Bill Against Polygamy I Wonder How Many

Bill Against Polygamy

I wonder how many of us would like to be politicians in a world and a country where few groups can get themselves to agree on things. Think, for example, of something as seemingly simple as religious freedom. Of course, most of use agree with the Constitution, that people should be allowed to believe and worship as they want. But what about religious groups that are not "normal," according to most people's views? Polygamy is one such example. Many who practice this form of marriage have religious reasons for doing so. Most of us find his practice strange and disturbing. It is therefore difficult for us to believe that the Constitution should grant such people the right to marry more than one person legally and to provide any other benefits that come with this. So, the debate goes on. And for this reason I do not envy those in political positions who are faced with issues like legalizing controversial lifestyles that some say should be a human right.

So let's start by having a look at some publications about polygamy. "The Bill Against Polygamy" is an example of an article published in 1860, where the author argues against making polygamy illegal. The reasons for this are interesting and say a lot about the society and general beliefs of the time. The article seems to show that the author feared, at the time, that the Latter Day Saints would start a war to protect a husband's right to take more than one wife.

Another interesting point the article makes is that Mormons, being considered immoral because of polygamy, are also mostly responsible for crime. Not only this, they are also claimed to be responsible for not doing anything about crimes that are committed, since most crimes are committed by Mormons, and Mormons also have high positions in courts and the police force. In other words, it looks like the authors of the document believed that Mormons are both violent and have managed to get into the police and other law enforcement places so that they can continue their violence. This is why the article is against a bill that would make polygamy illegal. The fear was that the violence would escalate, since the already violent Mormons are made even more unhappy by the law telling them how to conduct their marriages. Today, most of us tend to thing a little differently about things. I think that, as a society, we are no longer that quick to blame a single group of people for all the crime in the country.

But how do we think about polygamy today? Well, it is illegal. There have been arguments to make it legal, like the one given by Wendy Kaminer (2013). According to her article, polygamy can be seen in the same way as gay marriage; that we have no right to tell anybody who they should or should not marry, and that marriage is a private choice the state should have no say over.

When seen from the Mormon point-of-view, men are required by God and their religion to take more than one wife. In Mormon circles, this is also known as "plural marriage" or "celestial marriage" (U.S. Marriage Laws, 2013). As part of God's law for the Mormons, practicing polygamy is one of the requirements for saving one's soul and the souls of one's family. Of course, the argument against legalizing this practice is that it encourages child abuse, where underage girls are forced to marry elderly men. Kaminar points out that child abuse is and should be illegal. Polygamists who practice child abuse should be prosecuted. Her point is, however, that Mormons are not, as a rule, child abusers when they marry more than one wife and that it is not a reason to make this kind of marriage illegal.