As an Anthropology student in my undergraduate years, my professor clearly stated that in the United States, monogamy was the most accepted form of marriage, but polygamy is the most popular form of marriage.  The entire class rejected that idea, including myself, because if you are caught with more than one wife in the United States, you might live to regret it.  It can lead to divorce, alimony, credit problems, and paying child support until the children are 18 years of age.  This is a strong deterrent to polygamy. How can people still be practicing polygamy in the United States? 

In the old times, before Christianity became a global force, polygamy was the order of the day. The wealthier class showed off their wealth through elaborate wedding ceremonies, while the lower class practiced it by conjugation.  This was where the community, including the woman and her family, agreed that any woman you had been with or had a baby for you was your wife.  In both cases, there was not necessarily a marriage certificate.  The community, especially the families of the involved, only had to be aware.  Polygamy was normality for the wealthy class.  It was used to build strategic multiple alliances and maintain resource control.  It was also an efficient way to guaranty a profitable labor force and life insurance through the children.  A high number of women brought high numbers of children.  At a time of primitive health care and high infant mortality rate, it was also a guaranty that some of the children will reach adulthood to cater for their parents.  All the parents had to do was make sure their surviving children were well placed in society through their alliances.   Some lower class people also practiced polygamy for pleasure and as a tactical disguise to pass off as wealthy.  This was usually very counterproductive because the family usually fell apart due to lack of adequate economic and political alliance, but they were some lucky ones. 

So polygamy actually, is when an individual is having more than one close or sexual relationship at any given time or in sequence with or without a marriage certificate.  It is a relationship that is not committed to one person.  It could be a woman with many men, a man with many women, or all forms of homosexual or bisexual relationships that are multiple.  Adultery and multiple fornications are also forms of polygamy, with or without children.  Marriage certification is usually used by the legal systems in the modern societies for taxation and inheritance purposes.  It is revenue for the government and not meant to promote love or happiness in a marriage.    Marriage was a union or association between two or more people, which was recognized by their families and their communities.  So if you are an individual in multiple relationships, whether your lovers know it or not, you are a practicing polygamist.  If you have multiple relationships that are obvious to all, including your lovers, then you and your lovers are official and paramount polygamist.  Polygamy does not need to be legalized; it will always be with us.  Polygamists only get punished in the United States when their lover takes them to court only after signing the marriage certificate.  People still practice polygamy in modern societies to build alliances that secure their jobs or maintain cash flow, increase their social status, guaranty their business success, maintain a customer base, and for the pleasure that comes with it.

Before the power of the church became a force to be reckoned with in Europe, homosexuality and bestiality (sex with animals), where common occurrences that was practiced by people of power and influence.  During the dark ages of Europe, the church came up and took a stand.  It was a time where death by various and unknown diseases was the order of the day.  The churchthrough Saint Augustine, who was an African priest from Algeria and a practicing homosexual, declared that monogamy between one man and his wife should become the legitimate norm of the day.  Talk about “do as I say and not do as I do”.  His argument was that sexual sins with animals, same gender, and multiple partners, were the reasons for the epidemic in Europe and the known world.  The church believed his theory, and enforced monogamy by law on its followers and the nations under its control.  With time, many of the plagues that afflicted the known world was reduced or eliminated.  We are not too sure if it was directly related to the practice of monogamy or some other cultural and herbal practices, but Christendom, out of gratitude, made monogamy a law through preaching and writings. 

As a Christian, I can not strongly oppose those who practice polygamy.  Not only was polygamy recorded as early as Genesis 4 in the Bible, but many great role model in the Bible, such as David, Solomon, Jacob (Israel), and Abraham, were clearly polygamous.  Many Christians would encourage us to focus on the New Testament, but it is not detailed enough to tell us the real life relationships of the characters. The New Testament was more interested in the Christ and the establishment of the church.  Characters like Jesus, John the Baptist, and Apostle Paul were not even married, but they spoke against adultery.  Aside from Paul encouraging workers of the church to have one wife, Jesus never addressed it.  Jesus did encourage the certificate of divorce under the new Roman rule, but never address number of spouses. 

Homosexuality and bestiality never really made any sense to me morally, socially, biblically, economically, or politically.  It was originally a relationship that occurred among the powerful in private and secret organizations, among individuals who had occupation of celibacy, and individual who had distant or seasonal careers away from home that did not have adequate access to the opposite gender.  It was a practice of initiation and belonging to some, and it was a practice of convenience and support to others.  The coming of monogamy law of the church further reduced these practices to private obscurity. With the liberation and empowerment of women, which is a good thing, women are now more demanding in their requirements for a relationship.  Due to this pressure and other modern societal demands, many men, and some women, have decided to reduce the importance of traditional marriage.  Some even decided to eliminate it.  Many in this category with time begin to form conjugal and polygamous relationships with the opposite gender, either one after the other, or about the same time.  Some begin to realize that the company of the same gender is very pleasurable, especially if they tend to complement each other in alleviating the conditions of their social concerns.  So if you have been with more than one person in your life, you have practiced polygamy before, especially if you are married to more than one of them, or one of them is not or will never became your spouse.
 

In regards to legalizing homosexuality or considering it a sickness or a crime, I will let the people of the land, which includes the Christian perspective, to decide that.  If we look at it from a political and legal point of view, which is marriage certificate for taxation and inheritance, I believe we all have rights, but from a humane perspective, I stand with the church and the Bible.  In Genesis 19, when the men of the city went to sodomize the male guests of Lot, Lot agreed to give them his virgin daughters for marriage, prostitution, adultery, fornication and even rape, that to allow the act of homosexuality in his household.  After God destroyed all the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his family were speared because he was righteous.  I do not want another European plague, be it based on sexual immorality or not.  When the body does not do the right things, the body suffers for it.  Also, when a society does not do the right things, its members also suffer from it.  Why don’t we put pleasure and convenience aside, and for the sake of humanism do what is natural and what is right.  Not everything cools or okay is beneficial and necessary.