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State senator passes out pro-polygamy material
Religion News ^ | Jan 25th, 2005

Posted on 01/25/2005 9:49:36 AM PST by missyme

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A Republican state lawmaker countered a Senate colleague's dispersal of an anti-polygamy book by passing out folders defending the practice as natural and not necessarily harmful.

Sen. Carlene Walker, of Cottonwood Heights, said she was offended by the title of the book "God's Brothel" that Senate Minority Whip Ron Allen distributed, and she wanted to balance its views.

"Polygamy is a frequent, and arguably, from a historical perspective, a most normal, human sexual relationship throughout most of human history in a majority of societies around the world," reads one of the passages in the folder.

It came from the Centennial Park Action Committee, a group of women near the Utah-Arizona state line who say it's unfair to characterize polygamists as "oppressed," "abused" or "brainwashed."

Walker said she has known polygamists who are "fine, honest, educated, wonderful people."

"To characterize the whole polygamy community as abusive to children and the welfare system is inaccurate," Walker said.

Allen says people are misunderstanding his point of demonstrating abuses in polygamous relationships, and he passed out 104 copies of the book to legislators because he wanted them to understand polygamy isn't harmless.

"It's not fair to say we should ignore it," he said.

Allen helped enact a child bigamy law in 2003 that made forced marriages of minors a second-degree felony punishable by one to 15 years in prison.

Before, the offense carried only 30 days in jail, and was rarely enforced, Allen said. He said the marrying of teenage girls was a common practice among some of Utah's isolated polygamist communities until the state served notice it was cracking down.

The book, written by Salt Lake City author Andrea Moore-Emmett, tells the stories of 18 women who claim they suffered rape, incest and violence in polygamous communities.

Copies of the book were donated by publisher Pince-Nez Press, of San Francisco.

Polygamy is among the teachings of Mormon church founder Joseph Smith. But the practice was abandoned by the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints more than a century ago as the Utah territory sought statehood.

The Utah Constitution bans polygamy and the mainstream Mormon church now excommunicates those who advocate it. But it's believed that tens of thousands in Utah and more than 30,000 across the West continue to practice


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Utah
KEYWORDS: andreamooreemmett; carlenewalker; godsbrothel; polygamy; ronallen; utah
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To: missyme

Women outnumbered men in most primitive societies because young men performed the dangerous tasks; hunting, fighting, exploring for example.

It seems that polygamy would be a natural outcome of the imbalance. The imbalance apparently continued in Biblical times, as patriarchs are said to have had wives and concubines.

Sounds like fun at first, but no thanks! One is plenty for me.


21 posted on 01/25/2005 10:10:51 AM PST by JimRed (Investigate, overturn and prosecute vote fraud in the State of Washington !)
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To: MineralMan
Discussions about plural marriage are always interesting, especially since there's ample support for the practise in the Bible.

There is ample representation of the practice, but not ample support. The definition of marriage is given in Genesis 3 as being one man and one woman becoming one flesh. Jesus validates that definition when asked to discuss Moses' law of divorce. Plural marriage is not outright condemned as is homosexual activity, but it is clearly not what G-d intended. Indeed, He taught the importance of faithfulness to your one wife when He rejected the offspring of Abraham and Hagar as being the seed of His promise.

Shalom.

22 posted on 01/25/2005 10:11:17 AM PST by ArGee (After 517, the abolition of man is complete)
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To: zek157

"Whoaaaa missy.
"

Read on. She was quoting from a website, but forgot to mention it. That statement doesn't represent her point of view.


23 posted on 01/25/2005 10:11:33 AM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: Lurking Libertarian
Is this any worse than gay marriages?

From the article:

"Allen helped enact a child bigamy law in 2003 that made forced marriages of minors a second-degree felony punishable by one to 15 years in prison. Before, the offense carried only 30 days in jail, and was rarely enforced, Allen said. He said the marrying of teenage girls was a common practice among some of Utah's isolated polygamist communities until the state served notice it was cracking down. The book, written by Salt Lake City author Andrea Moore-Emmett, tells the stories of 18 women who claim they suffered rape, incest and violence in polygamous communities."

Yeah, that's worse.

It also involves force.

There's no legal logic I can think of that can be twisted to allow gay marriage and not allow (voluntary) polygamy.

-Eric

24 posted on 01/25/2005 10:11:33 AM PST by E Rocc (Leftists look at liberty the way Christians look at sin.)
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To: missyme

more than one wife?....what an idiot.


25 posted on 01/25/2005 10:13:12 AM PST by Vaquero
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To: escapefromboston

How many wives did David have? The only time God was angered with him was when he slept with someone else's wife. What about concubines? And since you bring up marrying children, in my grandmother's day the view was completely different on what a "child" was. She told me if a girl was sixteen and not married yet people started calling her an old maid. Most girls were married by age fourteen. In Bible times it was viewed differently too. I have heard historians and theologans say that Mary was probably about 13 when she married Joseph, and Joseph had already been married and was a widower...he was around the age of seventy. I don't defend these views in today's times, it is just interesting how our views change over time.

