Polygamy

[GrayMouser]

Originally posted by Ruinel
I saw it. One of the wives does not love her husband but falls in love with someone else, has an affair, one of the wives tells on her and the husband has her tied up by the male servants and thrown off the roof of one of the buildings in secret. And one of the wives goes crazy, if I remember correctly.

SPOILERS!!!!

[Lizra]

Originally posted by Valandil
*psst! careful there... i think most of the married ladies on entmoot are 'trophy wives'!*

HA ha ha! I'm a prize, tis true!

[Ruinel]

Originally posted by GrayMouser
SPOILERS!!!!

oh, come on. You and I both know that's only a teensy bit of the whole story anyway.

[Elanor the hobbit]

Interesting thread you've got going. Since I have a direct interest in this subject, as well as some needed informatin, I'm posting a rather long reply:

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormons. We have participated in polygamy in the 1800's, which was partly based on ancient prophets like Abraham and Jacob from the Bible. One of our basic beliefs is that there are prophets today, good, inspired men chosen by God to tell us what His will for us is. We follow these leaders willingly after first asking God for ourselves to know the truth of their calling. We believe that at some points in history it was God's will that a few specific families practiced polygamy, but only when this was directly authorized by God himself, and for various reasons each time. I've read first-hand accounts of women who were involved in polygamy in the early settlement of Utah, and they were very intelligent, involved in society, and happy. One woman was able to attend college and become a doctor as a result of the other wives being willing to care for her children. No one was forced to participate. As has been stated, we no longer participate in this practice, mostly because it is against the law and another of our core beliefs is that "we believe in . . . obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law". This is the official position of the Church, and our prophet has said this about polygamy:

Gordon B. Hinckley: The figures I have are from -- between two percent and five percent of our people were involved in it. It was a very limited practice; carefully safeguarded. In 1890, that practice was discontinued. The president of the church, the man who occupied the position which I occupy today, went before the people, said he had prayed about it, worked on it, and had received from the Lord a revelation that it was time to stop, to discontinue it then. That's 118 years ago. It's behind us.

Larry King: But when the word is mentioned, when you hear the word, you think Mormon, right?

Gordon B. Hinckley: You do it mistakenly. They have no connection with us whatever. They don't belong to the church. There are actually no Mormon fundamentalists.

Larry King: Are you surprised that there's, apparently, a lot of polygamy in Utah?

Gordon B. Hinckley: I have seen the thing grow somewhat. I don't know how much it is. I don't know how pervasive it is.

Larry King: Should there be arrests?

Gordon B. Hinckley: It's matter of civil procedure. The church can't do anything. We have no authority in this matter, none whatever.

Larry King: Would you like to see the state to clamp down on it?

Gordon B. Hinckley: I think I leave that entirely in the hands of the civil officers. It's a civil offense. It's in violation of the law. We have nothing to do with it. We're totally distanced from it. And if the state chooses to move on it, that's a responsibility of civil officers.

Larry King: President Hinckley, when the press pays attention to it, it does affect you, certainly, in a public relations sense?

Gordon B. Hinckley: It does, because people mistakenly assume that this church has something to do with it. It has nothing whatever to do with it. It has had nothing to do with it for a very long time. It's outside the realm of our responsibility. These people are not members. Any man or woman who becomes involved in it is excommunicated from the church.

--interview on Larry King Live, September 8, 1998

For more info on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ("Mormons"), go to www.mormon.org

[Nurvingiel]

I was going to start a thread on this, but I see there's a very interesting one already. In "The Official US Presidential Election" thread, JD and I started talking about polygamy. This was part of the last post on the subject:

Originally posted by Nurvingiel
I have heard that from many people - all of whom believe it for religious reasons. Outside of religion, human rights is what we usually base morality on. Two men or two women marrying is not a human rights violation.

We don't, but maybe we should. If there was a polygamy/polyandry movement, I wouldn't oppose it. What we did is change the definition of marriage to say "two people" instead of "a man and a woman". Who's to say that it shouldn't just say "committed people"? I don't have a problem with either a man or a woman having more than one spouse, as long as all spouses are treated with respect, and treated equally. This applies to two person marriages too, in my mind. (Polyandry is not widely practiced, but it's where a woman has multiple husbands.)

Originally posted by jerseydevil
See - again there is far more to marriages than declaring each others love. There are tax issues, inheritance , benefits, insurance issues and everything.

Now if you allow polygamy - and it's practice is based on "being treated with respect and equality" who is to enforce this?

Abuse against one or all of the wives would be enforced the way we currently try to prevent abuse. As for general fairness, this would probably be impossible to enforce.
I beleive it says in the Koran that you can have up to four wives but they must all be treated equally.