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| From Wikimedia Commons |
In my last blog I discussed polygamy and how most of the time people use it as a probable cause to investigate fraud or child abuse, not just the polygamy itself. This time I would like to talk more on the bigger question, should polygamy be illegal or legal? If people don’t investigate just it, then why even bother with it being a law?
I have always cringed at the word ‘polygamy’, but when I confronted why I didn’t want anything to do about it; I realized that it is just society telling me, “No, that’s bad! Why? Well…just because.” I do not want to be a polygamist and that is my choice but it may not be the next person’s, so why should the law force it from everyone? I believe most people in our society have problems with polygamy because it is hard to understand why a person would want to marry a spouse having other spouses that they know about and live with comfortably. Janja Lalich explains that people who marry into polygamy might have been, “…at a transition point in their lives, when perhaps they were not completely connected or totally fulfilled with what was going on at the time, and if there is any common thread or traits, it is idealism, curiosity, and urge to create a better world, and wanting a sense of meaning and purpose”.
I realize that polygamy has a bad reputation, especially with examples like what happened in Eldorado, Texas at the Yearning for Zion Ranch: old men marrying little girls, sex-trafficking, and having multiple kids to get government/ public assistance. The problem with this is that you cannot say that that goes for all plural marriages, just like if you made the connection to abusive partners in marriages to all marriages needing to be abolished by the law because abuse might happen in them. Stanley Roberts points out that when it comes to polygamy, “The first thing that must be made into law governing these types of marriages is that their will be no form of public assistance unless all members of the household, meaning husband and wives are gainfully employed”, and I agree with him on this but not only pertaining to plural marriages. People, regardless of the type of marriage, should not have kids in abundance in order to get help from the government. If polygamists are shunned from marrying, then why isn’t a monogamous married person who has extramarital affairs prosecuted? Why isn’t their marriage license revoked or not recognized?
Polygamy should be legal to those who honestly love more than one person, not just because it is a tradition that a person is forced into. My question is should polygamy be legal? Also, do you think that polygamy has sprouted up even more due to our economic crisis?
I believe that polygamy should be a choice. Making polygamy against the law infringes on religious rights. However, I do not necessarily agree that all members of the household should have to be employed in order to receive public assistance. Although it would be ideal, it is not likely that all of the parents would get jobs in today's economy, which would cause children to suffer in the long run. It's not fair to require these mothers to put their children in daycare when mothers should have the right to stay home with their children.
ReplyDeleteInstead of overlooking polygamy, the government should either enforce the law or take it away. If child abuse is a common problem in polygamy relationships, perhaps a new law should be enforced. A law that enforces an age requirement for polygamy marriage would protect a lot of young women from abuse.