Plural Marriage

The Website I used was http://www.lightplanet.com/mormons/daily/history/plural_marriage/History_EOM.htm

Plural Marriage is more commonly refered to as polygamy. Polygamy is the practice of having multiple spouses at the same time. Polygamy has been a common practice since the beginning of civilization. The emperor of China, for instance, had literally hundreds of concubines. Many sultans in the middle east also had multiple wives. However, most americans associate plural marriage with the Church of the Latter-day Saints. This practice of polygamy was one reason many people discriminated against the Mormons during the middle of the 19th century. The LDS publically announced their plural marriage practice in 1852. They (Utah) were not granted statehood until 1896, and they had to accept polygamy as being illegal. In 1882 many LDS men who were involved in polygamy were sent to jail because they violated the antipolygamy law. They argued that it was their constiutional right to have plural marriage. In fact, the LDS prophet Joseph Smith gave sermons promoting the practice of polygamy. According to the Book of Mormon, "He knew the voice of God—he knew the commandment of the Almighty to him was to go forward—to set the example, and establish Celestial plural marriage. He knew that he had not only his own prejudices and pre-possessions to combat and to overcome, but those of the whole Christian world…; but God…had given the commandment." Basically, he was saying that he knew society rejected this practice, but he believed this was the will of God that a man should have multiple wives. For this reason, plural marriage was openly practiced in Utah during the mid 1800's.
Plural marriage is very relevant to today's society because of the on going gay marriage debate. Polygamy was outlawed because there was a general consensus among U.S. citizens that a marriage should be between one man and one woman. This is an argument for outlawing gay marriage. If gay marriage was legalized then marriage would not be defined as between one man and one woman. Thus, plural marriage would also have to be legalized.