Posted on 12/11/2005 11:39:50 AM PST by Coleus
"Polygamy rights is the next civil rights battle." So goes the motto of a Christian pro-polygamy organization that has been watching the battle over homosexual "marriage" rights with keen interest.
"We're coming. We are next. There's no doubt about it, we are next," says Mark Henkel, founder of www.TruthBearer.org.
Traditional values groups argue that legalizing same-sex "marriage" is a "slippery slope" -- that if marriage is redefined to allow homosexuals to "wed," it will be further redefined to allow other unions, including polygamous ones.
Homosexual rights leaders and their allies insist that the "slippery slope" argument is a rhetorical dodge. It's a "scare tactic," says Freedom to Marry founder Evan Wolfson.
"What homosexuals are asking for is the right to marry, not anybody they love, but somebody they love, which is not at all the same thing," Brookings Institution scholar Jonathan Rauch has written.
South Dakota lawmakers this year proposed the first constitutional marriage amendment that specifically outlaws unions of "two or more" persons.
The measure's author, South Dakota state Rep. Elizabeth Kraus, said the ban on polygamy is intentional.
After Canada legalized same-sex "marriage," its government "launched a study to look at the ramifications of polygamy," Mrs. Kraus said. "Once you open the marriage door to anyone other than one man or one woman, you haven't begun to slide down the slippery slope. You've already hit rock bottom."
Also this year, a New Jersey appellate court expressed concerns about a right to polygamy in its 2-1 rejection of same-sex "marriage."
"The same form of constitutional attack that plaintiffs mount against statutes limiting the institution of marriage to members of the opposite sex also could be made against statutes prohibiting polygamy," New Jersey Appellate Judges Stephen Skillman and Anthony J. Parrillo said in their ruling in Lewis v. Harris.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
'My friend Leo Miller wrote a book called "John Milton Among the Polygamophiles," which touches on this issue.
Miller examines a number of dissertations written for Doctor of Theology degrees in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Protestant candidates for the clergy. He shows that the issue was argued over for more than a century before it was settled. '
So Jacob was an adulterer in fathering children with his wives Leah and Rachel? On what Scriptural basis do you make that claim?
"Yes. Since Paul forbids marrying again while your original spouse is still alive (and calls anyone doing so an adulterer), it is clear that having more than one spouse is adultery. Also, it is clear in reading the NT (1cor 7, Matt 19) that the union of one man and one woman is God's design for marriage, and anything else is adultery."
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I see, so you apply NT Scripture "ex-post-facto" to the lives of Old Testament characters? And, as I recall, Paul's sanction against remarriage was given in the context of one who had been divorced. It's application to the question at hand is problematic.
On the other hand, the 1Cor7 passage does look like a good candidate for building a defense for universal Christian monogamy, and perhaps the Matt 19 passage which references the Genesis account. No doubt this is an issue which has faced missionaries serving in locations where the local culture is at ease with plural marriages. Likely the missionary literature is a good place to dig out some extended exegesis on these points.
Do you have and good references in mind?
Thanks.
And, as I recall, Paul's sanction against remarriage was given in the context of one who had been divorced.
Certainly, but going back to Matt 19 it's clear that God doesn't consider divorce to be an actual sundering of the marriage. He considers the couple still married, so it would seem to me that the basis of the prohibition on re-marriage is because the first marriage is still in force. If it weren't, further sexual relations wouldn't be referred to as adultery. In any case, it would seem to rule out multiple marriages be default.
Unfortunately as a confirmed bachelor I haven't studied this as much as I could, so I don't have any real meaty references on hand.
To tell the truth, Miller's book is the only one I know on the subject, but he has a pretty large bibliography. There is one excellent book on the theology of marriage in the period, also ironically focusing on Milton's divorce tracts but extending it to Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost. John R. Halkett, "Milton and the Ideal of Matrimony." This too cites plenty of early sources and has a good bibliography.
I just tried to find a copy of a book on medieval marriage that traces the early history of Christian marriage, which I once found very helpful, but I can't seem to put my hands on it at the moment, and I don't recall the author's name. It's in my library somewhere or other.
Can hubby bring home a new wife, if the first objects?
If the first wife objects, and decides to file for divorce, will the property be divided two ways, or three ways?
also, what happens if a fourth person wants to marry into a three-some polygamous marriage, and two of the original three want the new person in, while the third doesn't? if, as the person in the article says, women should have freedom of choice in such matters, how would this be settled? by vote? (that would deny somebody's choice.)
by a second marriage of the new 3-some alongside the original 3-some?
and what if some of the people in an 8-way polygamous marriage want to get divorced from some of the other people, but not from all of them? and suppose they don't even agree which of the people to divorce.
who will get the cat?
i think these issues should all be studied before we legalize these polygamous marriages.
i see a great future for law professors who want to write academic articles about this.
i see that we are thinking along similar lines!
my other thought, for those who want to get polygamy legalized is this: first they should focus on cloning a woman (or man), and marrying both the woman and her clone. they could argue that they are only marrying ONE person, because the clone is a genetically-equivalent replica.
then the clone could take a case to the Supreme Court, demanding to be declared a separate person.
if she won the suit, polygamy would have been legalized. at this point, all the others who want polygamous marriages could have a huge marriage ceremony in some place like NYC or SF, and the issue would be settled.
Ummm, wouldn't this mean that ALL marriage (including between 1 man and 1 woman) would then be illegal? =)
i think you may have found a fatal flaw in this proposed amendment!
I want to marry my bunny slippers. Is that weird?
I think taking the hyperbole to this extreme in describing the camel's nose has made the argument more difficult, because then people laugh. But if you say, if two men may marry, why may a man not have more than one wife or vice versa? After all it's in the bible, and it's a Holy Thing to the Muslims. Then they stop smiling.
I think they are coming at this from a different angle, by trying to get the age of consent laws reduced or abolished.
However, you may be correct. Because in many states the age at which a child may marry is lower than the age of consent, which creates a large gray area in the law.
Dude, stay out of this. Marrying one of those rich, orphaned cats may be the only chance I have to get rich in my lifetime.
It is a "slippery slope." >>
It sure is.
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