Multiple wives often misunderstood, Musli

Originally posted by Aelfgifu So marriage is for the lazy. A quick way to settle your finacial affairs? Get real, that is just the side effect. How pathetic to marry for money.

It's just a partnership. You don't have to get married to be with someone. But if you plan on being together a long time and acting in life as a total partnership in property and every other sense, it just makes life easier.

I am sorry you cannot see the point here. Really don't know how to make it more clear. To marry for any of the above reasons is stupid.

Whether it's stupid or not to marry for those reasons is irrelevant, it doesn't change what marriage is legally. Maybe it's the dumbest thing in the world, that doesn't change what it is and how it works.

They can all be taken care of in other ways, none of them as complicated as you seem to think.

Some of the things can. Not all. And you'd really be making a lot of visits to a contract lawyer. Marriage covers all sorts of things - your inheiritance is assumed, partnership in property is assumed, power of attorney is assumed in the event of illness.

There are other things that you can never have outside of marriage, such as the fact that spouses cannot be forced to testify against each other.

Did you ever realise that if people would not get married over really sad reasons like tax benefits and social pressure, divorcerates would go down immensely? Marriage is nice and all that, but perhaps people should consider the alternatives instead of taking the easy way.

Obviously you haven't been married, because it's not "the easy way". Marriage is a lifelong commitment, something many people in our disposable society are simply incapable of comprehending. Relationships are throwaway like paper plates; they end when you're done using them. There are probably only a handful of people today who have the right mentality to be in a marriage, and for the vast majority that don't, marriage is probably the most difficult and unpleasant thing they will ever do.

Edited by edgewaters - 25-Jun-2007 at 09:27

couple of points:

Originally posted by JanusRook I don't understand the whole problem with it. Personally I don't think there is anything inherently wrong in polygamy, whether it be polygyny, polyandry, or group marriage. It is all up to each individual community to decide what is acceptable and what is not. Also, this goes to what I feel about government and religion,  I plainly don't like government in my religion and I abhor the government using religion as a tool to be used for it's own devices. That being said if a community in Southern Utah would like to have multiple wives, or a Nepalese community in New York would like it's women to have multiple husbands or a group of hippies in San Fransisco would like to have a group marriage I have no problems with that since they do not operate under my personal moral code, which as far as I'm aware isn't 100% correct, no matter how much I want it to be. Also I think that laws to this nature are hypocritical and stereotypical, since a poor inner city man can have children with several women and not support them, or a successful billionaire like Hugh Hefner can have a "harem" of girlfriends without any repercussions against them. Personally I like the way that members of the FLDS have gotten around the law, by marrying and divorcing their wives legally, while retaining their Church marriages as plural and living and raising their kids as they would have done a hundred and fifty years ago.

Edited by Justinian - 13-Oct-2007 at 19:32

I respect your view but when in Rome do as the Romans do!

Are you saying that we should have multiple wives, but refuse to marry them and keep them secret from one another? Creating tension and strife until everything breaks down?

Just my humble opinion ...

Edited by snowybeagle - 15-Oct-2007 at 08:59

I think that the multiple wiwes concept is missunderstood by muslims first of all.It was permited at one period were it was beneficiary to the population of the Arabs.

Originally posted by Omar al Hashim Originally posted by Styrbiorn Are you suggesting the practice of secret mistresses and cheating is restricted to societies which only allow only one wife/husband? No. But I am suggesting that polygamy in western countries is already practiced by that method.

Edited by Akolouthos - 16-Oct-2007 at 07:15

no - in Europe and America it is not acceptable and especially in the US it should never be. I wonder how much the Mormon church would change if it was allowed. At least Islam limits it to four but I do not think there is a limit with Mormon sects.