POLYGAMY AND MARRIAGE

Fascinating piece in the New York Times today about polygamy in Utah. For the first time in eons, there’s an actual attempt to prosecute it. But more fascinating to me is the following nugget: “Despite the strictures against it, polygamy continues to thrive in Utah, where state officials estimate as many as 50,000 people are part of families with more than one wife. In keeping with their desires to live on the fringe of mainstream society, most of the families reside in small, isolated towns like Partoun, but they are not unknown in larger places. A Salt Lake City prosecutor said she knew of one man in the city who the authorities believe has fathered 200 children by an assortment of women.” I point this out simply because it’s amazing to me that more on the Christian right aren’t in an uproar over this. Vast resources are devoted to stigmatizing and preventing same-sex marriage, but not a peep about the alternative lifestyle of over 50,000 Americans who are clearly exercising a choice in a way no homosexual truly does. It’s also worth pointing out that by far the biggest financial backer for campaigns against same-sex marriage rights in California, Hawaii, Alaska and Vermont is … the Mormon church. A pot and kettle moment if ever there was one.