However, when it comes to polygamy, it is true that the Koran permits men to have up to four wives, at least under certain circumstances. It is also true that there is nothing in the New Testament that actually supports polygamy. That makes it more likely that Muslim societies will accept polygamy than that Christian societies will do so.
I don't think I was speaking to this when I posted--at all, actually. My impulse was to give a more well rounded view of some ways progressive Muslims are dealing with the matter, because let's face it, most of us recoil instantly from things like that (and the issue of how violence is being protested against has, I think, been talked about). Or not to speak for anyone, but reading that gives me the heebs reflexively.
Given that, it's good to know that stuff like polygamy is not swallowed by everyone unquestioningly, that it has been pointed out as problematic and at the same time, that there was some historical basis for its origins way back (kind of like a lot of what was said in some of the Old Testament books about living practices). That polygamy didn't come about because having many wives just
rocked.
And it's good to know this precisely because of that (or to be specific, my) gut reaction of ugh. It's kind of hard not to get bogged down by the negative.
alcyone
