Practicing Polygamy : The Harsh Outcomes

Deborah Evans Met Aaron Conway and his wife Barb Conway five years ago as part of the religious sect Canyon County Family Society that has existed for 25 years with 120 members, which is part of the Mormon Church which strongly believes in polygamist marriages. Ms. Evans moved in with the Conway’s two years ago, in which time Mr. Conway and Ms. Evans began dating even though he has been married to his wife Barb

In speculation on Mormon belief, should a man have one wife or multiple we each have our own opinion. Stenhouse a disappointed woman makes good points on how she feels about the practice of how after joining the faith she now criticizes it. Stenhouse tells us that it doesn't matter how much faith the woman has in her religion or in plural marriages, that when her husband does take another wife after her estrangement will begin. Most people now would

Polygamy is a practice of having more than one wife. George Reynolds already had a wife but he married again in order to have a second spouse. With polygamy being banned in all fifty states, Reynolds was convicted of bigamy. However, Reynold stated that the law was unconstitutional on First Amendment basis. He told the court that he was a member of the Mormon Church. The Mormon church had a doctrine that practiced polygamy. He argued that because he was a member of the church, he was expected to marry twice. He told the court he was fulfilling a religious duty. Because he convicted

In “Mormon Masculinity Changing Gender Expectations in the Era of Transition from Polygamy to Monogamy, 1890–1920,” Amy Hoyt and Sara M. Patterson argue that during the era of transition from polygamy to monogamy, there was a perceived crisis in the lives of Mormon boys. These events together resulted in a change in the notion of masculinity in the LDS church. Their thesis was “..during the period from 1890 to 1920, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) perceived a crisis in the lives of their boys. That sense of crisis lay at the surface of an even deeper cultural upheaval taking place within Mormondom....With the transition from polygamy to monogamy, church members had to construct a new model for understanding marriage, family and sexuality...they were also forced to reconstruct their notions of masculinity (Hoyt and Patterson 72-73).”

During the 1870s and 1880s, the plural marriage created a crisis for Mormonism. Bigamy was recognized as an offense by the early English ecclesiastical courts, which considered it an affront to the marriage Sacrament. Parliament enacted a statute in 1604 that made bigamy a felony cognizable in the English common law courts.

In this age of freedom and personal choice, where previously banned and frowned up lifestyles are accepted, polygamy should become a lifestyle choice. This is the opinion of people who live this lifestyle. “Loving them is simple. It’s one of those things you do unconsciously…and your way of being that you never question it.”(Brown 27). The sister wives must have respect for the people

The Associated Press article (http://www.sltrib.com/home/3648926-155/bill-to-make-polygamy-a-felony), like the Utah Legislature one, is very credible. Associated Press is the hub of news information, as it does not reflect bias. This is a great

Despite the argument that polygamist lifestyles are easier, polygamy has proven time and time again, to be a terrible lifestyle that has been dolled up to look like something that it is not. Polygamist families are often unable to meet their basic needs, “In spite of our poverty, my husband continued to marry other wives. I almost died from typhoid fever and my first baby died” (Spencer 1). The health and well-being is the last thing on the mind of a husband living in polygamy because he is constantly wanting more for himself. All of the sister wives are so in love with their husband, what they do not know is that he does not really love them, if he did he would

Polygamy is the case in which a man or a woman has multiple spouses. One branch of polygamy is termed “polygyny”, which is when “one man is married to several wives” (Zeitzen 3).

Joseph Smith dictated a revelation concerning plural marriage. He bought the act forward as a requirement from God (Jacobson 2015). In the present day Mormon religion they have in fact denounced their support of “plural marriage” after the congressional act to ban the practice, but there are still subgroups of the religion that still practice it. In addition to the religious backing of polygamy, there are reasons that individuals chose to practice it. It increased the profitability of children, especially when a wife is barren of gives birth to female children. An increase in the labor supply within a kinship network. You can deal with the problem of surplus women. It expanded the range of a man’s alliances so he is able to maintain or acquire a position of leadership. Lastly, it can also provide sexual satisfaction to men (Bailey 2015). Religions to date that practice polygamy are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormons, Muslims, and Apostolic Untied Brethren. Polygamy was tied to religion many years ago because many of the early founders believed that it was very much related to God, and that it would be of his will and liking to have more than

In Western culture, there have been attempts to establish polygamist groups, primarily based upon differing religious viewpoints; however, most of these have not been able to withstand the pressure applied by the religious and cultural majority. If one wants to live and prosper in a given society, it is not advantageous to swim too hard against the current.

There are not very many people that practice polygamy and those that don’t practice polygamy do not support it. Polygamist does not follows the norms in society nor do they practice traditional marriage. Polygamy has been documented in the bible, but men like Abraham, or Jacob had two or more wives. Often those that practice this form of marriage are often religious and believe that they will ascend to a higher place after death by reproduction and teaching their children

Marriage is a social institution that is practiced globally. Traditionally marriages are known to occur between one man and one woman. However, cultural values and time have reshaped and birthed new types of marriages. Polygamy is a type of marriage that is often practiced around the world specifically in Asia, Middle East, and Africa. Polyamorous marriages have been in existence for centuries. Polygamy is classified into two categories, polygyny, and polyandry. Polygyny is the most popular type of polygamy, in this type of polygamous marriage, a man is married to multiple women. On the other hand, polyandry which is the least familiar type of polygamy is where a woman is married to multiple husbands. The intolerance of Mormons in the United States has led to the outlawing of polyamorous marriages. The Morrill Anti Bigamy law of 1862 outlawed the practice of polygamy in the United States. Like many other laws, this law can be overturned. In fact, it should be reversed because illegalizing polygamy is unethical. Polygamy should be legalized because it is unconstitutional for it to be illegal, same-sex marriages and interracial marriages are legal, therefore so should polyamorous marriages. In addition, legalizing polygamy would prevent immigrant families who practice polygamy from being separated and it would also strengthen the feminist movement.

They are looking into changing the law so it doesn’t affect children from age 12-17 who marry into polygamy. (Canada Polygamy laws upheld, 2011) Recent news has come out that 12 and 13 year old girls were moved from Canada to the US to marry widely known polygamous, Warren Jeffs who now is in jail named. Currently, Jeffs is facing allegation he married the 3 girls through 2004 and 2005 while he was at the age of 48. (Keller, 2011) Consequently, women are highly affected by polygamy due to its tradition of marrying young, abusive relationships and deep jealousy.

In industrialized societies, it is something that has been made illegal, and is considered deviant. When most people think of polygamy they think of polygyny, the marriage of one man with multiple wives, and endless children. Here in the United States the most common occurrence of polygamy was in the 1800s, through the Mormon religion, and more specifically the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter-Day Saints. Through the reading of the Bible, the leader of the Latter-Day Saints church, Joseph Smith, had revelations that encouraged him take a second wife as many of the members of the Old Testament had done. The rest of the United States reacted negatively to polygamy and Congress passed several laws prohibited polygamy. However, Mormons continued to practice polygamy despite these laws because they believed it was within their right to do so based on the Bill of Rights which protected freedom of religion (Embry 2016).