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Polygamy is the practice where a man is married to one or more wife at the same time. Currently, Polygamy is illegal in all 50 states but not every country. The United States is the only country that bans Polygamy constitutionally and yet still has families living in secret polygamist marriages. These families have had to lie and hide to save themselves from being arrested and broken up from their families. Without the patriarch, most of these women do not know how to survive financially on their own. This affects both the women and their children. Most children are brought up in the polygamist lifestyle do not acknowledge any other way of life. Polygamy causes families to be sheltered and hidden from society, forcing polygamists to create cult like lifestyles. Why should Polygamy still be practiced in the United States?
Polygamy was brought to the United States in 1852 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and was an accepted practice of marriage. The church started to practice this form of marriage earlier in 1843, but most marriages were spread throughout many countries but kept quiet. Joseph Smith was the founder and pushed the “coming out” of polygamy. He “testified an angel with a sword came to him many times and commanded him to practice polygamy or else he would lose his life” (Church History). Joseph Smith had 33 wives and taught Mormons that Jesus Christ himself had been a polygamist. In 1890 however, the United States urged the church to abandon the practice of polygamy, this brought upon the Manifesto. The Manifesto banned the practice of polygamy and those found practicing would be ex-communicated. Many still practicing polygamists decided to form their own path and practice in secret...
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...women. Still families such as the Browns practice the faith today hoping to have other Polygamist families help America understand their choices. Whether it is right or wrong we will never know but Polygamy allows families to share a bond, people can judge whether it is negative or positive, but in the end all that matters is love and togetherness.
Works Cited
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Jessop, C (2007). Escape. New York: Broadway Books.
Ndabaykhe, V (2008, January 1). Polygamy in African fiction.
Little, P (2006, September 29). UCLA Law Expert Available to Discuss Pennsylvania Supreme Court Ruling Allowing a Father to Teach His Child about Polygamy. Buissness Wire.
Newswire, P (1998, October 4). Church President Says Polygamy Today Is 'Against Law of God'. Utah, United States.
"We are a peculiar people," Elder Bruce R. McConkie once said (McConkie 25). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of a few "odd" Christian religions. Many of its practices have created much persecution and political reaction, polygamy being one of these. It created much social and political persecution of the Mormons. Most of this persecution came from anti-polygamist Christians.
religious persecution from the rest of America, as they were unable to. lead normal lives in Central America. What is the non-Mormons attitude towards Polygamy? Polygamy (in a large proportion of American’s opinions) was seen to be. wrong in the eyes of God.
The article Breaking the Cycle Mother, Daughter Find It Can Be Difficult to Leave Polygamy behind Polygamy: It 's Tough to Break the Cycle by Joan O 'Brien is about a mother’s experience leaving a polygamous marriage. This mother, Betsy Barlow of Salt Lake City also inspired her daughter, Ellen to do the same thing. It is explained that Mrs. Barlow felt that being a part of a polygamous marriage was defeating for women and herself. O’Brien states, “Barlow believes that in practice, polygamy ``suppresses ' ' women”. Most women would drop out of High school to raise children for the one husband and Mrs. Barlow was taught that this was the only way to reach the celestial kingdom. Her parents taught her this and she openly admits to teaching her
Polygamy is the case in which a man or a woman has multiple spouses. One branch of polygamy is termed “polygyny”, which is when “one man is married to several wives” (Zeitzen 3). In polygyny, women have become incredibly subservient because they believe being the best sister wife would mean coming closer God. This means they will obey their husbands and the prophet without question. Some of these Mormon fundamentalists reside in a tucked away community know as Bountiful, British Columbia. The women in Bountiful are being subjected to the confinements and abuse induced by their religious cult. “Some of Bountiful’s men are in there forties and fifties when they marry girls as young as fourteen” (Bramham 12). This is pertinent in showing For example; women “are programmed by their prophets to look happy... [and] are taught from birth to “keep sweet”.” (Bramham 17) This critical statement defends the idea of coercing “code[s] for blind obedience” (Bramham 195).
Polygamy is not something many Americans are accustomed to. Western culture teaches that monogamy, as opposed to polygamy, is the proper, accepted form of marriage. Western culture places that morality into it's people, often from youth.
