Advocating for the right of consenting adults to share and enjoy love, sex, residence, and marriage without limits on the gender, number, or relation of participants. Full marriage equality is a basic human right.
is a popular and traditionally Hindu annual rite or ceremony that is central to a festival of the same name celebrated in South Asia. It is also celebrated in other parts of the world significantly influenced by Hindu culture. On this day, sisters of all ages tie a talisman or amulet called the Rakhi around the wrists of their brothers. They symbolically protect them, receive a gift in return, and traditionally invest the brothers with a share of the responsibility of their potential care.Raksha Bandhan is observed on the last day of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shraavana, which typically falls in August. The expression "Raksha Bandhan" (Sanskrit, literally, "the bond of protection, obligation, or care,") is now principally applied to this ritual. Until the mid-20th century, the expression was more commonly applied to a similar ritual, also held on the same day, with precedence in ancient Hindu texts. In that ritual, a domestic priest ties amulets, charms, or threads on the wrists of his patrons, or changes their sacred thread, and receives gifts of money. This is still the case in some places. By contrast, the sister-brother festival, with origins in folk culture, had names which varied with location. Some were rendered as Saluno, Silono, and Rakri. A ritual associated with Saluno included the sisters placing shoots of barley behind the ears of their brothers.Of special significance to married women, Raksha Bandhan is rooted in the practice of territorial or village exogamy. The bride marries out of her natal village or town, and her parents by custom do not visit her in her married home. In rural north India, where village exogamy is strongly prevalent, large numbers of married Hindu women travel back to their parents' homes every year for the ceremony. Their brothers, who typically live with their parents or nearby, sometimes travel to their sisters' married home to escort them back. Many younger married women arrive a few weeks earlier at their natal homes and stay until the ceremony. The brothers serve as lifelong intermediaries between their sisters' married and parental homes, as well as potential stewards of their security.
Salvatore Cordileone, the archbishop of San Francisco, responded to Pope Francis' historic endorsement of same-sex civil unions by saying such unions should be "as inclusive as possible," and extended to unmarried brothers and sisters who support each other.
Cordileone said civil unions which mutually benefit two people should not be limited to those in a same-sex relationship, and brothers and sisters in partnerships should be allowed the same rights.
Cordileone added that marriage "is unique because it is the only institution that connects children to their mothers and fathers, and therefore is presumed to be a sexual relationship.
A bill that would effectively decriminalize polygamy among consenting adults in Utah was unanimously endorsed by a state Senate committee this week, sending the legislation to the full chamber for a vote, The Salt Lake City Tribune reported.
The Utah Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee pushed the bill through after hearing testimony from those who said current state law labels law-abiding citizens as criminals.Let adults have the relationships to which they mutually agree.
Consent is the watchword of modern sexual ethics. It’s the difference between BDSM and abuse. It’s the difference between polyamory and cheating. It’s the difference between rape and… sex. Anything two (or more) able, informed adults give consent to in private is generally considered okay.
“That’s not natural” really just means “That makes me uncomfortable.” And I hope we can all agree that an individual’s sense of comfort or discomfort makes for a really lousy moral guide.
Someone might say, “But that goes against my religious code!” Fine, then don’t do that, and encourage your religious brethren not to do it either. But that has nothing to do with whether a thing should be legal or acceptable in the culture outside your religion.
We hold very highly the rights of heterosexual people to live, love, and create families as they see fit. In time, I hope that consenting adults of any number and gender are given the same level of respect.We've made some progress. Let’s make it happen!
The idea that something that is otherwise immoral or even illegal in Canada becomes somehow acceptable if someone claims it as a religious tenet is ridiculous.Consenting adults should be free to be together however they mutually agree. I'm sure most Canadians, if polled on that without inflammatory phrasing, would agree.
Something is immoral if it violates human rights.Consenting adults loving each other hardly does that.
This includes forcing or coercing children into life-altering situations, such as early marriage; even worse, into polygamy.Ahhhh... yes, well child abuse a completely different matter than consenting adults being together. Guilt by association is not fair.
Under the First Amendment, government can’t pass laws that are intended to restrict religious liberty. Such laws are not at stake in this discussion. However, state and local laws that accidentally impinge on religious liberty — zoning laws, health and safety laws, etc., criminal statutes, laws against polygamy — have been allowed as long as those laws at least have a rational basis.Bookman points out the history of denying the polygamous freedom to marry.
Under SB 129, however, a mere “rational basis” would no longer be sufficient. Laws that impinge accidentally on religious liberty would be allowed ONLY when those laws advance a “compelling governmental interest.”
Peter Nash Swisher, a national expert in family law and a professor at the University of Richmond Law School, has looked at the issue and is very dubious about whether such a compelling interest can be found. With recent Supreme Court decisions combined with state and federal RFRAs, ” … proponents of polygamous marriage now have, in my opinion, a very strong case for validating polygamous marriages on cultural, religious, and constitutional grounds.
As Swisher notes, the Old Testament is full of instances of polygamy, and the Muslim faith allows a man to have as many as four wives. Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism, “observed that polygamy does not contradict Scripture, and so cannot be prohibited by Christianity.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear arguments from the husband and four wives who star in the television show “Sister Wives,” letting stand a lower court ruling that kept polygamy a crime in Utah.The law needs to go, sooner rather than later. Until it is gone, people need to protect themselves, as ethical nonmonogamists should do anywhere.
