Posted on 02/03/2014 4:21:46 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
(AUDIO-AT-LINK)
A conversation on The Roundtable convinced me to address polygamy. A judge in Utah decided that state could ban formal legal polygamy but could not ban people living in comparable arrangements without formal legal sanctions. Some people argue that legalization of polygamy follows from constitutional protection of gay and lesbian relationships. If one consensual relationship is OK, therefore so are all the others. That is a mistake. The law does not work that way.
Missing from that argument is any mention of whether anyone is hurt and how. There are many ways that law takes account of injury, both constitutional law and other areas. For relationships that could be consensual, we are concerned about opportunities for coercing, defrauding, or injuring others, and for people below the age of consent. There are a number of legal methods to deal with those problems, from procedures to verify what is happening, to regulation and prohibition. Which is appropriate depends on what the situation requires.
In the context of polygamy, I have heard professional women describe living in polygamous relationships and preferring it that way. I can understand that – the gals outnumber the guys. But there has been considerable discussion of social and family pressures pushing women into polygamous relationships, including young women below the age of consent. Gay and lesbian relationships don’t have that problem – if anything, social pressure is toward straight relationships. But in isolated polygamous communities, elders have pushed young women into such relationships and closed off alternatives. The women’s movement is largely about making sure that women can control their own lives. I can’t offer any estimate of the percentage but it certainly seems to be a problem. Nothing short of prohibiting the relationship may prevent the coercion. And existing wives need protection too. Consent, and vetoes can be very difficult to handle. Even the Koran and Shariah limit men to four wives.
But consent is not the only issue. One issue is economic. If this is a traditional male-chauvinist relationship, can one man assume responsibility for multiple wives and many children? And do the young people have to be kept in cloistered communities away from the opportunities of the wider world to make sure that they too will consent?
And polygamy has an impact on the wider society, on the gender balance and gendered behaviors we are prepared to deal with. To the extent that polygamy puts off the age at which most men marry and conceive, are we prepared for the social consequences? Since there is concern about the health of children conceived by older men, there is another generation to be concerned about.
I don’t claim to know all the answers to the questions I’ve raised. My point is that there are serious issues to consider, that law is more complex than some are assuming, and that it is entirely appropriate for law to address this issue with an eye not just on the people in front of the court, but with an eye on the implications of any legal rule on all those who will be affected by it. Unlike gay rights where consenting relationships don’t harm others, polygamy poses serious issues. None of us is entitled to remake the world in ways that hurt others just so that we can have whatever we want, whether the issue is corporate irresponsibility, treatment of children or polygamy.
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Steve Gottlieb is Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor of Law at Albany Law School and author of Morality Imposed: The Rehnquist Court and Liberty in America. He has served on the Board of the New York Civil Liberties Union, and in the US Peace Corps in Iran.
What the authoritarian Left has always been about is control. If the rate of change is too fast or chaotic, it could lead to anarchy, and that would mean a loss of control of the process. Loss of control could lead to a reversal, which could lead to a well deserved reprisal against the Left.
But the Left has opened Pandora’s box, they have lit the fuse, and the outcome will be unpredictable. The Leftists want a slow glide path to tyranny; the worst possible outcome. They will attempt to appeal to conservatives and try to enlist them in opposing chaos. Many conservatives will fall for the bait and play the role as useful idiots; the Left will expect conservatives to cover their flank. As long as “progress” is slow and imperceptible, the people will sleep.
It’s too late now. The Left is the enemy and there is no place for negotiation. Let them choke on their vomit.
God invented marriage, not man. God designated marriage, not as a contractual agreement, but as a covenant.
Governments may be able to regulate contracts, but a covenant is based on the laws of God and not man. Thus
marriage is an institution outside of the bounds of government.
