The American Spectator

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Mr. Tucker posits the question: is polygamy the next homosexuality? I believe the answer is no, that we are already being exposed to the "next homosexuality" in the form of transsexualism or gender reassignment or whatever we are supposed to be calling it these days. I think we will see increasing pressure from this group for all sorts of special "rights" and accommodations, such as the homosexual lobby has long been pressuring for and which they have been receiving in ever increasing areas. In matters ranging from public restroom facilities to marriage laws to forced 'diversity' training at workplaces, transsexualism has already made many inroads, and I believe this pressure will only continue to grow. From what I understand, birth certificates in some places are now permitted to be altered to put the official seal of approval to the lie of a person being born to the opposite gender.

p>This is, I think, only the beginning. Once gender has been completely eliminated from the structure of American life, and everyone has become convinced (brainwashed) that it is only a "social construct" which is fluid and ever-changeable, rather than the reality that people have known it to be since virtually the beginning of human history, perhaps then we can "advance" to the complete acceptance of polygamy as well. On to the brave new world! br> -- Sheryl DeMille /p>

Thank you for publishing the thoughtful essays of William Tucker. I always find his insights pertinent and stimulating. Thursday you deliver "Polygamy and Me." Mr. Tucker confirms again that "plural marriage" constitutes the "next" great assault upon the created order. He recites the many practical and historical problems with polygamous societies. I fully agree with the propositions in probably 95 percent of his text.

One unfortunate sentence at the article's end reveals a deep flaw in Mr. Tucker's assessment of the reasons why polygamy occurs. If we conservatives share that presupposition, then we surely will see monogamous marriage lose the legally favored status it still tenuously holds in our post-Christian culture. Mr. Tucker has accepted a materialistic presupposition variously promulgated by 19th century "free lovers," feminazi theorists, and homosexual advocates: "Monogamy is not a natural configuration. It's a human construct.'

The formulation seems harmless, from the perspective of world views favoring materialism, secularism, utility. As do similar assumptions such as: "my conjecture is that we adopted monogamy in response to adversity. Five million years ago, a very small, polygamous ape, barely three feet tall, moved…" and "basically we became monogamous for greater security.... Monogamy became preferable because it knit the group more tightly together In a word, it was more democratic."

The flaw lies in Mr. Tucker's epistemology. He appears to accept only a single source for production of "truth": human reason. That materialist philosophy is the philosophy of the foes of us "conservatives." The great conservative Sir William Blackstone once observed human reason is "corrupt" and his understanding darkened by "ignorance and error." We really don't know for a fact any of these assumptions Mr. Tucker appears to take as true. We assume the "facts" must exist, because the materialist world view template forces us to that conclusion. But another means of knowing man's origins and purposes exists. That method (again pace Blackstone) is "revelation." To obtain facts that our reason alone cannot confirm we must turn to a Higher Authority.

Here is a view on monogamy and the purpose of human marriage that comes not from the mind of man but from the One Who is in position to know:

1) "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said: 'Be fruitful and increase in number...'" (Genesis 1:27-28 -- God produces only two sexes, and only two "genders," to use the postmodern, incorrect term -- and together they reflect the unity of God.)

2) "The man said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman' for she was taken out of man.' For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be united with his wife, and they will become one flesh." (Genesis 2:23-24 -- God decrees the fundamental unity of a marriage relation.)

3) "Haven't you read...that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh' ? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together let man not separate." (Gospel of Matthew 19:4-6 -- the decree of God the Son as to God's unchanging purpose for human marriage, and His reference to revelatory Authority in God's Word.)

4) "Now the bishop must be above reproach, the husband of one wife... A deacon must be the husband of but one wife..." (I Timothy 3:2, 12 -- God bars polygamists from Church government positions (and also reserves them to men only, but we'll leave that issue for another column))

I completely accept the truth of this view of the Divine origin of marriage and monogamy. That's truth well worth "conserving." And I submit to the Sovereign Lord Who decrees monogamy as our norm.

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