Polygamy Should Be Legal in the United States

Amber Robinson

Instructor Karn

English 111

11/03/11

Polygamy should be legal in the United States

People should have the right to have multiple relationships resulting in marriage, and the law should reflect that right. Polygamist should not be discriminated upon when it comes to marital rights. Instead of ignoring the law and turning cheek as long as there is no harm done, the law should be changed to allow polygamy with some regulation for the wellbeing of everyone in the relationships.

First, the subject of polygamy and what it is. Next, there are both advantages and disadvantages of polygamy for individuals, families, and society as there are with any type of relationship. Finally, the government should not have the right to regulate marriages, due to the 1st and the 14th Amendment, therefor polygamy should be legal.

What is polygamy? Polygamy exists in three specific forms, including polygyny (one man having multiple wives), polyandry (one woman having multiple husbands), or group marriage (some combination of polygyny and polyandry). Historically, all three practices have been found, but polygyny is by far the most common. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygamy)

Polygamy is illegal in all 50 United States, "with most under the law of which provides that a person is guilty of the third-degree felony of polygamy if he or she marries or cohabits with more than one spouse at a time in purported exercise of the right of plural marriage. The crime is punishable either by a fine, imprisonment, or both, according to the law of the individual state and the circumstances of the offense." (http://law.jrank.org/pages/9272/Polygamy-Crime.html)

History of polygamy, it has been practiced for many centuries by cultures around the world, from Hebrews to China and sporadically in Native Americans, West Africans, Polynesians, Indians, and the ancient Greece. It was accepted until the Romans Catholic Church made the rule of just one wife. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints originally allowed polygamy, but it ended in 1890 with president Woodruff. The members of this church began to be thrown out for being polygamous in 1889. These members that were thrown out started the fundamentalist Mormon group. Christian Polygamists started on July 4th 1994 with the first "Truth Tract" which proved that Moses actually had two wives and was polygamist. Muslim polygamy and Jewish Polygamy seems to have been a well-established institution, dating from the most ancient times and extending to comparatively modern days.

Understanding polygamy is not going to make anyone agree that it should be legal, especially when there are groups of polygamist who have created a reputation for imperialism. An example of this is the recent exposer of the polygamy camp in Texas that had led many to believe that all polygyny are sexual predators, marrying and forcing women to have sexual relations with them at very young ages. This is in fact not always true. There are many different types of polygamist communities some like the Texas compound but most like Centennial Park are very different.

In Centennial Park the women choose their prospective husbands, and the husband is kept in the dark until the parents of the woman and the church leaders are in agreement with the woman's choice. If the man is already married the woman then joins in to their marriage. How is the previous relationship affected? They are with open arms welcoming the support and comfort of another wife and ultimately more children. How does this affect the children of Centennial Park? Every relationship is with problems and this one is no different, but with this one what they believe has to be defended in every aspect of everyday life outside of their community. In some ways though they are better off, how many teenagers have you met that can honestly say they have not been sexually active, or even kissed someone of the opposite sex for that matter? In this community you will see they are open about wanting be virgins until they become married.

Not every polygamist family lives in a polygamist community, some families like the family on TLC's show Sister Wives live outside of the community. This can cause some difficulty for the family, not having others around that are in the same situation to talk to about it. And to have to defend their way of life to those that should be the most open. On episode 16 of the 2nd season the husband Kody and his four wives return to his home town. While there, they have a group get together with peers from Kody's past and find themselves defending their believes to the people who he grew up with. If that doesn't