It is time to get government out of the marriage business and to return it to the private sphere. The
problem for me today is that people who want to call themselves “married” against God’s law (as I read it)
are willing to use the State to force me to recognize that marriage, which I cannot do. The want to have the
State’s public education system indoctrinate my children that homosexual marriage is “normal”. They want to
force me to subsidize the homosexual marriage in the tax code just like the godly marriage is subsidized, and
they will use state agencies to punish me for “discrimination” if I decline to accept their status in any
way.
If the State must force me to acknowledge its power to declare two men to be “married”, then I must support
efforts to remove that power from the State. If people who don’t want God defining their personal morality
demand a separation of church and State then let us also have separation of marriage and State as well. If
those people don’t want any displays of the Ten Commandments in government buildings, they cannot hide behind
the Commandments that protect marriage when it comes to “marriage” that God cannot and will not sanction.
Lesbians can marry each other, but they won’t be able to force me to sell them wedding cake or artfully photograph their “marriage”. They will be free to do as they please without demanding that I approve of it.
But clearly, homosexuals want to force me to approve of what they do, which I cannot do. And that is the thing that makes them so furious.
Can’t believe the light bulb is just coming on now. Especially when Scalia said this would happen in Lawrence v. Texas.
People wanted homosexual unions so badly they didn’t care what else might happen. Well, you will have the legalization of polygamy and incest, for a start. Then it’s on to pedophilia as what is considered “consenting” gets changed.
Polygamy has an ancient history and is still practiced in many cultures. “Gay marriage” has no such history. It is a modern construct.
If only it were still so, Professor. If only.
What a bad thinker. That’s typical for liberals. Think what the Jay and Ruth Caplan Undistinguished Professor of Law must be like.
Polygamy will break the state faster than any other marriage arrangement.
Is it possible we have finally reached the issue that will cause women to reflect on whether it is good for them as women and answer NO?
They said it was OK when they were allowed to kill their own children.
They said it was OK for the President to take advantage of a young intern.
They said Mohammedan gender-apartheid was OK.
They said prostitution was OK as long as the “sex worker” was treated with fairness and respect. (She works HARD for the money.)
Now they are faced with something the hippie women in the sixties came back from the communes to tell us: When you’re off in the woods, the women become enslaved by the men and domestic life reverts to the ancient traditions without the civilized state to help them, and they were having none of it. They came running back to the city as if the wolves were after them.
Those too young to have witnessed this are willing to try it again.
Gay and lesbian relationships DO have that problem. How can anyone doubt that gay/lesbian parents of adopted/surrogate children will encourage their children to experiment with deviant sexual behavior? Homosexual communities routinely celebrate & encourage deviant behavior in children below the age of consent. Parents are clearly the greatest influence on a child.
There is no difference in the coercive influence of a polygamist community & a homosexual community or family. If anything, the homosexual community is extreme in its public coercion, attacking anyone who denounces it.
The only argument left to the author is the polygamist are presently “isolated”, whereas the homosexual community is in full bloom. Yet, it wasn't so long ago when homosexuality was firmly in the closet, out of sight, out of mind. So, if isolation is a measure of legitimacy, then the 1-2% of queers in the USA are still isolated, therefore illegitimate.
The author tries to vilify one perversion while accepting another similar perversion. Sorry Bub, but you made this slippery slope, so slide on down to Hell. There is no moral difference between 2 men, 2 women, 1 man & 3 women, or 2 men, 3 women & a pony - they are ALL immoral relationships. If you accept one, you must accept them all - it's all relative, don't ya know.
They opened the barn door, the cows got out and they are worried about not having enough milk for their cereal, screw them!!!
The vast majority are not gay colorado tanker. As you know, they just stole that word. For the most part they are miserable and were sexually abused as children. I will only use the word homosexual, not gay, not fag, not queer, simply homosexual.
FReegards FRiend.
That’s because their real goal is simply anti-Christianity, and Muslims are on the same side.
That’s a study that will never see the light of day if it is ever performed.
“What is the correlation between adult homosexuality and childhood sex abuse?”
If you don’t stick with THE definition, there is NO definition.
The left thinks they can let the snowball roll just “this far” down the hill.
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