Observing the landscape of America's contentious debate over marriage, scholar Stanley Kurtz of the Hudson Institute, remarks, "It has become necessary to offer a case against polygamy."
That such a claim would appear so utterly reasonable in our times is a clear sign that marriage is in big trouble. That trouble is not, for the most part, localized on the issue of polygamy, but the question of polygamy hangs over current controversies concerning same-sex marriage and the legal status of marriage as a social institution.
Stanley Kurtz is one of the nation's most prolific writers on issues related to marriage, the culture, and questions of controversy. What makes Kurtz's work especially important is the fact that he, though a stalwart defender of retaining the traditional definition of marriage, is able to write with a combination of clarity and charity. The argument Kurtz offers is, as time will tell, impossible to refute.
Kurtz's most recent essay, "Polygamy Versus Democracy," appears in the June 5, 2006 edition of The Weekly Standard. In this article, Kurtz begins by pointing to a television series about a polygamous patriarch and his complicated family. Most American readers will jump to the immediate conclusion that Kurtz is referring to the HBO miniseries, Big Love. Nevertheless, Kurtz is actually referring to a program popular in Egypt--a drama that focuses upon a polygamous family. As Kurtz indicates, the popularity of the television series set off a controversy that continues to rage through the Muslim world.
Meanwhile, in America, the debate over polygamy emerged among legal scholars long before HBO treated its viewing audience to Big Love. As Kurtz explains, "Today, the dominant school of thought in American family law favors recognition for the egalitarian practice of [the] multipartner union known as 'polyamory.'" Further, "since the Supreme Court's 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which voided laws criminalizing sodomy, law journals have begun to publish calls for the decriminalization, regulation, and recognition of the 'patriarchal polygamy' practiced today by so-called fundamentalist Mormons (but vigorously condemned by the mainstream church)."
A quick review of Justice Antonin Scalia's dissent in the Lawrence case will remind us that Scalia warned back in 2003 that the Supreme Court had effectively put an end to all "morals legislation." In this view, the legalization of polygamy becomes inevitable.
Progressive legal scholars who are pushing for the recognition and legalization of polygamy have, in the main, few positive feelings about polygamy. Most are committed to ideological feminism, personal autonomy, and the end of patriarchy. So why have these scholars become such ardent proponents of legalized polygamy?
The answer is simple--the legalization of polygamy would effectively end the institution of marriage.
As Kurtz explains: "Of course, liberal law professors aren't defending polygamy out of affection for patriarchy. Their goal is to establish the principle that individuals have the right to create and define their families as they see fit. Ultimately, that would put same-sex marriage, polyamory, nonsexual group partnerships, and even singlehood on a par with traditional marriage, resulting in the effective abolition itself as a legal status."
Thus, these legal theorists are quick to insist that the legalization of polygamy would mean, simultaneously, the acceptance of a wide and potentially unlimited range of romantic relationships.
Helpfully, Kurtz also reviews the story of how polygamy became a crime in the United States. In 1878, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of anti-polygamy laws. The adoption of such laws was made a prerequisite for Utah's entrance into the union. In the Reynolds decision, the Supreme Court not only upheld the constitutionality of laws banning polygamy; the Court effectively established heterosexual monogamy as the family structure on which democracy depends.
