On women, partnerships, men and polygamy.
I'm seriously not that smart, in many ways - primarily all things pop culture, current events and politics. I just tend to be WAY behind, but anyways...here's my brain today:
This polygamy raid in Texas has me raptured. I read The Banner of Heaven earlier this year and also grew up with a lot of Mormon friends around, I love Big Love on HBO and am generally fascinated by all types of intentional communities, group living situations, and anything that varies from my own life where I can be a voyeur and see my brain expand in the moment.
That all being said, my main man, Rabbi Shmuley, was discussing on OprahXM the huge problem in America relating to a general lack of respect for women, which just got me oddly furious in the moment. I see it, I DO it, I feel it. He said that polygamy presents a problem to the sanctity of marriage (whether legal or domestic partnership or anything in my opinion, but to committed partnerships in general), is illegal and generally an incredibly poor treatment of women as it creates a need for women to compete in their own home and to never feel the precious "specialness" of a committed partnership.
Then he said that this is the SAME as secular adultery, that a person who has a partner and another on the side is equally degrading to the partner. He pointed out that if polygamy is illegal, why isn't having a mistress? I'm wondering... the nature of these polygamous sects seem to contain MANY illegal acts - rape, child abuse, slavery, and polygamy itself - the act of being with more than one - RIGHT?
So, it seriously got me thinking, if a husband is the best guy in the world, treats his kids like angels, his wife like a saint, and is generally a good husband, should an intentional and repeated act of adultery throw him in Court?
This polygamy raid in Texas has me raptured. I read The Banner of Heaven earlier this year and also grew up with a lot of Mormon friends around, I love Big Love on HBO and am generally fascinated by all types of intentional communities, group living situations, and anything that varies from my own life where I can be a voyeur and see my brain expand in the moment.
That all being said, my main man, Rabbi Shmuley, was discussing on OprahXM the huge problem in America relating to a general lack of respect for women, which just got me oddly furious in the moment. I see it, I DO it, I feel it. He said that polygamy presents a problem to the sanctity of marriage (whether legal or domestic partnership or anything in my opinion, but to committed partnerships in general), is illegal and generally an incredibly poor treatment of women as it creates a need for women to compete in their own home and to never feel the precious "specialness" of a committed partnership.
Then he said that this is the SAME as secular adultery, that a person who has a partner and another on the side is equally degrading to the partner. He pointed out that if polygamy is illegal, why isn't having a mistress? I'm wondering... the nature of these polygamous sects seem to contain MANY illegal acts - rape, child abuse, slavery, and polygamy itself - the act of being with more than one - RIGHT?
So, it seriously got me thinking, if a husband is the best guy in the world, treats his kids like angels, his wife like a saint, and is generally a good husband, should an intentional and repeated act of adultery throw him in Court?