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.”
There are ordained ministers ready and eager to perform same-gender weddings, polyamorous weddings, polygamous weddings, and consanguinamorous weddings. If a state truly wants to support religious freedom, it will support full marriage equality.
Hello. The second time I read this I paid more attention to where it says :"There are ordained ministers ready and eager to perform same-gender weddings, polyamorous weddings, polygamous weddings, and consanguinamorous weddings." If ACI is not illegal in New Jersey and Rhode Island, have many ACI marriages already been performed there I wonder.
ReplyDeleteUntil quite recently slavery was allowed under Christianity Judaism and Islam and though it has been outlawed, it is still widespread throughout the world, especially if you consider that wage slavery is just another form of it, and more and more people fall into the 'the precariat.'
It doesn't only seem to be just a few religious extremists who think they are justified in keeping people in slavery. Someone once informed me of 'the marriage slavery system.' My Muslim friends advise me that one wife can be trouble enough so why have more? And then there is the modern problem of sending all the children to university - the financial costs of education are quite enormous these days. Should only the rich be allowed to marry?
Still, the principle of freedom of religion remains,(many new religions spring up every day and even quite old ones like Mormonism allowed polygamy. Though Christians and Jews may have dominated western society and imposed their values on the rest (who they consider as heathens and pagans) through their control of the legal system, in a democracy they should only impose their value system on themselves, and not use the legal system to impose themselves and their views on others who think differently.The fact that adult consensual incest is not illegal in 40 states and countries including Russia and China France and Israel today, and that consanguineous marriage was prescribed by the state religion (Zoroastrianism) in Sasanian Persia for 400 years (before it was violently overthrown by the Muslim invasion c 650 AD)and Egypt had a long tradition of such marriage suggests that America and other countries that persecute and prohibit such marriages are suffering from paranoid delusions about ACI and its effects. And yet they have legalized homosexual relationships and also gay marriage, things forbidden in most religions since recorded history began.The U.N. council has recently created watchdog for LGBT rights. The West seems to have put a great effort in recent decades into countering the effects of centuries of bigoted, religious-based homophobia but when will it start work on undoing the effects of centuries of bigoted, religious-based incestophobia?
Nice article. But there is a problem keith. There is no such thing as freedom. Dont kid yourself. When you talk about religious freedom supporting full marriage equality that is theoretical. Thats not reality. Have you ever gone to college keith? If you have then im sure you understand that what you are taught is theory about how things work but it isnt until you graduate and get out into the real world that you realize its different then what you were taught. Have you ever been married? When your young you think marriage is one way and some churches even try to teach courses on marriage but its not until you really get married that you realize that its not what you thought it was. People learn that marriage is harder and requires more work. I am a property owner. I completely own my home, but i still have to pay taxes every year on it. If i dont pay my taxes then the government takes my home. So, do i own my home. No. I dont own my home. Im just renting it from the government. In a perfect world we would all be free. But we dont live in a perfect world. Because of that there will always be people who suffer at the hands of others. Its just like this quote... 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.” What that means is that we the government will give you so called rights when it doesnt go against us. The government isnt stupid. They will give rights to the majority to please them. If the majority of people didnt have rights there would be a revolution. Lookup no taxation without representation. Nobody cares about the minority because what can they do? That doesnt mean i agree with this. What it means is thats life. I can argue and whine all i want about not owning my property but it wont do me a bit of good. Somethings we have to accept and somethings we can fight. But if we want this to succeed and get full marriage equality then we have to get the majority of people to understand that there is nothing wrong with it.So we need everyone to learn that humans are unique and diverse. We arent all the same. Once people accept that we are all different then we can move forward with full marriage equality. Its like porn. Twenty years ago, if you were to even mention the word ‘porn’ in a social setting, you would be perceived as weird, perverted, or just plain crazy. Today however, with the widespread accessibility of the internet and the pornification of mass media, porn is no longer taboo. We have to get people to realize that there is nothing wrong with full marriage equality or the fact that we are all unique and different.
ReplyDeleteEdmund Burke Quotes. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
ReplyDeleteWhat that means is that its our responsability to stand up and change the world. We need to stop hiding in the dark like we did something wrong. We need to stand together and say no. We arent go to take this anymore. We wont sit quietly while you deny us our rights. We wont just lay down and let you walk all over us. But make no mistake about it, people have to be open about it. Just like the Browns did. We cant just hide behind anonymous posts. What the Browns did was good. It helps the world see that we are all normal people just like everyone else.
Today we hear about another vain attempt by a western government to increase birth rate. In this case Spain: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/spain-appoints-sex-tsar-encourage-9928801
ReplyDeleteThe single most important measure Governments can take to increase birth rate is to allow men (and women) who adore having and raising awesome children to have multiple spouses. The western cultural and economic "Sexodus" means that their are fewer men than ever that want a family. This creates a growing surplus of women who need children for fulfillment that are not going to be able to find a suitable mate. Marriage and demographics, like almost everything Government touches, is diminished.