Prevalence of Polygamy

Interesting summary.

It’s an interesting quirk that an American law stopped polygamy in USA, but the church applied that policy to all global members regardless of legal status.

I wonder what the church would do (or have done) in the (highly unlikely) situation that a legal polygamist wanted to join the church.

Mind boggles.

Interesting summary.

It’s an interesting quirk that an American law stopped polygamy in USA, but the church applied that policy to all global members regardless of legal status.

I wonder what the church would do (or have done) in the (highly unlikely) situation that a legal polygamist wanted to join the church.

Mind boggles.

My understanding is that if a man with more than one legal spouse (from a country that allows that sort of thing) wants to join the RLDS (now Community of Christ that historically reviled and denounced polygamy) then they may join under the stipulation that they do not take on any additional wives to the ones that this man may already have.

The irony is that I understand that this person would not be permitted to join the LDS church (that once proclaimed polygamy as an eternal principle).

Roy, that is my understanding as well.

I went to the Brian Hales book signing a few weeks ago, and someone else said that 85% of ethnic groups practice polygamy. But I’d be curious what percent of the world’s population practice polygamy. My guess is that it is a whole lot less.

As I’ve said in other threads, I don’t like polygamy – and I loathe the way polygamy works in many situations. I understand abhorrence for polygamy in our current culture and time, but I also think it’s interesting to see attacks on it from our own history from people who think it’s disgusting that anyone over 100 years ago could even entertain the idea. Not only is there the historical reality of it being so widespread, but many of those same people don’t fuss nearly as much about serial adultery or multiple sexual relationships outside of marriage. I know people personally who despise polygamy and think of it as a great evil who are far less vocal or bothered by someone using willing women for nothing but sex – no commitment, no emotional attachment, just a body to use momentarily and forget.

It also doesn’t escape me that such complete disregard for sex involving commitment is much more prevalent in our own society than polygamy is or ever has been – and yet polygamy (even when every person is a consenting adult) is called a great evil while serial, non-committed sex is accepted, at worst, as a moral failing. Polygamy is labeled a terrible threat, while rampant non-committed sex is almost ignored in similar discussions – even when the numeric and structural elements of such sex are polygamous in nature. (How’s that for careful phrasing? Impressed? I am, he says humbly. )

I read non-Mormon articles a lot, and I work at a college. Give me a choice between polygamy among consenting adults and what I know of the sexual practices of many college students, and I’ll take that type of polygamy every day – and twice on Sunday.

I respect and agree with that, Dax. The angel with the drawn sword is the part of our own history that I reject the most forcefully.

It also doesn’t escape me that such complete disregard for sex involving commitment is much more prevalent in our own society than polygamy is or ever has been – and yet polygamy (even when every person is a consenting adult) is called a great evil while serial, non-committed sex is accepted, at worst, as a moral failing. Polygamy is labeled a terrible threat, while rampant non-committed sex is almost ignored in similar discussions – even when the numeric and structural elements of such sex are polygamous in nature. (How’s that for careful phrasing? Impressed? I am, he says humbly. )

I read non-Mormon articles a lot, and I work at a college. Give me a choice between polygamy among consenting adults and what I know of the sexual practices of many college students, and I’ll take that type of polygamy every day – and twice on Sunday.

I think that is just crazy to say polygamy is some how better than sex between consenting adults. Polygamy in society so often carries with it a sense of entitlement on the part of the man. Warren Jeffs anyone. If you take religion out of the equation I suspect there are few women that would consent to polygamy but many that would concent to sex. Sex between humans has been evolving for 150,000 years. It is a natural biological event. The whole marriage thing is a very recent development in human history. Polygamy is just men trying to mesh an evolutionary mechanism with their own personal desires. Usually to the detriment of women. That said I am OK with truly consenting adults say past the age of 25 giving a polygamy a try if it floats their boat, as long as there is no religious component. But that is not the history of the practice. It is old men abusing young women.

I think that is just crazy to say polygamy is some how better than sex between consenting adults.

I didn’t say it was, as a category. Re-read my comment more carefully. The polygamy I said I prefer is that which is between committed, consenting adults – compared to indiscriminate, one night stand, serial bed-hopping.