I am sure that most polygamists have good reason to practice polygamy. Please help everyone understand your point of view.
1 comment:
Anonymous
said...
There is too little room here to be comprehensive, so I will summarize, but please be aware that a summary will seem lacking.
Going back to the original roots of organized religion is the command to "multiply and replenish the earth" (or "fill" the earth in another translation.) As women bear and nurture children, the appropriate supporting role of men is to provide for the mothers and children.
As many men will not rise to this assignment (just look at all of the absentee fathers today in society) this allowance was set (back in Moses' time - Leviticus) to ALLOW men who would be responsible to take multiple wives. It was never intended to be either grounds for a pecking order, nor a mechanism for the satisfaction of any one man's sexual desires. It was meant to be a mechanism for the bearing and raising of God's children.
In some branches of religion this initial permission has mutated into something reprehensible. Moslems treat their plural wives as property, orientals give little heed to the rights of women generally and concubines are winked at (this happens a lot in Washington, as well.)
In the system of polygamy practiced by the FLDS (Which has its roots in doctrines taught by Brigham Young, and his predecessor Joseph Smith) the willingness of a man to take up another woman and permit her to fulfill her God-ordained role of mother is considered a noble thing, and one meriting extra blessings and powers in the hereafter. It may seem strange, especially to one who might not believe in any hereafter - but it is what they believe.
For this reason it becomes a matter of righteousness to have more than one wife - if you can support her and her children. In most polygamous orders if you cannot support an additional wife, you are discouraged from taking one.
Unfortunately, due to the lavish government welfare programs created not for polygamists, but for inner-city unwed mothers and fatherless children, many polygamists have seen the general welfare program as a way to subsidize this "righteousness." But the emphasis is the same - having and raising children
Careful inspection of religious polygamist orders will reveal that there are virtually NO polygamist men who have no children, and similarly, NO polygamist women who have no children. The having of multiple wives is for the facilitation of having multiple children.
And, judging from this nations falling birth rate, we should probably be grateful to them.
1 comment:
There is too little room here to be comprehensive, so I will summarize, but please be aware that a summary will seem lacking.
Going back to the original roots of organized religion is the command to "multiply and replenish the earth" (or "fill" the earth in another translation.) As women bear and nurture children, the appropriate supporting role of men is to provide for the mothers and children.
As many men will not rise to this assignment (just look at all of the absentee fathers today in society) this allowance was set (back in Moses' time - Leviticus) to ALLOW men who would be responsible to take multiple wives. It was never intended to be either grounds for a pecking order, nor a mechanism for the satisfaction of any one man's sexual desires. It was meant to be a mechanism for the bearing and raising of God's children.
In some branches of religion this initial permission has mutated into something reprehensible. Moslems treat their plural wives as property, orientals give little heed to the rights of women generally and concubines are winked at (this happens a lot in Washington, as well.)
In the system of polygamy practiced by the FLDS (Which has its roots in doctrines taught by Brigham Young, and his predecessor Joseph Smith) the willingness of a man to take up another woman and permit her to fulfill her God-ordained role of mother is considered a noble thing, and one meriting extra blessings and powers in the hereafter. It may seem strange, especially to one who might not believe in any hereafter - but it is what they believe.
For this reason it becomes a matter of righteousness to have more than one wife - if you can support her and her children. In most polygamous orders if you cannot support an additional wife, you are discouraged from taking one.
Unfortunately, due to the lavish government welfare programs created not for polygamists, but for inner-city unwed mothers and fatherless children, many polygamists have seen the general welfare program as a way to subsidize this "righteousness." But the emphasis is the same - having and raising children
Careful inspection of religious polygamist orders will reveal that there are virtually NO polygamist men who have no children, and similarly, NO polygamist women who have no children. The having of multiple wives is for the facilitation of having multiple children.
And, judging from this nations falling birth rate, we should probably be grateful to them.
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