Couple of days ago my good friend strongly suggested that I watch the popular HBO series "Big Love." From the time I have had Anisha such suggestions fall onto deaf ears but after listening to part of the story I decided to watch it whenever I would find time (that's never)! Anyways the first few episodes made no mark in my memory or boost my interest. The reason was obvious! Polygamy! A subject I have blogged about before and am blogging about again. No matter how rosy a picture people paint or relate the topic to faith and such I fail to comprehend the idea behind polygamy. For me one man can only be with one man or one woman. Sleeping with more than one at any given point in time is adultery and I for one think its sin! Well thats my school of thought! Now drifting away from my opinion let me mention that this one series does not take any side that is, monogamy or polygamy. Seems like it just shows basic struggle that any marriage goes through. What sets this series apart is how in polygamy sister wives pitch in to watch each others back which is ironic to the fact that half the time sister wives put up a facade on jealousy and animosity they suffer among each other. I am sure majority of the sister wives are either alcoholic or suffer from high blood pressure or diabetes. I mean I cannot contemplate living with so much stress. Guess that is one reason why I am a monogamist!
The drama among the sister wives is fascinating and it encouraged me to do some research on polygamy which led me to read stuff about Mormonism and its two school of thoughts that is mainline and fundamentalism. Mainline LDS seems to have banished polygamy 200 years ago where as the fundamentalists seem to have been following polygamy even to this day of course in secret since the USA is not ready for such wild school of thought. As I continued reading I was surprised by how people blindly beleived and followed Joseph Smith's teachings. I mean if I were a man would plurality of wives appeal to me? Would the idea of becoming God and promise of eternal life instigate me to become a fundamentalist? As a man maybe yes? But as a woman NO! Never!
Then why do women in such large number enter polygamy? Answer is plain and simple. When one is born to a given religion and brought up with certain values and made to believe that it is the norm, there is a guarantee that there will be no deviation since any indifference will lead to eternal damnation and that can be heavy on soul of innocent women who have known nothing outside their one religion. I mean people in Warren Jeffs community had no idea that Europe existed or that US had a president called George Bush.
My intention is not to pick on the Book of Mormon because I am sure like every religion, Mormonism must have begun with a noble cause and was eventually tweaked by men for their own selfish reasons. For instance, the Book of Mormon talks about the principles, most of which is hard to follow but when followed assures salvation and a permanent place in the celestial kingdom. Most of the principles are prevalent in many of the holy books except plurality of wives. I wonder where that came from? A bit of reading revealed that Joseph Smith had a revelation that pluarity of wives should be followed in order to attain eternal place in heaven. The angel that told this to Joseph Smith asked him to follow Abraham's and Jesus's path. Yep! According to the angel Jesus had more than one wife and they live with him forever in peace in heaven. Shocking is not it! Because I thought Jesus was a bachelor and other than the Mary Magdalene fame he was supposed to be clean like a slate.
It so happens that I am wrong per the Book of Mormon. So when I continued watching Big Love something did not feel right when the second wife told her first wife that she married for the principle and not love! Really! so you have sex for principle and not love! Plus she said that it was her job to populate her husband's world with children so that she could release those spirits from their bonding by giving them birth and help them acheive salvation. This is where I rewind the tape again and then again.
So you mean to say that these kids are waiting to be born to achieve salvation and salvation comes through polygamy which binds you with your spouse and kids eternally. That means that husbands and sister wives die of old age and then you have to wait in heaven till your kids die and then they wait till their spouses, kids, or sister wives die. Oh now I get the idea of eternal salvation. If you wait so long obviously you will never get a chance to be reborn! Bingo! There now I get it!
From there I moved on to watch it some more and then some more till I read something that said,"Thou shall forgive yourself and others!" Guess what Big Love is all about revenge. There is no forgiveness in there! Yes, That's right! Bill's vendetta with Roman Grant! Never ending that too I should say.
Then where on earth does the principle kick in or is lived fully? Sometimes I wonder if I am getting this alright or am I all wrong or are these people wrong? Well who am I to say when I realize that Mormons loathe anyone who is not a Mormon. Is not tolerance an integral part of any religion? If a religion refuses to put up with the so called infidels, show patience, virute, forgiveness, then how can just living polygamy help in any way?
Beyond me! So what do? I finally decide to call my quits. Stop watching the series and find something else and better to do and decide to follow my own principle---that is,"Thou shall not watch...you know what!!!"
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