Religious View on Polygamy

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Religious Views on Polygamy Polygamy as stated in the Academic American Encyclopedia is “a type of marriage in which a person may legally have several spouses concurrently. Common forms include polygamy, the marriage of a man to more than one women, or polyandry, the marriage of a woman to more than one man” (419). In 1862 the Thirty-Seventh Congress passed a law which effectively outlawed polygamy in every province and territory of the United States. Polygamy has been a subject of debate throughout American history, especially in states such as Utah, where the polygamist life style is a way of life in some small rural communities. Polygamy is seen as realistic and, at the same time, practical. There are a variety of reasons why polygamy is permitted. The first being that women outnumber men in some regions. The interpretation is that, if marriage was restricted to one wife, many women would be without husbands. The implications of polygamy are seen as moral, sentimental, social, and emotional. Another reason that polygamy exists is because not all women are capable of having children. To have a family and contribute to society are fundamental wishes. In a difficult situation like this, a husband is presented with three alternatives: forget it and suppress the desire for children, divorce his wife through a course of separation or adultery, or adopt children and give them his name. The thing is: none of these options jive with Islamic views on life. Islam does not encourage or approve suppression of anyone’s legitimate desires or natural aspirations. (Abdicate, 1982, 170) It seeks to help people fill those voids in their lives in a decent, legal manner. Polygamy exists is not all spouses fulfill their marital obligations. A spouse may simply fail to be pleasant to him or her. Their personalities may clash after a while, even though they’d thought otherwise
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