Food for thought - and comparison.
Nov. 21st, 2008 09:39 amI keep thinking about this blog site when the whole 'Mormons passed Prop 8' wag comes through the place.
If you want to know how Mormons perceive anything other than a really standard interpretation of marriage - you might take a look at what they do to their own, who stray from it as well.
We're talking closed communities that practice plural marriage here. And no, I haven't heard of any where there was one wife with multiple husbands...or where a woman married a minor male. So you get the gist, okay?
How do they deal with it? They don't ask for public approval. Matter of fact, they tend to gather, shutter and make a huge community-wide secret of their lives. (It's also a prime breeding ground for sociopathic behavior, abuse of power and tin-god dictatorships. So a lot of it isn't legal - for cause. They also tend to hide everything - for the same reason.)
I suspect they'd like other people to do the same thing. Hey, 'spiritual marriage' is good enough for the likes of polygamists, after all. As long as it harms none, neh?
But the hoops these folks jump through to integrate a closed communal life with the culture at large? It begs the question if it hurts their heads as much as it hurts mine to use it that way.
Also, it's additional proof that making a lifestyle illegal - even unto the point of DEATH as a penalty - does not eliminate it.
These two things are not like the other - except, on some points...they are.
It's the whole know your enemy thing, and stuff.
If you want to know how Mormons perceive anything other than a really standard interpretation of marriage - you might take a look at what they do to their own, who stray from it as well.
We're talking closed communities that practice plural marriage here. And no, I haven't heard of any where there was one wife with multiple husbands...or where a woman married a minor male. So you get the gist, okay?
How do they deal with it? They don't ask for public approval. Matter of fact, they tend to gather, shutter and make a huge community-wide secret of their lives. (It's also a prime breeding ground for sociopathic behavior, abuse of power and tin-god dictatorships. So a lot of it isn't legal - for cause. They also tend to hide everything - for the same reason.)
I suspect they'd like other people to do the same thing. Hey, 'spiritual marriage' is good enough for the likes of polygamists, after all. As long as it harms none, neh?
But the hoops these folks jump through to integrate a closed communal life with the culture at large? It begs the question if it hurts their heads as much as it hurts mine to use it that way.
Also, it's additional proof that making a lifestyle illegal - even unto the point of DEATH as a penalty - does not eliminate it.
These two things are not like the other - except, on some points...they are.
It's the whole know your enemy thing, and stuff.