegal in 1890 when Utah was trying to become a State, Fundamentalist Mormons (who were excommunicated by the mainstream Mormon Church) believe the more wives a man has the easier it is to get into heaven. Adherents (an estimated 40, 000 fundamentalist Mormons practice polygamy illegally) see their struggle for legalization as something akin to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

The push for legalization comes at an interesting time in light of the high-profile Presidential candidacy of Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a mainstream Mormon who has dismissed polygamy as “bizarre.” It was the founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith, who first declared he had a revelation from God in 1843 instructing men to marry many wives to get the key to heaven but now mainstream Mormons disregard that particular item of religious dogma.

But the Fundamentalists see the issue as one of religious freedom

Despite the illegality of the practice officials say Mormon polygamists are hardly likely to face prosecution.

Advocates of legalizing polygamy have a long view on their struggle and don’t expect to see it happen in their lifetime. But considering the fact that there is a growing movement to legalize another form of nontraditional unions (same sex marriage), the day may eventually come when a Fundamentalist Mormon man can come home from work and tell all 12 of his legal adoring wives how his day went at the office.

I look forward to the day that I can come home from work, and tell all 12 of my adoring wives and all 12 of my adoring husbands how much I hate them all for not working and just sitting around all day screwing.

Of course by this time run on sentences will also be legal

I'm less worried about polygamy and more worried about the child abuse that accompanies the practice within Mormon Fundamentalism; marrying a third wife when she's 13 is horrifying, and should remain illegal.

Oh, and according to Smith's revelation, multiple wives, or "spiritual wifery", is required to gain entry into the Kingdom of God. Which is why the heads of the LDS continued to practice polygamy even after publicly denouncing it in the late 1800s.

I uh, I read a lot of books.

people always bring up MLK/Civil Rights when speaking of modern struggles, just as presidents invoke Lincoln in times of crisis

Fuckers with their 12 wives. I have a hard enough time getting at least one woman to show interest in me.

not really true. 'mainstream' mormons no longer practice pologamy as it is against the law of the land and have since it was denounced

So their God doesn't recognize marriage unless the government does?

Seriously, I'm sure they believe they ARE married in the eyes of their lord. So why would they care? Unless they want the tax benefits...

I have no problem with polygamy. It is no less insane then monogamous marriage. Turning people into property is inherently flawed regardless of how many you own.

I would be more comfortable with the King analogy if blacks forced other blacks to... I dunno... be black or something... never mind, there is no good analogy involving King and Mormon splinter sect polygamy.

Aside from Smith just wanting to fuck around on his wife and trying to use God to get his way, the well-documented (young) daughter swapping among fundamentalist polygamy sects make their "struggle" more like religious advocated sexual abuse.

Not that that's ever happened before.

what are you talking about? Why does Joseph Smith keep getting brought up...

i'm disappointed there was no mention of big love in this article.

honestly though, if consenting adults want to marry mutliple people, who am i to stop them?

my concern is about coercion and underaged girls being married off, which seems to happen a lot in the fundie mormon polygamy community.

I wasn't aware "bizarre" was illegal, Mr. Romney. Frankly I'd expect to see this to become legal before same sex marriages, because at least they'd be making babies, right?

Considering how much of a mess a relationship between a couple can make of people, I'd hate to see what could happen to the emotional state of polygamists. But as long as women can have more than one husband too, and everyone's faithful to their own family, they're welcome to lie in the bed they make.

think this article forgot to mention that that most of these marriages are forced by the leaders of the church. inbreeding is common.

Oh, come on zombie, Wake Up!

Mormon polygamy started with Joseph Smith. The current practitioners all refer back to Joseph Smith's writings for their spiritual justification and moral authority.

Relating present conditions to their origins is a very elementary exercise in logic, regardless of the topic.

Which I never denied. Mainstream Mormons are horrified by polygamy. But until early this century, and even after it was officially denounced by the Council of 12 and Brigham Young (I think it was Young, who had multiple wives, as a matter of fact), the powerful higher-ups within the church continued to practice spiritual wifery. And Joseph Smith was the first Mormon to have multiple wives. He made it clear to higher members of the church, and it was clear in the text of his revelation, that a man was morally obligated to have as many wives as possible, and that it was pretty much required to gain entrance to Heaven.

I think it shows the strength of the mormon leaders to denounce such a thing. That mean BY had to give up 11 wives

Monogamous marriage is not that different. Society places expectations on people to get married. People really don't have much choice in getting married. We are conditioned to believe it is a positive step in one's life. Most of us fall in line, never questioning it. A lot of people do not even speak up when they they are unhappy in the marriage and those that do are shunned by society and look at as inferior or flawed. This is likely why polygamy is so unpopular because it does not fit into the expected behavior.

Polygamy is certainly more natural then monogamy because we are not a monogamous species. However no marriage is psychologically healthier then any amount of marriage.

I don't necessarily know how I feel about polygamy as a practice because I don't know how I feel about monogamy as a practice. I can't really differentiate between my own feelings and what may or may not be what someone else once told me should be my feelings. I want one wife, and I want her to have one husband, but whether or not that is "natural", I can't say. I'm more inclined to learn towards the belief that open sexual relationships are more in line with our biology but that our humanity desires a committed relationship. I wish I fucking knew.

But with regards to this story in specifics, fuck it, I don't understand why its illegal in the first place. We already have laws that say you can't marry or fuck underage girls. We have laws that you can't fuck unwilling girls (and I'm assuming you can't marry them, either). So why this law?

The most ironic thing of it all is that in all the discussions I've ever had on the topic, the most vehement attackers of polygamy are usually Christians of one form or another. They say that polygamy is unnatural, that it stands in opposition with the Bible-ordained institution of marriage, that it possibly breaks the Commandments. And yet almost every single dude in the Bible has at least two wives. Adam was the very first dude, and he had multiple wives. Solomon was such a good dude that God was like, "Play on, playa'." and gave him hundreds of wives and concubines as a reward. That guy was in bed with a different piece of trim every night from that moment until the day he died. What did God say? God said, "Verily, thou shalt take thy salty wenches, of which I have given you, and thou shalt take thy big titty bitches, and thy salacious rumpshakers, and thou shalt command them to get on all fours and build of themselves a human pyramid as a glorious monument to Va-Jay Jay, of which even the Lord thy God is fond."

That'd depend on the sect.

I'd be more wont to support their right to marry as many folks as they wanted if it went both ways.

In other words, a woman could marry multiple men, as well.

What they generally have now is a situation where teenaged daughters are in demand, and teenaged sons are seen as competition. This leads to the "lost boys" scenarios.

Boys in their teens get driven off, and sometimes wind up as male prostitutes in SLC and elsewhere. Or taken off the town/compound to be sub-minimum under-the-table workers in the sect's off-premise businesses.

Get your Big Love here.

If you're interested learning more about fundamentalist Mormon and Christian polygamy, there's a good read to be found in the book "God's Brothel," by Andrea Moore-Emmett. It certainly has a anti-polygamist bent to it, but after you read a few of the stories, this won't come to any surprise to you.

Hmmm... Where do they stand on polyandry, then. I mean, fair's fair.