"(Kathleen) married Alan. The idea of polygamist relationships didn't bother either of them, so when Kathleen fell in love with Eric there was a simple solution; Eric moved in and started the beginning of an unconventional living situation.
Like the commercial says though, "Wait! There's MORE! The Buchtelite;
I warn you. This is what the world is entirely comfortable with, and what they will recast marriage laws to encompass, and you simply don't want to go, where they go.
Legalized polygamy is a double edged sword. If it is done by courtroom fiat, we will get laws that accommodate one form of marriage, namely, anything. Fighting for "monogamy as marriage" is futile. Because it isn't, not in God's eyes, it's not.
Lapsing into denial and protesting and waiting for the State to get around to it will produce overnight change. That change will look like the above, or worse. Realize now that if we, as Christians DO NOT define marriage legally in a way that provides for our various visions of marriage, of which polygyny is one form, we will have what the world gives us, and we will not like it, none of us will.
Get ahead of the issue. Allow adults to contract with adults for whatever arrangement they want, in exchange for being able to contract with each other, in the way you want to. Either that, or you're going to be told that your wife can bring another man into your marriage, by the courts.
(the Buchtelite is a "public forum" publication of the University of Akron, Ohio)
"She says the discussion and decision to make Eric a member of the family was one of the most important of her life.This is, as defined, a Polygamy. It is a "clan marriage" or a "group marriage" or "communal marriage" or even a "polyamory," since we don't know if homosexual or bisexual play takes place.
The family continued to grow when Eric married Leslie. Somewhere along the way Amber joined this unique family. The family does not just include the five adults there are also four children and one on the way. She says their families know who is married to whom, but have never asked questions as to just what the situation is."
I warn you. This is what the world is entirely comfortable with, and what they will recast marriage laws to encompass, and you simply don't want to go, where they go.
Legalized polygamy is a double edged sword. If it is done by courtroom fiat, we will get laws that accommodate one form of marriage, namely, anything. Fighting for "monogamy as marriage" is futile. Because it isn't, not in God's eyes, it's not.
Lapsing into denial and protesting and waiting for the State to get around to it will produce overnight change. That change will look like the above, or worse. Realize now that if we, as Christians DO NOT define marriage legally in a way that provides for our various visions of marriage, of which polygyny is one form, we will have what the world gives us, and we will not like it, none of us will.
Get ahead of the issue. Allow adults to contract with adults for whatever arrangement they want, in exchange for being able to contract with each other, in the way you want to. Either that, or you're going to be told that your wife can bring another man into your marriage, by the courts.
(the Buchtelite is a "public forum" publication of the University of Akron, Ohio)
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2 comments:
I am not sure that I understand why gender would make a difference in a polygamous marriage. I looked at several definitions on-line. Some stated that "polygamy" was a "tendancy" for a male to be married to more than one female. The practice of polygamy seemed to be more closely associated with the muslim faith more than any other religion, but that is probably just based on statistics.
Here is an example of what I found, this was taken from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/polygamy
"The term polygamy (a greek word meaning "the practice of multiple marriage") is used to related ways in social anthropology, sociobiology, and sociology. Polygamy can be defined as any "form of marriage in which a person (has) more than one spouse"
Generally defined, polygamy is not limited to multiple wives, it would seem to include multiple husbands as well.
So it would seem like a new definition would be required if polygamy was to be limited only to man taking more than one wife. A "tendancy" does not a definition make.
From a religious perspective, it is usually Polygyny that is the only form of Polygamy practiced. The Bible for instance, did not have words for "monogamy" or "polygamy" or "polyandry" or "polygyny."
Having said that the only two forms of marriage shown in Judaism, Christianity or Islam are monogamy and polygyny. Hebrew only had a word for marriage and it was most of the time, the same word for woman.
In fact, the word for woman in the Bible doesn't so much mean woman as we conceive of it. It meant "join," "marry," "marriage," "wife," or "wives."
In fact, if you substituted the concept "join" or "joiner" (as in one who joins) you would have a concept that fit all usages of the hebrew term " 'ishsha."
This is why I use the term "polygyny" to denote what I advocate, the marriage of one man to one or more women, at any given time. The scriptures, for their part only denote a continuum of relationships with the man at the center of them.
Imagine a solar system with one planet, or many. That's pretty much it.
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