Posted on 07/07/2014 10:01:11 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In the US, polygamy seems to be most commonly associated with Mormons. TV shows like Big Love, Sister Wives, and My Five Wives offer looks at polygamy, but only from a specific viewpoint. For some Americans, TLC’s reality series Sister Wives, which centers on a fundamentalist Mormon family, may even teach them all they know about polygamy. But the practice of polygamy hasn’t been sanctioned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which is the official name of the Mormon church) since 1890 when Church President Wilford Woodruff ended the practice. The Mormon church has actually denounced the practice.
This Church has nothing whatever to do with those practicing polygamy. They are not members of this Church…. If any of our members are found to be practicing plural marriage, they are excommunicated, the most serious penalty the Church can impose. Not only are those so involved in direct violation of the civil law, they are in violation of the law of this Church.
That’s a pretty strong stance against polygamy — so it’s intriguing that after over 120 years of it not being sanctioned, the Mormon church still needs to make its views clear.
One of the reasons Mormons are so notoriously associated with polygamy is because of people like Warren Jeffs. Jeffs was the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints — which is a polygamist sect not recognized by the mainstream Mormon church. He was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list in 2006 for arranging marriages to underaged girls. Jeffs himself allegedly had 79 wives, with 24 of them under the age of 17. Now he is serving life in prison for sexually assaulting two girls. Lifetime just released a movie about Jeffs, entitled Outlaw Prophet, starring Tony Goldwyn
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
With people like Jeffs in the world, it’s clear why the mainstream Mormon church does not want to be affiliated with polygamists. However, that’s not to say all polygamists are associated with Jeffs either. The Brown family from Sister Wives, for example, are both fundamentalist Mormons and polygamists, but they have nothing to do with Jeffs.
Polygamy is clearly a controversial topic, but it applies to other groups besides Mormons . And it’s important to note that Merriam-Webster defines polygamy as “marriage in which a spouse of either sex may have more than one mate at the same time.” Along with polygamy usually being associated with Mormons — it’s also usually associated with one man having multiple women as his wives. And people like Kody Brown only help to perpetuate the one-sided view of polygamy.
Polygyny is the practice of having more than one wife at a time, while polyandry is the practice of having more than one husband at one time, so polygamy is an umbrella term that captures both of those. Some communities in Nepal practice polyandry (although the custom is fading) and the woman takes on multiple husbands — who are usually brothers. Polyandry works for them because the brothers could take on different responsibilities for the upkeep of their land, while keeping it all in one family. Another case of practical polygamy is in Vietnam, where it’s not legal, but some people practice it due to the low population of men.
In the Islam religion, the Koran says that a man can have up to four wives — but he must treat them all equally. In the US, since polygamy is illegal, Muslim men practicing polygamy get around the law just like Brown did — they marry one wife in a legal ceremony and the rest of their marriages are through religious ceremonies that are not recognized by the state. Also like the Mormon religion, polygyny is not a common practice for Muslims. Polygamy is not outlawed in Judaism either, but it’s a rare practice for Jewish people.
You still with me?
Religion and polygamy are so closely linked because early biblical figures, like Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon, had more than one wife. Beyond just religiously-based polygamy, there is also polyamory, the practice of having more than one romantic relationship at a time. Another sometimes difficult concept to understand, polyamory does not have a strict definition, but it’s consensual between all partners involved.
Moral of the story: polygamy is more complicated than just one bride for every brother.
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
In our modern world, it can be hard to understand why anyone — regardless of gender — would want to enter into a polygamous relationship. Which is what draws people to shows like Sister Wives. It’s fascinating to see real people openly discuss their unconventional situation and answer the questions you’ve always wanted to know the answers to. And maybe a few you didn’t even realize you had.
Cleveland?
Sharia———————coming to a neighborhood near you!
How can the US ban polygamy? Seems like a violation of their rights to marry?
And TV works to normalize what would otherwise not be considered acceptable.
Look at how TV has normalized homosexuality in recent years. Anybody think that it is just a coincidence that so many shows have homosexual characters, and that these characters are always portrayed in a positive way???
*ping*
Abraham did not have more than one wife at same time.
David also forced Bathsheba into intercourse (hardly a marriage) and then had Bathsheba's husband killed in battle. Shall we use David as a biblical precedent for rape and murder?
Jacob was tricked into multiple wives by the wife's father.
Most of Hollywood espouses serial polygamy, with or without any religious or civil ceremony. It essentially mirrors the Muslim practice of “temporary wives”.
American popular culture is guilty of extreme hypocrisy when it vigorously condemns Muslim, “Mormon” or African tribal polygamy yet the majority of our entertainment features this serial polygamy or the “temporary” polygamy of adulterous “affairs”.
Not many TV shows or movies feature a one husband, one wife, never divorced, faithful marriage these days. The preponderance are about divorced people or singles “hooking up” or some married person having a torrid extramarital affair.
Brigham Young had 55 wives
This Church has nothing whatever to do with those practicing polygamy. They are not members of this Church…. If any of our members are found to be practicing plural marriage, they are excommunicated, the most serious penalty the Church can impose. Not only are those so involved in direct violation of the civil law, they are in violation of the law of this Church.
That’s a pretty strong stance against polygamy — so it’s intriguing that after over 120 years of it not being sanctioned, the Mormon church still needs to make its views clear.
Would you like to weigh in on this?
Plenty of men practice polygamy but for some hypocritical reason it’s socially acceptable so long as the men call their addtional women ‘mistresses’. So it’s socially acceptable so long as a man wants to cheat on his wife with multiple women so long as he doesn’t commit to them (like in MTV’s “All my Babies’ Mamas”). But let that man take responsibility for more than one woman and then all hell breaks loose.
It just doesn’t make sense to me.
I have been told at different times by two different Mormons (both of whom had their temple recommends) that the real policy of the LDS "church" is to look the other way. Each told me that they knew of LDS men with sister wives who were active in the mainstream LDS "church." Each also told me that they believe that polygamy will be reinstated when the time is right (which I inferred to mean when the political environment is right).
It's getting so that you can't watch anything on TV anymore without being bombarded with that crap. First episode of "The Last Ship" on TNT had a member of the crew crying the blues because she couldn't get home to her girlfriend. I record everything, so that when they decide to have two people of the same sex swapping spits, I fast-forward through it all. When the majority of the people in this world are heterosexual, what makes these networks think that people want to be constantly exposed to horse$hit like that?
bump
and they promoted “The Last Ship” on conservative radio shows and everything.
Our "pop culture" does not condemn those things. Our real culture does, mostly. The entertainment industry bears zero resemblance to at least half the country.
You might choose not to classify Hagar as a wife, but then you have to say Abraham had a wife and a concubine at the same time, hardly an improvement in modern eyes.
After Sarah died, Abraham married Keturah.
It should be noted that the Bible does not rule out the possibility of Abraham having other concubines while either Sarah or Keturah were still alive. Such would have been the norm for a wealthy tribal chieftain like Abraham.
It should be noted this practice is largely, though not entirely, limited to Shia Islam. Quite rare among Sunnis, at least in formal terms with a preset date of termination of the marriage.
BTW, what up with this stuff about polygamy being "rare" among Jews?
In many ways, I think polygamy is very natural.
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