Another rejection letter - also, polygamy
I had resigned myself to it already, and knew it was coming, but this sucks :(
In my family law class we started briefly discussing the question of decriminalizing or legalizing polygamy, and it occurred to me that by criminalizing polygamy, we are already recognizing the inherent validity of polygamous marriages.
In Canada, if a man marries one woman (legally, civilly), and then tries to legally/civilly marry another, he is guilty of bigamy.
But if he religiously (without civil imprimateur) marries one woman, and then religiously (without civil imprimateur) marries another, he is guilty of polygamy.
(If he just had two lovers it would be fine).
So, besides being, imo, an unconstitutional restriction on freedom of religion, what makes a relationship illegal is the fact that the government recognizes it as an inherently valid form of marriage that has simply been criminalized. If it wasn't recognized as marriage, it would just be another set of sexual relationships.
This makes sense, given that polygamy is traditional to western culture. I think this is sort of a remnant of that.
In my family law class we started briefly discussing the question of decriminalizing or legalizing polygamy, and it occurred to me that by criminalizing polygamy, we are already recognizing the inherent validity of polygamous marriages.
In Canada, if a man marries one woman (legally, civilly), and then tries to legally/civilly marry another, he is guilty of bigamy.
But if he religiously (without civil imprimateur) marries one woman, and then religiously (without civil imprimateur) marries another, he is guilty of polygamy.
(If he just had two lovers it would be fine).
So, besides being, imo, an unconstitutional restriction on freedom of religion, what makes a relationship illegal is the fact that the government recognizes it as an inherently valid form of marriage that has simply been criminalized. If it wasn't recognized as marriage, it would just be another set of sexual relationships.
This makes sense, given that polygamy is traditional to western culture. I think this is sort of a remnant of that.