Two Types of Polygamy

The latest issue of Atlantic Monthly contains two letters to the editor commenting on a May article on Owen Allred, deceased leader of a polygamous Mormon sect in Utah.

The first letter is from an apparent Mormon, disavowing Allred.

The second is from a South African pastor who writes,

For many people in the world, polygamy is no laughing matter but an accepted form of marriage. Americans need to learn that the customs of "the others" have been adopted for good reasons, which need to be discovered before a custom is condemned or sneered at.

Traditional polygamy is clearly superior to the "serial polygamy" practiced in the West, in which each successive wife is cast out, often with her children, to fend for herself. The situation of the first wife in a polygamous marriage is a good deal more secure and emotionally satisfying than that, and she is spared the psychological and social trauma of divorce.

Rev. Mtumiki Njira
Derdepark, South Africa

Whether Rev. Njira is truly defending polygamy or not, he certainly has taken a great big stick both to America's view of her own innate moral superiority and to self-righteous American Christians.

He's right. Traditional polygamy is better than the serial polygamy of America. And those churches in America which wink at divorce are no better than unreconstructed Mormonism in their view and practice of marriage.