Then he proceeded to tell me that polygamy is really legal, its just that you can't have sex outside of marriage, that will land you in jail.

I can leave the church in January and its coming way too slow.

Sad thing is, my first reaction was to believe him....ugh why do I have this deference to authority.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2013 12:18PM by Bartok.

Sex outside of marriage is illegal in some states. It's called unlawful cohabitation, but nobody ever gets arrested for it. There are only a few countries that allow polygamy.

Used to be illegal. I believe if you read the Supreme Court ruling on the Texas anti-sodomy law, the language is such that makes any sexual act between consenting adults legal. I remember there was a lot of fear mongering that the ruling was too broad and would lead to a legalization of prostitution, but that hasn't happened so far.

You're right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_v._Texas

Lawrence vs. Texas decision made most if not all state law void regarding sex between consenting adults.

Prostitution is legal in some parts of Nevada.

It takes a long time to change your thought process. It's instilled in us from a very young age to listen and believe any Priesthood member.

Good for you for standing your ground. Keep it up. You'll be ok.

For a long time after I left I challenged everything and anything that came from an authority figure. It helped me reset my brain.

Yes it is in most states and most counties.

But, so is a barber eatting garlic when he is cutting hair....

It is amazing what was very illegal and frowned upon and understood as unlawful years ago has changed.

In Arizona every store must have a hitching rail and water trough for horses...that law is still on the books...but not enforced...it would be in the way of the parking meters....


Back in the 70s......"married" housing was for marrieds. Not just on BYU campus or Luthern Christian school...it was everywhere in the general populace and had been for years.

If you wanted to rent a place you had to show a marriage certificate.


It was a great scandal in Alaska back in 1964 when it was discovered my 4th grade teacher who was going by the name of Mrs. H. was not married to Mr. H. They were living together in sin. It's probably why she only taught one year. She was a bad example for children! Also I think he and she had run away from the states and their family responsibilities to live together in Alaska where nobody knew them.


Societal attitudes change and laws that were critical can change and be morphed into something else.


So technically yes, sex outside of marriage is illegal, but is it enforced? In most cases no.

While there are laws on the books of a few states that criminalize fornication, they are not really enforceable since the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas. Same goes for anti-sodomy laws. It would now be more accurate to say that the anti-fornication laws themselves are illegal.

Is there a legal principle that if a obscure law isn't enforced, that the law simply become null and void? Maybe it isn't a real thing in theory, but it is in practice. I remember, back when I was in the police academy, being shown a number of obscure Florida laws that were on the books, but that they went out of their way to point out would get us a cool footnote in a supreme court ruling, before destroying our careers.

Polygamy has NEVER been legal in the United States.

Shacking up between consenting adults,however, is hardly raising any eyebrows these days.
Some states may still have old laws on the books which forbid cohabitation without benefit of clergy but they are hardly enforceable.

Sex outside of marriage is not socially condoned but is not illegal. You will get arrested if you have sex with someone under 18 years of age, you force sex upon someone, or you do it in public view, or pay for it. Otherwise, screw away.

In California, and by law, consenting adults can have sex any way they have mutually agreed upon and it is legal (and none of the business of the state).

In Utah, years ago, someone tried to get a "test case"
concerning the anti-fornication law. A couple who were living
together agreed to be prosecuted. It was taken to the
prosecutors who refused to do anything about it.

The law might be on the books but it's dead in the water. And
yes, Lawrence v Texas. The U.S. Supreme Court decided:

"The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private
lives. The State cannot demean their existence or control their
destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime."

Take that to your Bishop.

Great old joke. Grandson to grandfather. "Grandpa, is sex dirty?"

"It is if you're doing it right."

Bigamy was illegalized nationally in 1862 during Abraham Lincoln's administration by the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act, which was aimed at Mormonism. Since then every state in the Union has outlawed polygamy.

Your bishop is correct that about 10 states have laws against cohabitation, but those are unenforceable because the US Supreme Court decided in the late 1960s that there was a right to privacy in the "penumbra" of the US Constitution that prevented the state from getting involved in sexual relations between two consenting adults (other than preventing polygamous relationships and a few other categories of relationships that harm children or include extreme abuse).

If you live in one of the states that prohibits cohabitation, get yourself arrested for it, and appeal to the US Supreme Court, that state will be humiliated--which is why they'll never arrest you in the first place.

But your bishop is clueless. Polygamy is against the law in every state in the union, including in Utah, where it is a felony. And cohabitation is legal under both national and Utah state law. It never ceases to amaze me how LDS church leaders can make up some of their opinions about society without any research or thought at all.

You should mention that it was also "legal" to kill Mormons in Missouri until relatively recently.

Nope, that's a mormon myth.

The bishop can tell you whatever he wants to. It doesn't make it true.

Just goes to show that a bishop is just a random guy and doesn't have any particular knowledge or qualification or ability of discernment to be in the position.

Unless you are over 18 and are having sex with someone under 18 - then he has a point...

Before I even knew what it was, I told that masterbation was illegal.
To quote Frank Barone: "holy crap!"