In view of these facts, it is clear that divorce and polygamy both belong to the category of situations that deviate from the ideal marriage. With that in mind, Christians should not be quick to judge polygamy, especially while ignoring divorce. Evidently, it takes more courage, consumes more energy, and involves more responsibility to be in a polygamous relationship than to divorce and remarry.
Fletcher-Stack, Peggy. “Polygamy: Not as Rare as You May Think.” Beliefnet. Beliefnet, Inc., 2011. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .
While polygamy is illegal in America, there are roughly 30,000 to 50,000 people who live in polygamous families. According to an article in the International Business Times, about “forty thousand people in America are self-described Mormon fundamentalist who practice plural marriage and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Chris of Latter Day Saints remains the largest organized fundamentalist group in the world.” Jeffs grew up in a religious community known as FLDS, a radical branch from Mormonism, but it is not recognized within the mainstream Mormon Church....
Polygamy is defined as the condition or practice of having more than one spouse at a time. Though it has existed in many cultures throughout the world, polygamy is still very prevalent in most Islamic societies today. There are however several guidelines laid out in Islamic law governing the practice. Here we will examine the practice of polygamy in Islam and those laws which govern its legality.
Polygamy is considered illegal in the United States, which would make it a deviant practice. That fact is on the bottom burner for me when considering this situation. Forcing someone to theoretically spend the rest of their life with someone not of their choosing is definitely out of the norm in my opinion. On to...
The world polygamy means the practice of having more than one wife. It comes from poly meaning ‘many’ and gamos meaning ‘marriage. Polygamy has been around for many years, and by many years, it’s been around since the biblical ages. In the Old Testament of the bible polygamy was allowed, not only was it practiced or allowed in the Old Testament but other cultures and religions practiced polygamy as well. These religions included Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. The Old Testament gives multiple examples of men being married to more than one wife at a time. The patriarchs Abraham and Jacob are known to be examples of righteous men who had several wives in the Old Testament. It is said that in ancient times when a man had more than one wife or wives and concubines(a woman who lives with a man but has lower status than his wife or wives) these wives and concubines were segregated by position and authority within the husband’s family. The first wife held the highest position and it was to her first –born son that the husband’s inheritance was given. (www.bibleresearch.org)
Polyamory, like polygamy, refers to the state of conducting multiple romantic relationships at once; however, there are many distinctions between the terms. The most blatant difference is that polygamy specifies the participants are all married to each other, whereas polyamory encompasses a spectrum of relationships ranging from casual to committed. Furthermore, polygamy has its roots in religious and highly patriarchal systems, such as the Abrahamic faiths or the notorious Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Quite distinctly, the lifestyle we now know as polyamory grew out of the hippies’ free love movement in the 1960s, with considerably different values. In its modern form, it is a secular alternative lifestyle that is gradually gaining in popularity. It is estimated that there are over half a million openly polyamorous families in the United States alone.
“Polygamy is defined as a marriage in which a spouse of either gender has more than one mate at the same time. Polygamy is considered a valid form of marriage in many countries and communities around the globe” (Al-Krenawi). However, polygamy is illegal in the United States. Those who practice polygamy in America can only be “legally” married to one spouse; therefore, the subsequent spouses in a polygamist relationship hold a “singl...
Although what we were told by God, in many primitive civilizations marriage was primarily industrial. During early times husband and wife were not much together; they did not even eat together very often.(The Marriage Institution 1). Their marriages were always planned by their parents and in some cases brides were bought. Polygamy was also frequent in the early history of marriage. Although, as civilization progressed monogamy became the idealistic goal of human sex evolution.(The Marriage Institution 6). In addition, as civilization advanced, marriage became more seriously regarded and the wedding ceremony became recurrent. The marriage ceremony grew out of the fact that marriage was originally a community affair and also primitive man had no records, so the marriage had to be witnessed by many people.
One of the most controversial type of marriage to modern day society is polygamy. Polygamy is the practice of simultaneously having multiple spouses. Polygamy is often depicted in this nature due to the fact it contrasts with the socially acceptable conventional marriage. This view however, is not shared amongst cultures who practice it through the justification of religion or ideals all around the world.