Prevalence of Polygamy

[Anonymous]

Even within the early Mormon church, Bushman theorizes it was more about dynasty than anything else, and you can find quotes of early polygamous leaders talking about “believing blood.” It seems early leaders felt the best way to protect the church was to father it.

Here’s a wiki link for bride-burning, which I have mostly read about in India, although this says other ASEAN countries also have it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bride_burning

Polygamy seems to prevail where women are treated as property and being a wife is an economic commodity. Men who purchase wives (even if it is partly symbolic) do not see them as equal people whose independent thoughts and desires matter. I suspect Betty Friedan is right that for women to truly be viewed as equals they must contribute economically (via paid work).

[Anonymous]

Maybe polygamy is inherently evil about as much as divorce.

[Anonymous]

Shawn wrote:

Yes, here is another thread about polygamy, but I think this aspect has not been addressed much, if at all. First, I am not saying polygamy is good, bad, or ugly. I am saying that it probably was, and is, more common than most people realize. How might that change how Mormon polygamy is viewed?…If I am reading that correctly, that means nearly 85% of the societies surveyed have practiced at least some polygyny. However, the practice is usually rare in those societies.

…In Judaism, multiple marriage was considered a realistic alternative in the case of famine, widowhood, or female infertility like in the practice of levirate marriage, wherein a man was required to marry and support his deceased brother’s widow…Until 2010 polygyny was legally recognized in Thailand. In Burma, polygyny was also frequent. In Sri Lanka, polyandry was practiced (though not widespread) till recent times…-Polyandry in Tibet was common traditionally, as was polygyny, and Tibet is home to the largest and most flourishing polyandrous community in the world today…Polygamy existed all over Africa as an aspect of culture or/and religion. Plural marriages have been more common than not in the history of Africa…Prior to 1955, polygamy was permitted for Indian Hindus…In Islam, polygyny is allowed, with the specific limitation that a man can have up to four wives at any one time. Prophet Muhammad had eleven wives in his lifetime, and had 9 wives when he died

To be honest, I don’t believe that polygamy is necessarily wrong if everyone involved freely chooses this lifestyle and is comfortable with it. However, I suspect that many of these women probably didn’t feel like they had much of a choice and basically felt pressured into it. Also, in addition to being such an unpopular doctrine and an embarrassing chapter in the Church’s history there is the question of what exactly this says about the overall credibility of early Church leaders.

What is more likely, that an angel with a flaming sword threatened to destroy JS if he didn’t practice polygamy or that this was simply his own idea intended to further his own personal interests? The fact that they directly tried to give God credit for this and attach it to salvation just doesn’t help me feel that much confidence in these early Church leaders. Maybe they could do all this and still receive legitimate revelations but what I don’t understand is why God should expect me to have very much faith in these men given their track record of making so many highly questionable, inconsistent, and outright false claims.

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