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Contra Mundum
The 'Big Love' Strategy
Big Love, HBO's series about the "polygamists next door" in Sandy, Utah, ended its five-year run last March, but polygamy is still going strong on American television. TLC's reality series Sister Wives, which features a real-life polygamist family named the Browns, has just been renewed for a third season.
TLC used to be called "The Learning Channel," which prompts the question: What are Americans learning from sympathetic portrayals of polygamy in popular culture?
When Will & Grace debuted in 1998, few could have imagined that scarcely a decade later, same-sex marriage would be regarded by many Americans as a constitutional right. Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York was no alarmist when he worried aloud that the next step in the marriage debate would be another redefinition to allow polygamy and infidelity. How did we get to this point?
It began with making what was once marginalized and tolerated seem normal and mainstream by calling into question the very idea of norms. Pop culture excels at perpetuating this kind of relativism: gay characters were depicted as interchangeable with, if not superior to, their heterosexual counterparts. The message was clear: Only a bigot would make a fuss over homosexual behavior.
This approach, while effective, was too slow for some activists. That led to the second part of the "how": the legal strategy. This strategy built on the foundation laid by abortion-rights advocates, especially Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which defined liberty as "the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."
This notion of liberty as self-definition led to Lawrence v. Texas, which not only overturned Texas's anti-sodomy law, but also put the validity of all morals legislation into doubt. As U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his blistering dissent, the majority opinion would preclude all further morals legislation, opening the door to bigamy, same-sex marriage, and even adult incest and prostitution. He was right, of course. When a federal judge overturned California's Proposition 8 last year, he cited Lawrence. Now the aforementioned Browns have filed suit against Utah, seeking to have its law against polygamy invalidated. Their attorney, Jonathan Turley, argues what gay-rights advocates vehemently deny: "Homosexuals and polygamists do have a common interest: the right to be left alone as consenting adults." Following Lawrence's logic to exactly where Scalia said it would lead, he adds, "There is no spectrum of private consensual relations—there is just a right of privacy that protects all people so long as they do not harm others."
What then about evidence that polygamy is bad for women? What about studies linking polygamy to higher rates of domestic violence, an increased chance of dying in childbirth, and abuses such as daughter-swapping? What about intentionally depriving children of the singular devotion of a loving father and mother? Doesn't that constitute "harm"? It is ironic that feminist writers (and even a professor at that bastion of feminism, Brown University) are sounding the alarm about the dangers of polygamy. After all, feminists have always bristled at the idea of government "legislating morality" regarding any kind of "consensual relationship." But now they are ready for government to step in and legislate in the case of "consensual relationships" that harm them.
Contra Mundum
Chuck Colson & Timothy George
Charles Colson was the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, an outreach to convicts, victims of crime, and justice officers. Colson, who converted to Christianity before he was indicted on Watergate-related charges, became one of evangelicalism's most influential voices. His books included Born Again and How Now Shall We Live? A Christianity Today columnist since 1985, Colson died in 2012.
Timothy George is the dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University and a member of Christianity Today's Editorial Council. His books include Reading Scripture with the Reformers and Is the Father of Jesus the God of Muhammad? Like Colson, George has been heavily involved in the Evangelicals and Catholics Together discussions. George began cowriting "Contra Mundum" with Colson in 2011.
- Catholics and Baptists Together
- The Man Who Birthed Evangelicalism
- Sacrilege Is Real
- Against the Stream
- Charles Colson & Timothy George: Churchless Jesus
La complejidad hispana: Todo cambió en el 2012
The Latest in Movie News, May 20, 2013
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BJ
Posted for NoMorePolygamy: "The Bible gives accounts of polygamy in the Old Testament. However, none of those accounts are cast in a postive light. The end result of polygamy (or the practice of having plural wives) is always negative. Solomon's many wives led him into idol worship, David's multiple wives led him into trouble and sin, Jacob's wives never got along and their jealousy impacted their sons; Abraham's venture into polygamy was a real mess for all. Just because the Bible mentions something does not mean it condones it. And we are to glean insight and wisdom from the stories. The postive picture of marriage that God presents is always between one man and one woman. Even in the metaphor of Christ as the Bridegroom, His bride is the Church - singular- not churches - plural. Even if one is to set aside the over-all bent of Scripture in regard to polygamy, I have to speak out and say that polygamy has touched my family. A member of my family married a woman who grew up in a polygamous Mormon household. I can attest first hand to the fact that polygamy within the FLDS is abusive in every way. It is abusive thru the inbreeding (cousin marriages) which results in a higher rate of fumarose disease within the FLDS community, it is abusive in the higher rates of incest which goes unreported, it is abusive in that sex is taught to be for propogation and never for pleasure, it is abusive in the high rate of child brides given to older men, it is abusive in that women are taught to stuff down their emotions (resulting in fragmented personalities) and keep sweet (obey without question their husbands and their prophet). Women are taught they will not go to heaven unless invited by a husband who has 3 wives. The man thus total control over a woman's eternal fate and demands perfect obedience. It is abusive to our system to government in their ongoing "bleed the beast" mentality that says you should soak the government via the "non-legal" wives. The women and children are taught not to question, not to think, and to do so is to defy the prophet. Young boys are excommunicated because boys are a surplus, so boys as young as 14 are out on the streets - their mothers told not to communicate w them. Young girls who do escape polygamy will have deep psychological issues including PTSD, multiple personalities, sexual deviant behaviors, alcohol and drug abuse, suicidal thoughts, anger etc. In our personal family, polygamy has touched us and created irrepairable damage but with God all things are possible. Please pray for our family and the women and children trapped in polygamy. Most do not know they need help. Most have no idea they have been told a big lie. Do not buy into that lie. I hope you hear me and believe me. Polygamy is abuse to women, to children and to young boys."
SDLaw
I think it's fair to say that "biblically" speaking, what was once acceptable is no longer. Incest was acceptable and normal in those times. However, a father or brother having intimate relations with his daughter or sister would be intolerable. Polygamists may believe that as consenting adults they should have that freedom but if polygamy were to be legalized, people would marry without letting their spouses know. This is something that seriously needs to be thought out. We are becoming to liberal. Next, our 8 year olds will be telling us they have a right to chose to have sex and have babies. Then their lawyers will argue because they know right or wrong, they should be given that right. When will this end??
nvlawyer
The Mormons were right in abandoning polygamy. The Mormon prophet at the time envisioned the destruction of his faith and culture if they forced the issue in the United States and probably also saw a practical reality of the difficulties for those living in polygamy in having to deal with issues never anticipated when it was introduced. His prophecy of destruction to those who practiced it against the "will of the Lord" seems to have come true with the corruption of Warren Jeffs, and the related abuses now found in these isolated communities. Like homosexuality, the concept of all is available to consenting adults is a very slippery slope when one considers that children are the true victims -- and society definitely has a role in raising our next generation.