Slate writer: "Marriage is elastic" and polygamy is just fine.

What's next if gay "marriage" becomes the law of the land. No doubt a big push for polygamy. At least that's what this writer at Slate thinks and she's just fine with it.

In a story entitled: Legalize Polygamy! No. I am not kidding she writes:

Recently, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council reintroduced a tired refrain: Legalized gay marriage could lead to other legal forms of marriage disaster, such as polygamy. Rick Santorum, Bill O’Reilly, and other social conservatives have made similar claims. It’s hardly a new prediction—we’ve been hearing it for years. Gay marriage is a slippery slope! A gateway drug! If we legalize it, then what’s next? Legalized polygamy?

We can only hope.

She goes on to describe polygamy as the "constitutional, feminist, and sex-positive choice."  And of course, she believes it will "help protect, empower, and strengthen women, children, and families."  Where have we heard that before?

Yes, really. While the Supreme Court and the rest of us are all focused on the human right of marriage equality, let’s not forget that the fight doesn’t end with same-sex marriage. We need to legalize polygamy, too. Legalized polygamy in the United States is the constitutional, feminist, and sex-positive choice. More importantly, it would actually help protect, empower, and strengthen women, children, and families.

  And she says because so many people are doing it anyway, why not legalize it.

It’s also hard to argue with the constitutional freedom of religious expression that legalized polygamy would preserve. Most polygamous families are motivated by religious faith, such as fundamentalist Mormonism or Islam, and as long as all parties involved are adults, legally able to sign marriage contracts, there is no constitutional reason why they shouldn’t be able to express that faith in their marriages. Legalized polygamous marriage would also be good for immigrant families, some of whom have legally polygamous marriages in their home countries that get ripped apart during the immigration process. (It’s impossible to estimate exactly how many polygamous families live here, since they live their religious and sexual identities in secret. Academics suggest there are 50,000 to 100,000 people engaged in Muslim polygamy in the U.S., and there are thousands of fundamentalist Mormon polygamist families as well.)

Her views boil down to a radical individualism and a false understanding of marriage which she views as elastic.

The definition of marriage is plastic. Just like heterosexual marriage is no better or worse than homosexual marriage, marriage between two consenting adults is not inherently more or less “correct” than marriage among three (or four, or six) consenting adults. Though polygamists are a minority—a tiny minority, in fact—freedom has no value unless it extends to even the smallest and most marginalized groups among us. So let’s fight for marriage equality until it extends to every same-sex couple in the United States—and then let’s keep fighting. We’re not done yet.

Stand by the Mormons

As the attacks against supporters of Proposition 8 increase, I have become concerned with the abuse directed towards Mormons. The LDS church became a target of protest and violence after raising nearly $20 million and mobilizing to pass the amendment to protect marriage in California.

I have friends in the Mormon church. We acknowledge our theological disagreements. However, I believe we must lock arms with our allies in the public square to protect marriage, life and family.

We should also take a public stand against the hatred and bigotry they have absorbed because of something we all believe in.

To the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints who worked to pass Proposition 8, I say thank you.

California and Thank-a-Mormon day
John Mark Reynolds

http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/2008/11/05/california-and-thank-a-mormon-day/

"Proposition 8 would not have passed if it had not been for LDS (Mormon) money and manpower. For their hard work as participants in the process, this small religious group received some of the worst attacks of the political season. They were demonized and stereotyped by opponents of Proposition 8 and sometimes by the mainstream media."
[snip]

"Despite this fact at times a plausible Mormon presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, was the subject of unfair religious scrutiny. (Some forms of scrutiny of religion are fair, but some are just bigoted. Distinctions start here.) Too often people they have supported in the past were weak in their condemnation of such bigotry."

"Republicans should not ask for Mormon money and manpower and then regulate their leaders to the backrooms when leadership roles are handed out."

"Of course, nobody should confuse political and social agreement with theological unity."

"My theological differences with the Mormon faith are deep and important. Within the last month I have argued that the LDS view of the God is not compatible with what we know about Divine love. Those theological discussions and disagreements must continue bringing clarity with charity to the important disagreements."

"They are important because they are, after all about eternal things."

"In the battle for the family, however, traditional Christians have no better friends than the Mormon faithful. It would be wrong if that support were taken for granted. We are intolerant of the false attacks on Mormon faith and family. We stand with our Mormon friends in their right to express their views on the public square. We celebrate the areas, such as family values, where we agree."