"Can We Pray the Polyamory Away?"

Here's "perhaps the most, unintentionally, amusing anti-poly article ever," say a Facebook commenter. From Charisma News this morning:

Can We Pray the Polyamory Away?

By Jennifer LeClaire

From Showtime's Polyamory: Married & Dating

There's a saying in the gay community that goes something like this: "You can't pray the gay away." Although I don't believe that — I know of many who were delivered from same-sex attractions through the power of prayer — the media push for gays on TV has paved the way for a new wave of immorality: polyamory.

...Last week, NBC rolled out a report... that gets up close and a little too personal with a polyamorous "family" about what it's like to "live with multiple partners without sacrificing the comforts of home."...

...One member of the "family" tried to get cutesy with its definition of what polyamory means, describing it as "more laundry." Can you see how the prince of the power of the air is using media to push a new level of debauchery to generations young and old?

...Yes, polyamory is the new darling of an immoral media. I mentioned The Atlantic article earlier this year that profiled Diana Adams, who runs a Brooklyn-based legal firm that fights to offer traditional marriage rights to untraditional lovers — and is in a polyamorous relationship. Valentine's Day saw article after article on polyamory and sites like Live Science are working to debunk the myths around polyamory.

But it grows worse. I just learned there's even an app for that!...

As I've said before, slowly and steadily, the push for polyamory is rising in the media, in many ways taking a page from the gay agenda's playbook....

Can we pray the polyamory away? If we sit by and complain or stick our heads in the sand, arguing that Christians should not be discussing these issues, then we're admitting defeat and displeasing Christ. But if you believe that God can deliver some from the grip of immorality — whether that's adultery, fornication, masturbation, pornography, homosexuality, polygamy, bestiality, polyamory or some other sexual sin — then drop to your knees and join with me in intercessory prayer. It's not only about setting the captives free — it's about protecting the next generation of young minds the media is molding.

Jennifer LeClaire is news editor at Charisma....

The whole article (June 19, 2014).

Meanwhile, a straightforward news article went up yesterday at the website of the National Review, America's leading conservative magazine since the time of William F. Buckley. Following the kerfuffle on the right over the NBC report, an intern at National Review Online did some straight reporting, even including — gasp — talking to real sources involved, such as Diana Adams and Leon Feingold. How old-fashioned.

Polyamorists Come Out of the Closet

Amid increasing tolerance for non-traditional relationship, non-monogamy loses its stigma.

By Celina Durgin

Non-monogamists have remained largely underground to avoid social disapproval, but increasing national acceptance of Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender-Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) relationships have encouraged some polyamory supporters to go public about their growing communities.

Leon Feingold, co-president of Open Love NY and a licensed real estate broker with Masonic Realty... told National Review Online that there is “absolutely” a growing trend of openness in the polyamorous community and of accepting attitudes toward it. He added, “A lot of people have misconceptions about what polyamory is.”

“Polyamory” does not refer either to polygamy or to a “swinging” lifestyle but to “responsible non-monogamy,” Feingold explained. Open Love NY is a New York-based organization for the polyamorous community. It plans various educational and social events for its members and encourages “a public climate in which all forms of consensual adult relationship choices are respected and honored.”

A frequently cited estimate of the number of U.S. polyamorous households is 500,000, which first appeared in a 2009 Newsweek article but has since been removed (the article was last updated in July 2011).

Diana Adams, the other co-president of Open Love NY and a founding partner of a New York City law firm serving LGBTQ and non-traditional clients, has worked with polyamorous households. Sometimes she helps draw up agreements between married poly clients to prevent marital problems from arising because of their sexuality.

The policy concerns for poly community generally regard securing domestic partnerships among the members of a polyamorous relationship. Some of Adams’s poly clients want to opt out of the adultery ground for divorce and do so in out-of-court contracts.

“At this point, polyamorous people are not seeking to redefine marriage as a whole for all Americans,” Adams told NRO. “They are seeking to find stability within existing legal institutions, with creative use of the law as it is now.”

The most common cases involving polyamorous lifestyles are child custody cases, Adams said. A parent’s sexuality can be used against him or her in court, particularly if the other parent argues that it is evidence of poor parenting....

“In almost all cases, I see parents who are exploring their own romantic and sexual possibilities on their own time, and that’s not affecting their children at all,” Adams said. “The same-sex marriage movement has initiated a lot of that conversation. Is it possible to have committed love and partnership without traditional marriage? The conversation is expanding our sense of possibilities.”...

Feingold also acknowledges parallels between the LGBTQ movement and the polyamorous movement. Many consider polyamory an orientation rather than a choice. He called the broad acceptance of polyamory the “next big frontier for public perception to cross.”...

The whole article (June 18, 2014).

A thoughtful pastor responds, with irritation: A Concerned Christian Response to Jennifer LeClaire’s “Can We Pray the Polyamory Away?” (June 20, 2014). We're still sinners, however.

[Permalink]