RE: [UUPoly-L] Re: LDS

["Lisa Z. Morgan" <lisamorgan@lairhaven.com>]

I was born in Salt Lake, raised in a mainstream Mormon family in
Massachusetts, and have seen the polygyny argument from both sides. I don't
think ANY system which subjugates one partner to another, where one must be
obeyed and the others are "kept" as second-class adults who must abide by
one partner's decisions, will ever have my support. I have also seen too
many accounts of men who, by virtue of head of their "God-given" status as
head of the household decided to dispose of their daughters as bargaining
tools, giving them in "marriage" to close relatives, business partners, or
church leaders at an age when most states would still call it statutory
rape. I have read credible accounts of incest and child molestation. When
one person is told other people are his property, the lines between right
and wrong can easily become blurred, or simply cease to matter.

That said, I think polygamy, as a form of polyfidelity practiced among
consenting adults as equal partners, is a fine idea, and especially good in
cases of physical isolation as for very rural people, where I can readily
understand a person going crazy for lack of sufficient adult human contact.

Lisa Morgan


-----Original Message-----
From: uupoly-l-bounces+lisamorgan=lairhaven.com@uupa.org
[mailto:uupoly-l-bounces+lisamorgan=lairhaven.com@uupa.org] On Behalf Of
lykinsg@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 3:47 PM
To: uupoly-l@uupa.org
Subject: [UUPoly-L] Re: LDS

Just an FYI:  A couple of years ago, I gave a lunch talk on UUPA at the
District Assembly for the Mountain Desert District (includes Utah), and
among those attending was a UU raised happily (!) in a polygynous household.
She was very closeted, and felt marginalized and misunderstood.  Another was
a minister from Utah, whose congregation includes former LDS with various
opinions and experience of the practice.  I also read a history of early
women in the West which described how the shared strength of the
sister-wives helped them survive the loneliness of the frontier, which drove
many other pioneer women mad.
 
Without endorsing LDS practice, I think it's worth wrestling with the
complexity of issues of sexism and control in all patriarchal societies.
 
Love and reason,  Bonfire
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