The Eldorado Success

What are your thoughts on all of these children being removed from their parents? What are your thoughts on polygamy?

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I see no inherent problem in polygamy among consenting adults.

If I recall the details of this particular case correctly, many of the minor children of this particular group were being forced into marriage.

So, as their parents were either unable or unwilling to protect their own children from being raped by other members of the group, I think the separation of the children from their mothers is a very good thing indeed.

I don't know the specific case and will not comment on it.

Most media portrayals of polygamy (such as the TV series "Big Love" ) portray young girls being coerced into marriage with elderly men. I expect this is a stereotype, but I have no idea what the actuality of consensual polygamy is.

Can polygamy continue beyond a generation and still be consensual? In societies in which polygamy is the norm, women generally have no right to refuse a marriage or to block their husband from taking an additional wife.

Ancient Judaism and modern Islam enjoin the fair treatment of multiple wives, an indication that this needed to be stated because many wives were/are not being treated fairly.

To me, the social institution of polygamy says 2 things:

1. Women are interchangeable units, not unique persons.
2. A woman is incapable of a fulfilled life apart from marriage.

I disagree with both.

I don't know that consensual polygamy--if there is such a thing--should be outlawed, but I believe that in any society in which women are allowed to be self-supporting, polygamy will be rare. Especially if (as consent implies) a first wife must agree with the addition of other wives.

Final note: the Unitarian Service Committee noted that one of the consequences of literacy programs aimed at women in Bangladesh (95% Muslim) was a reduction in polygamy. They attributed this to the women learning to read and study the Qur'an and their rights under shari'a family law--one of which is that the first wife must consent to any additional wife. Most had endured polygamous husbands in the belief that they had no choice, a belief encouraged by husbands and male teachers. Once they knew they had a choice, that choice was usually "No" to polygamy.

Interestingly the Bangladeshi women in these literacy programs also identified divorce as "oppression of females".

A long time ago Man was running from the giant dino-things , Man eating Barney whatever , but Man had to run so much they ended up all the way to freezing areas and ran so much in time they ended up in the freezing areas and had to multiply just to have more people to harvest and get wood and kill the animals and so on and so on .

That generation so long ago , had sexual relations with as many as possible , to create kids to help them all stay alive through very hard work . .

However That was then and this is now and today one wife will do and some Countries ban more than two children unlike earlier days when the more kids ,, the more everything ,, especially life itself .

And if you don't believe just ask my 1000 'wifes' lol .

A couple of thoughts I had.. I watched the news story and videos and so on.

The children have apparently been raised in this environment and the females are often paired off from what I understand with much older, experienced men... so the laws of the state are there to protect children from being exposed early in life to adult sexual behaviour and responsibilities of raising children when they are still children themselves... Physically and emotionally a young girl should not have to be subjected to that...

The young males are often abandoned as rejects of the community..pariahs.

Problems with polygamy I think can be pretty easily identified... One is the tensions within the family between the children of the various wives and which wife is supposed to be the "Queen Bee" and where the others fit in the pecking order. You can read about these tensions in the patriarchal family in the Bible and the rivalries between Jacob and Esau, Isaac and Ismael and so on.

It occurred to me though it might be an interesting question during Income Tax time... The father has all these wives and dependents to declare... Should he declare them and get a great economic stimulus payment or not declare them?

- Art

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"it benefits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God."
- Johannes Kepler

I personally do not believe in Polygamy. However I do think if all parties are consenting then it should be their decision. I do not agree with young girls being forced to marry older men. That is something altogether different. I can see why they would be taken out of the home in that situation.

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RevKathyV

http://www.myspace.com/divinelightinterfaith



www.divinelightinterfaithministry.com

Even though this appears in the Debate Forum, we each have our own established opinions on matters such as multiple marriages and what constitutes (under the law of the land) statutory rape!

I've said, perhaps too often, I'm not here to judge. We follow, or are led, through each incarnation by divine guidance and the plan we are instrumental in laying out for our next physical embodiment and the lessons/challenges that it will present.

It would appear to this observer that people who "cling" (if I may be so bold) to behaviors from a different era or time in our evolutionary history, are refusing to advance spiritually when planning their next physical incarnation. They may be so materially attached to a period in their past, they refuse to let go and move on. The pleasure of that time's experience has held them captive in it's association.

It may very well be, spiritually, in connection to a predilection to child sexual predation.

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Only Love Prevails,
Don

From what I read from the book The Rocky Mountain Saints by T.B.H Stenhouse the pairing of young Mormon girls to the more experienced elders is a tradition. Sometimes youthful male missionaries who had set their sights set on prospective young female members would be sent back out into the field (or have their missions extended) only to return to find out that the young ladies they wanted to court were already married or promised to another older member.

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"There is one thing that organized religion is not qualified to teach and that is an individual's purpose."-GOD

...that we have yet to see a form of polygamy in which women have a free choice as to whom they will marry, or even a choice as to whether they will marry.

That is enough reason IMO to continue to treat it with suspicion.

I think polygamy in above the law, adult-decided ways is "permissible." I do not think that these young girls being coerced into polygamous marriages is permissible. I do not think that these young girls being "groomed" for polygamous marriages is right. They are told that if they do not participate then they are ****ed to hell. Uh, WRONG!

Polygamy between three or more consensual adults is okay, but not if the women have been groomed from the early years on. If they consent to a polygamous union on the grounds that if they do not consent they will go to hell, then how can one say it is a good thing? Only if the woman knows what she is getting herself into...then that is alright. Other than that, it's a no go.

UTE NDN