Replies

You've alluded to what I think most conservatives here don't get about this debate. They look around them, and they see only heterosexuals (they think) in their town, their workplace, their neighborhood, or their church. It's easy to get caught up in thinking that the rest of the world is pretty much like the people you know.

So, I suppose if you knew any polygamists, you would be apt to argue for their right to marry?

I know a young woman whose mother left her step-father for a "plural marriage." (This step-father, ironically, advocated polygamy.) Soon after, this girl "married" a man who seemed to be already married. She now seems to be in hiding, and I haven't seen her for years. I did see her mother on TV, though, on a story about polygamy about two years ago.

So long as you have never met any polygamists, as you are aware, you think it's not an issue. It's easy for you to be in denial that it exists. I can't enjoy such blissful ignorance, since I know we aren’t talking about some theoretical practice. The reality is there is no barrier to legalizing this form of marriage, particularly since it is believed in and practiced so strongly by its advocates.

So, I suppose if you knew any polygamists, you would be apt to argue for their right to marry?

Only if I felt some sort of empathy for them. The only polygamists that I've even heard of (thanks to the Internet) are those who use a twisted reading of the Bible to justify one man keeping a flock of subservient women as his personal harem. I'd have extreme difficulty finding such people sympathetic.

On the other hand, if I knew of a multiple arrangement where the people involved were otherwise seemingly intelligent, and really were operating out of free will, I might be open minded enough to accept them as friends. It might just be out of curiousity to see if they really were all OK with the arrangement, I just can't see how it might work in a practical manner! But I sure wouldn't expect the vast majority of people (including my wife) to feel OK with them, women always associate something like that with some evil intent on a man's part.

Now if it were two men and one woman....Not exactly sure how Mrs. hunter112 would feel about it, but it would weird her out, big time!

I'm not in denial about its existence, I just don't think that it's prevalent. As men and women become more equal, in socialization and education, I can only see the practice dying off. I think a woman has to be pretty sufficiently damaged to run off and hide herself with a man and a group of "sister wives". I would imagine that anyone who could be lured into prostitution could be entrapped in a plural marriage scheme.

The fact remains, polygamy is no more socially acceptable now than it has ever been, unless you want to cite the "hippy commune" period of the 60's and 70's. There are deep reasons that people have to be someone else's one and only.