Polygamy Concept

Ben Carson is a Republican candidate for the 2016 presidential election. While some polls have put him as a front runner, he has made some comments recently that have sparked some outrage and controversy. Carson doesn’t seem to care much about political correctness, which some might find refreshing. However, his comments have been discriminatory at times, and this has made people feel upset and targeted by him.

The first of these comments was about having a Muslim as president and the fact that he would not be comfortable with someone of the Muslim religion being president of the United States. As you might imagine, this made many Muslims angry, and some Muslim leaders even called for him to drop out of the race. He also spoke about gun control following the Oregon school shooting and went as far as to say guns could have prevented the Holocaust. According to his logic, if the Jewish people had guns and were properly able to defend themselves, millions of lives could have been saved. Some have pointed out his logic is flawed, since fully armed militaries from several different countries had a hard time taking down Hitler’s army. Nevertheless, his comments have continued, and now they are focusing on same-sex marriage.

Same-Sex Marriage and Polygamy

Carson has suggested same-sex marriage has a close link to polygamy. While he isn’t comparing the two, he is saying that the legalization of same-sex marriage by the Supreme Court could lead to other marital groups wanting the legal right to get married. He hinted it is only a matter of time before polygamists start suing and trying to get laws made to allow their marriages to be legal.

Fast Facts on Polygamy

It may seem polygamy is a thing of the past or something that isn’t occurring often anymore. While it isn’t nearly as common as it used to be, there are still some pockets of groups in different areas of the country that practice polygamy. Here are a few fast facts about polygamy:

• Polygamy refers to a man having more than one wife. Very rarely does it refer to a woman having multiple husbands.
• Polygamy was common practice during Biblical times.
• Mormons used to practice polygamy until the early 1900s.
• There are still some groups of Mormons that practice polygamy; however, they are generally rejected by the Mormon Church.

Carson’s Interview

During the interview, Carson said he had “nothing against gay people whatsoever” even though he opposes same-sex marriage. He pointed out concerns about us not listening to God and what God wants for a family. Carson feels it is God’s will for a married couple to contain one man and one woman. When the Supreme Court allowed same-sex marriage, it was a disregard for God’s natural way, according to Carson. Because of this, he feels it is only a matter of time before people want to be married to more than one person at a time. He is worried this will have disastrous consequences.

Likely to Happen?

Even though Carson is concerned about this possibility, it doesn’t seem too likely it will happen. For one thing, there is a very small percentage of polygamists in the country. They may be content overall with their lives and may not want to want to make an effort to change anything. Gay people make up roughly 4% of the population of the United States, which meant about 4 out of 100 people did not have the ability to marry the person they wanted. This was why things changed. While it’s not impossible that polygamy will be legal at some point, it doesn’t seem likely it will happen anytime in the future.