The trial of three parents from the polygamous community of Bountiful, B.C. charged with trafficking their 13- and 15-year-old daughters to U.S. for sexual purposes wraps up next week with final arguments."Polygamous community." Are there "monogamous communities?" We weren't aware towns married. Are sister cities allowed to marry?
Daystar University's Chaplain Jeremiah Obura said a lot of what is happening is out of influence from the western culture where they do all sorts of weird things and people copy for the sake of it.Right. Uhm, western culture didn't invent sex between first cousins. It's been going on for all of human history.
He quoted the Bible the book of Leviticus Chapter 18 verse six which states: "No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations, I am the Lord. There is no debate on this issue. Based on the scriptures it is not right and it rules out."1. I was unaware that present-day Kenya is ancient Israel, subject to the laws of ancient Israel. If so, well, there's a whole lot of other laws I'm sure Obura is breaking.
The wrong kind of sisterly bond. Escaping Polygamy's Lorie opens up about the pain of sharing her husband with a blood relative in the Sunday, August 21, episode, as seen in Us Weekly's exclusive sneak peek.The wrong kind of sisterly bond for her. For other women, sharing a partner with their sibling is something to which they aspire.
The A&E unscripted series' preview clip shows Lorie telling the camera that she has 10 children with husband Verl, who she married when she was 17. Verl was already married to Lorie's older sister, and the two of them have 15 kids together. (Verl also has six kids with a third wife, who is his half-sister.)How did that not make the headlines? He's in a consanguineous marriage. Of course it wouldn't be a legal marriage anyway, since he has a legal wife and the law still only allows one, but not only is polyfidelity criminal in Utah, so is having sex with your half-sibling. I'm not defending Verl specifically, but consensual adult relationships shouldn't be criminalized.
They all belong to the polygamist Salt Lake City–based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.Is the problem here really polygamy, or rather something about the FLDS? Consider what the article says next...
"My mom walked out of our life when I was 9, and [my sister] took the role of a mother, and she really felt strongly that I needed to be a part of her family," Lorie explains. "She would tell me that she felt like if I didn't do this, then I would lose my eternal salvation."
A lesbian Michigan couple's lawsuit helped legalize gay marriage nationwide in June. But another lawsuit filed by Detroit Pastor Neil Patrick Carrick in January naming Gov. Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette aimed to loosen state marriage laws even further in the private and religious realm.
Carrick argues private ceremonies solemnizing marriages before God -- even in cases of polygamous marriage -- which are not recognized legally, should not be interfered with by the government.
Currently Michigan law defines marriage as a civil contract. Anyone performing a ceremony to "solemnize" a marriage must require the presentation of a marriage certificate before doing so, or they may be fined up to $100.
Additionally under current law, any clergy or magistrate who knowingly performs a marriage not recognized under state law can be fined up to $500.
Utah state attorneys defending the state's anti-polygamy law argue it should stay on the books because it protects women and children from abuse.Really? Are women and children more protected in Utah than every other state?
The Utah Attorney General is appealing a ruling striking down key provisions of the law in the case of Kody Brown and his four wives, stars of the reality TV show "Sister Wives." The state says in newly filed court documents that monogamous marriage is an important social unit and court rulings dating back to 1878 have upheld laws against polygamy.
"The United States Constitution does not protect the practice of polygamy as a fundamental right," state attorney Parker Douglas wrote.
Brown family attorney Jonathan Turley countered Monday that the state's evidence of widespread abuse in polygamous communities is scant and the Browns show such unions can be healthy.
"As with monogamous families, the state has ample laws to prosecute individuals for abuse or other crimes," Turley said in an email to The Associated Press.Exactly. Domestic violence and child abuse are criminal under other laws. Decriminalizing polyfidelity will actually make it easier to prosecute abuse.
The state is requesting oral argument in the case and Turley is preparing his response. He has said the family is prepared to take the legal fight to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
Utah is appealing a 2013 ruling that struck down key provisions of the state's anti-polygamy law.
U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups decided that a provision of the state law forbidding cohabitation violated the polygamous Brown family's freedom of religion.It also violated other basic rights adults have.
If the ruling stands, Utah's law would be like most other states that prohibit people from having multiple marriage licenses. In most polygamous families, the man is legally married to one woman but only "spiritually married" to the others.
The teaching that polygamy brings exaltation in heaven is a legacy of the early Mormon church, but the mainstream Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints abandoned the practice in 1890 and strictly prohibits it today.
A chief in Central Region of Ghana is said to have committed a incestuous act of sex with a mother and her daughter.That is not incestuous. Not in the literal sense, anyway, as we'll see.
The chief in the Central Region is alleged to have had sex separately with a 55 -year old woman and her 37- year old daughter.Why is this news?
Nana Wiredu III of Asiam is said to have admitted the offence but refused to perform rituals to pacify the gods for what is considered an abomination.It's an offense? According to whom? Which religion are we talking about? And "admitted" probably isn't the right word. He's probably bragging.
As a result, the daughter, Ama Afull claims her business is collapsing and she wants the chief to perform the rites in order to save her.Hmm. There are many businesses that have thrived even as their owners have all sorts of sex.
Her mother, identified as Auntie Akua wants the matter swept under the carpet in order to save the family from disgrace.It seems a little late for that.
Has it worked yet?Ama Afful says her mother has even threatened to disown her if she goes public with the matter.But speaking with Nhyira FM’s Naa Amerley, she claims she is being haunted by the situation is thus, left with no option but to go public to force the chief to do what is right.
![Non-Monogamy Diagram [I:FV]](http://www.obsidianfields.com/lj/nonmonogamy2.5.1.gif){kind=link}