So, i missed the first episode of Sister Wives on TLC. I have my DVR eagerly set to record future episodes. Polygamy has become a really interesting subject for me lately. I didn't give it much thought while i was a member of the LDS church, my limited thoughts naively glancing over the probability that polygamy wouldn't bother me. (GAH!) Now that i've had time to give polygamy the amount of thought it properly deserves, boy have i changed my mind. I'm very bothered by it! Not by the thought of my husband being with someone else sexually, but by having to share his down-time. And hot damn, we can just barely eek by on his pay as it is, so can you image him having to support more wives and more children? Crapstain. We'd be living in a van down by the river.
Well, let me back up and say that i'm not bothered by the polygamy being practiced by the folks on Sister Wives. I haven't seen it yet and therefore can't comment on it. The polygamy that bothers me is the polygamy that was practiced by the early leaders and members of the LDS church. Many of those women lived in poverty because their husband didn't make enough to support them all. And the way the women got passed off to other men, or how some women who were already married to good men were married to church leaders, then discarded later. It was not pretty, folks! Here's a first-hand account from Eliza Young, Brigham's 19th wife. You can read her entire book online:
My heart goes out to the lonely wives of the LDS church's early polygamous practices. What sorrows me even further is that some people choose to not believe these women; they would rather deny the truth and dishonor these unfortunate women who suffered so much. Nothing good came of polygamy instituted by the early LDS church. NOTHING.
So, now here's the BIG QUESTION OF THE DAY:
If polygamy is legalized in the U.S., will the LDS church start practicing it again? I mean, the practice of polygamy was ONLY stopped because it was outlawed in the U.S. So, if "God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow," then will polygamy once again be practiced by members of the LDS church if it becomes legal in the U.S. as the Sister Wives folks are attempting to make it?
Whooooo weeeee! I feel a cluster f%&* in the making. Not because i think polygamy couldn't work in some instances. I'm sure there are people (most likely of the non-religious sort) for whom it could work well, for whatever reason they saw fit to do it. I'm just sayin'...can't wait to see how it all unfolds!
2 holla'd back:
Eh. Marijuana is more popular than the idea of polygamy, and that's nowhere near being legalized yet. I doubt it would happen.
I imagine non-religious people would be more likely to go for polyamory (less patriarchal connotations). A friend of mine has often preached the virtues of it to me, but frankly, one intimate relationship is too much sturm und drang for me anymore. I can't imagine trying to juggle a few of them!
Here's a post on the topic from someone else who watches the show. I read Jenny occasionally; she's a good writer, but she curses almost as much as I do, so be warned!
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