Just like drinking alcohol. Kids drink wine overseas and no one thinks anything about it. The same happened back in Bible times. Jesus did drink. I think most people started viewing drinking as a sin after the prohibition here. Excessive drinking and eating were always considered sins, but a drink of wine wasn't.


26 posted on 01/25/2005 10:13:22 AM PST by Jay777 (Gen. Tommy Franks for President in 08)
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To: MineralMan

Actually, the whole New Testament assumes one man and one woman. "The two shall become one"


27 posted on 01/25/2005 10:13:39 AM PST by AppyPappy (If You're Not A Part Of The Solution, There's Good Money To Be Made In Prolonging The Problem.)
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To: TheSuaveOne

"As long as the mariage is between two consenting adults, I don't have a problem with it. Worry about your own lives before you start worrying about others...la"

You have a young daughter?


28 posted on 01/25/2005 10:14:34 AM PST by polymuser
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To: vikk
Isn't one spouse enough of a headache?

Well, not to brag or anything, but if your spouse were me you would claim one was not enough of a good thing!

</fantasy mode>

Shalom.

29 posted on 01/25/2005 10:14:37 AM PST by ArGee (After 517, the abolition of man is complete)
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To: ArGee

"There is ample representation of the practice, but not ample support. "

Make no mistake: Plural marriages exist in the Bible, and are not condemned there. There would have been no reason to do so, because the practise was a commonplace.

The Bible makes things very clear that are condemned by the Biblical deity. Apparently, what is not condemned is permitted, since great kings like Solomon and David had multiple wives.

It may not have been put forward as the best practise, but is never condemned in the Bible.

Those who oppose plural marriage on Biblical grounds are using the wrong reference.


30 posted on 01/25/2005 10:14:37 AM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: RonF
that it's one thing if two 17-year olds get married (not that I'd advise it), but it's quite another when the wife is 17 and the husband is 50.

Why? Is the 17 year-old mature enough to make the decision or not?

31 posted on 01/25/2005 10:14:56 AM PST by AppyPappy (If You're Not A Part Of The Solution, There's Good Money To Be Made In Prolonging The Problem.)
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To: zek157

I am not Pro-Polygamy????

I post many articles on Non-traditional Marraige issues floating around the planet...


32 posted on 01/25/2005 10:16:18 AM PST by missyme (imho)
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To: AppyPappy

"Actually, the whole New Testament assumes one man and one woman. "The two shall become one"

"

That's one way to look at it. However, that was not always the case in New Testament times. And multiple wives were never condemned in the New Testament. There's no indication that it was a sin to have multiple wives, although it was certainly a sin to commit adultery. The prohibition against polygyny came later.


33 posted on 01/25/2005 10:17:04 AM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: MineralMan

MM..
I did post the website.

www.religionnewsblog.com


34 posted on 01/25/2005 10:18:03 AM PST by missyme (imho)
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To: missyme

Missy,

Be sure to reference the source on these posts, to protect yourself. It's a good idea to paste a link to the source in the post. Otherwise, people will get the wrong idea.


35 posted on 01/25/2005 10:18:14 AM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: AppyPappy

They're working to lower the age of consent in Canada and California. Trying to get it to 14. All part of the plan. Ribit. Kinda warm, eh? Ribit.


36 posted on 01/25/2005 10:19:20 AM PST by polymuser
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To: missyme

Not in Message #5, you didn't. That's the one that seems like your own writing. I'm not on your case, here...I'm just trying to help you not to confuse people. Go back and look at #5 and pretend you didn't post it. It looks like the poster agrees with plural marriage.

You have to source every post you make, to avoid being misunderstood.

We're on different sides in most cases, but I have no malice toward you. I'm just trying to help.


37 posted on 01/25/2005 10:20:20 AM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: EdReform; escapefromboston; missyme; MineralMan; All
Polygamy is quite common or rather widespread here in Malaysia with Muslim men. A man here is allowed to have 4 wives.

I know of numerous men here with more than one wife.

Interestingly enough, the majority of women here accept it. It is something that has become ingrained in the culture to the point where it becomes normal.

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

38 posted on 01/25/2005 10:21:08 AM PST by expatguy (http://laotze.blogspot.com/)
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To: Jay777

Well they also thought it was normal to marry your realtives...

Frankly I think Autism, Schizoprehnics, and other inherited diseases proably came about from marrying and having children with close family members.


39 posted on 01/25/2005 10:21:32 AM PST by missyme (imho)
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To: expatguy

Do those men get to speak much at home?


40 posted on 01/25/2005 10:22:32 AM PST by polymuser
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