K4YZ wrote:
wrote:
K4YZ wrote:
nobodys_old_friend wrote:
Mike Coslo wrote:
wrote:
why should polygamy be banned? why for that matter
shoudl polyandry be banned?
There are some points I forgot to include in my previous response.
The reason such arrangements are against the law is that our
society has decided to define "marriage" as one woman and one man
joined in a legally-sanctioned way, protected by the
laws of the
various levels of government.
And part of the reason they have done this is to prevent
intra-family breeding.
There's nothing to prevent a
*simultaneous*
multi-spouse arrangement, as
long as
those involved don't demand government sanction and
protection.
In fact, it has become common for people to have multiple
spouses, just not simultaneously. There was a time when
divorce carried an enormous social stigma and was made
legally difficult in most places. That's all changed.
However Christian principles were the
basis for most of thier beliefs and were codified into early
American law.
The polygamist folks you mention are all Christians. Not Muslims,
Jews, pagans, agnostics, Wiccans or atheists.
Do you know of any nonChristian groups in the USA advocating polygamy,
Steve?
--
The main obstacles to simultaneous-multi-spouse arrangements that I can
see a
- Peer/societal pressure
- Personal preference of most people regardless of religion
- It's tough enough for two people to get along in a marriage (how many
US marriages end in divorce?). How are three or more
supposed to make it work?
I'm not saying that polygamy or polyandry or any other
multi-simultaneous-spouse situation should be legal or illegal. All I'm
saying is that the laws governing marriage are not so much derived from
"Christian" principles as they are derived from
society's overall concept of family structure, regardless of religion.
73 de Jim, N2EY