It is indisputable that there have been many arguments against and for polygamy over the years. Even Biblically it is questioned but never officially abolished. In the following, the pros and cons of polygamy will be discussed.
The arguments against polygamy are varied. Firstly, legalized polygamy could lead to the structures of family and society being radically realigned. In a society where men marry multiple women at a time and have children with each one, it is argued that this new set up would favor men, creating an overwhelming dominance within a family. The man, while there may be only one in the marriage, can father multiple children and the women within this marriage can only mother one child (usually) at a time. Polygamy is not favorable for women. It is not acceptable in a woman’s nature to find the man she’s been impregnated by fooling around with other women. A woman feels better in a relationship where she receives the full attention of the man she’s with; it brings security and devotion to the relationship. “A happy wife is a happy life.”
A polygamist family is also considered an unhealthy environment for children. It is understood that sometimes it takes a village to raise a child and that village could be anyone included in the child’s family, but that does not suggest that it is correct to bring a child up in an uncommitted relationship. Being brought up in a polygamist household could damage a child’s stability later in life, cause insecurities in the females, and dominance problems in the males. There have also been reports about polygamist compounds that took polygamy step farther and began forcing children into marriages and sexually abusing them. There were 400 children removed from this compound in Texas.
There are arguments made against polygamy in regards to the Bible also. The idea of monogamy was established at the very onset of creation, when God made it clear that he made Adam and Eve, not “Adam, Eve, Cindy, and Bonnie.” Abraham only took another wife because his wife Sarah was barren and she pushed him to do so. Jacob meant to be so but was tricked into marrying both of his father-in-law’s daughters. King Solomon and King David had many wives, and they brought idolatry among other things into the Jewish nation, but they also helped to grow the number of God’s people in the land of Israel.
The arguments for polygamy are few. Firstly, a man with many wives can afford to pay for a large household and many children when all adults are working. Everyone is proved for financially with food, water, and shelter. Polygamy can be a great example of provision.
Recently, Malaysia’s conservative Islam party has called for Muslim men in the country to marry single mothers instead of “young virgin girls”. It is suggested that they not only marry single mothers but also retired prostitutes and widows, and through that these types of people in a country may be cared for still. The practice of polygamy will also discourage adultery and prostitution within a marriage, because the man will be more satisfied by having more women.
Biblically, polygamy was never abolished. It was abolished after Biblical times by Rabbeinu Gershom who took the monogamous standard and made it law, enacting an edict binding on all European Jewry outlawing polygamy forever.