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Homosexual marriage and polygamy

By Scott Tibbs, March 4, 2014

A letter to the editor was published on March 3 responding to my guest editorial, asking this question:

How do people like Scott, including legislators, come off as thinking they have the right to deny others, some of whom fought and died for this country, their human-given right to marry? Why can’t the concept of marriage evolve beyond one penis and one vagina?

If that is the argument for homosexual marriage, then why should that not apply to polygamy? After all, there are polygamists who have served their country in the military, and even fought in war. Why can marriage not evolve beyond one man and one woman to include a larger group of people?

One can certainly find more historical support for polygamy than one can find for same-sex marriage. Even many of God's people in the Bible practiced polygamy - including King David, a man after God's own heart. If one wants to argue from Scripture, it makes more sense that polygamy be recognized than homosexual marriage. After all, polygamy does not fundamentally alter the nature of marriage the way homosexual marriage does.

Allow me to be clear: I am not advocating that government recognize polygamy. Marriage as the union of one man and one woman is a creation ordinance, as seen in Genesis 2:24, Mark 10:6-9 and Ephesians 5:25-31.

I am making the point that there is no logical basis on which to disallow polygamy if we are going to allow homosexual marriage. If the argument is that we have no right to discriminate against people based on who they choose to love, then there is no reason that should be limited to monogamous unions.