Polyamory in the News
. . . by Alan M.



August 10, 2009

A Revelation for Christians

The Christian Post, and elsewhere

The July 29th Newsweek online article about the growth of poly continues to spawn good things. Into this category I put a critical piece that appeared this morning in, among other places, The Christian Post, a large online magazine spanning many conservative denominations. The article is by R. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

Of course he's totally opposed. However, he describes polyamory and the people doing it accurately and level-headedly and quotes the Newsweek description at length. As I've said before, this kind of coverage informs millions of people whom we're unlikely to reach that a happy, workable poly life is actually possible. And that normal people are doing it not only successfully, but ethically by secular standards. Such a possibility never used to be even imagined.

Mohler's readers will remember this article if multiple love ever enters their own lives.


Polyamory: The Perfectly Plural Postmodern Condition

By R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

Once a sexual revolution is set loose, it inevitably runs its course through the culture. While the current flashpoints of cultural conflict are focused on same-sex marriage and gender issues, others are biding their time. As Newsweek magazine makes clear, some new flashpoints are getting restless.

Polyamory, reports Newsweek, is having a "coming-out-party." Polyamory is the current "term of art" applied to "families" or "clusters" comprised of multiple sexual partners.... Advocates of polyamory... define their movement in terms of the moral principle of "ethical nonmonogamy," defined as "engaging in loving, intimate relationships with more than one person — based upon the knowledge and consent of everyone involved."

...The article in Newsweek, written by Jessica Bennett, presents polyamory as a growing movement that now involves persons in the cultural mainstream. As the magazine reports: "Researchers are just beginning to study the phenomenon, but the few who do estimate that openly polyamorous families in the United States number more than half a million, with thriving contingents in nearly every major city."...

...Bennett quotes Allena Gabosch, director of an organization known as the "Center for Sex Positive Culture," suggesting that polyamory sounds scary to people because "it shakes up their worldview." But, she insists, polyamory might well be "more natural than we think."

...The ultimate sign of our moral confusion becomes evident when virtually no one appears ready to condemn polyamory as immoral. The only arguments mustered against this new movement focus on matters of practicality. Polyamory is certainly not new, but this new movement is yet another reminder that virtually all the fences are now down when it comes to sex and sexual relationships. What comes next?


Read the whole article (Aug. 10, 2009).

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6 Comments:

Blogger iPuce said...

I agree, this article is "against" polyamory. But honestly, the critique of this way of life is much thinner! The author spends more time summarizing other articles that criticize (and so much better since it gives a "neutral" explanation of the polyamorous model). If all articles condemning our lifestyle could be so, I would be very happy...

August 11, 2009 9:31 AM  
Blogger Alan said...

P.S. I must have been 7 or 8 when I found myself pondering a religious question no one had ever explained to me:

If a man loves his wife and the wife dies, and then he falls in love with someone new and remarries to her (as happened with a widower who lived down the street from us), then when they all die and meet up in Heaven, which is the real wife and which gets left out?

The answer, I decided, had to be that they'll all love each other happily ever after together, because this is Heaven.

I was very moved by that.

August 11, 2009 11:39 AM  
Blogger CWS said...

I do appreciate that the author of this didn't disparage poly life. He merely mentioned how it didn't align with his religious views. This conflict of religious theology and Poly Ideology has been a problem for me until I read the article in the most recent "Loving More" online magazine. Check it out.

August 11, 2009 5:13 PM  
Anonymous crisma said...

Polyamory is really a sensitive topic. But we will find in the Bible the best answer to our questions. Only then that we will have wisdom on what God wants us to believe in and on what God designs for us to do. Lest us stay inspired by God's word.
Inspirational Gifts

August 12, 2009 2:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have to say, the author of the article didn't seem all that against polyamory at all. He sounded more like he just knew he'd need to mention somewhere that it was 'unchristian', or not get published.

The impression I got was of impartially explaining a real alternative for people, one that the author thought was worth telling people about. Oh, and a brief 'but don't try this at home' at the end.

August 12, 2009 7:08 PM  
Blogger Alan said...

> the author of the article
> didn't seem all that against
> polyamory at all.... The
> impression I got was of
> impartially explaining a
> real alternative for people....

Give him credit for his beliefs. He was telling people about it because he feels it's a sign of growing moral chaos and a confirmation of the "slippery slope." He just said it in a good Christian manner.

Remember, these are fundamentally good people, even if their belief system often makes them act otherwise.

August 12, 2009 8:08 PM  

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