Polygamy Term Paper

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

        The sanctity of union in marriage has ultimately been the concern of the church since the early times. However, there are certain threats that the Christian church has to address so that what God had commanded not to separate what has been joined will be preserved. With this, chapter one will dwell on the issue of polygamy as one of the threats that endanger this sacred union.

1. Polygamy in the General Perspective

        Polygamy simply means many marriages. In the context of the Roman Catholic Church, polygamy is prohibited and is considered to be a grave sin. Such commission of the act appears in three (3) different forms. One is polygyny which means that a man has more than two wives at the same time. Second is polyandry of which a woman has more than one husband. Third is plural marriages which underlie that a family is made out of multiple husbands and wives at the same time. Thus, the notion that only a man commits polygamy is solely wrong, for the term is also applicable to a woman who commits such act.

        It is, then, that polygamy is a grave threat to modern day families who has been joined together in the sacred union of marriage. There are many theories or reasons why polygamy is committed by some people. Yet, what stood out among the many reasons is that polygamy is due to the external desire to want more pleasure. The idea of “external desire” is not just a question of contentment but also it boils down to the question of commitment. In this case, what comes out is lust and never love.

        Though Christian faith would tell us that polygamy is a sin, there are those coming from other faiths that allow such act to happen. In the ancient time, polygamy has been accepted and is practiced by many especially those who are wealthy and has a position in the society. In our post-modern context, Islam is one of the religions that permit such kind of act only to be practiced by men. Not to compare, however, what Christians believe, the church points out to all its faithful that “… polygamy is contrary to the ends of marriage, because they disturb the union of love between man and wife and render their necessary cooperation in the education of children difficult or even impossible.”^[1]This idea gives not only the Church’s stand about polygamy but also an implicit admonition of the effects of the act.

1. Statement of the Problem

Confronted with the many beliefs that exist from the past until the present, some Christian faithful cannot help but compare their practices on why is polygamy allowed in other religious groups. In fact, there is that grave reality that some faithful resort to change their faith in order to justify polygamy and never to commit any legal implications of their act. With this, is polygamy morally permissible?

The question being posed is necessary and needs to have an explicit answer based on faith and as to what the church believes with its implications. As indicated in the preceding paragraphs, the ancients allowed polygamy. True to this fact were the events that happened in the Old Testament of which God, allowed polygamy to exist. Furthermore, this needs to be clarified through the unfolding of events that happened from the Old to the New Testament and even until the early to the contemporary time of the Church.