Polygamy...

I was watching a show the other night called Sister Wives... It's one of those reality TV shows, this one following a polygamist family... a husband, three wives and 12 children. I have to admit, I found it a bit fascinating... They spoke of their livestyle "choice", and it was clear that it was most definitely a choice... The husband was also in the process of courting a fourth wife... The other three wives spoke of the benefits of multiple wives. They also spoke of jealousy... I wondered how he could support such a large family, but apparently two of the wives work as well, with one wife remaining home to look after the children...

I thought of the Bible, where polygamy was the norm for hundreds of years. Abraham was a polygamist... as were Jacob, David... and Solomon to name a few others. I wonder when polygamy bit the dust and monogamy became the norm. Isn't it interesting though, that while polygamy was accepted back then... we have banned it... We run screaming in the other direction and see it as one of those "threats" to marriage... along with homosexuality.

The other month, I read Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert, and it was enlightening to say the least. She does a little scamper through the history of marriage, in light of her own uncoming nuptials. Holy matrimony between one man and one woman is not as "ancient" a tradition as we've been told... or as we would like to think. In fact the early church kind of shunned the whole marriage thing... mostly cause it involved... gasp!!... sex!! Heaven forbid that people should engage in such acts!!

So, maybe our ideas of marriage are up for revision? Elizabeth Gilbert would say they have always changed, all through history... We are the ones who are trying to enshrine one view of marraige as the "norm"... and in the process we are creating a lot of pain and hurt... interesting....