Bigamy cases remain relatively rare in the country with only a handful brought each year across the country. Yet, Kevin Michael Taylor, 31, and Sammantha Michelle Bailey, 21, have joined that ignoble roster of with a double bigamy charge. It appears that everything in Double T Trial, North Carolina is . . . well . . . double. Both husband and wife were allegedly married to other people. With the polygamy case unfolding in San Angelo, Texas, it is another example of our struggle with plural marriages.
In Taylor’s case, this was reportedly his fifth marriage (though he may have divorced four) and for Bailey it was her second. That is seven spouses between them — reaching virtual biblical proportions.
Bigamy and polygamy are often used interchangeably. Technically, bigamy is the act of a married person who marries another person. As the root “bi” would indicate, it refers to two spouses where polygamy generally refers to more than two.
I have been a critic of polygamy laws because I believe that consenting adults should be able to choose their lifestyles so long as it does not involve harming children or others. Polygamy is an obnoxious practice to the vast majority of Americans, but it is also a good-faith religious practice to many. Click here.
Yet, my criticism of the controversy in San Angelo, Texas is not due to the illegality issue as much as the question of whether the police had probable cause to raid the compound on the basis of a single call and remove hundreds of children. It is admittedly a close question but it could spin off some very difficult constitutional questions.
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They maybe look just a little bitty bit like brother and sis to me.
This story is ripe for speculation. Maybe he is just a smooth talking con man and she has emotional issues. Either way there is probably a tornado magnet involved.
If you click on the link to the news story the headline reads:
LIVE: POPE ARRIVES IN U.S.
COUPLE CHARGED WITH HAVING TWO SPOUSES.
Coincidence? I think not!
There doesn’t seem to be any logical reason that people would not be sexually attracted to and/or deeply love more than one person (unless you’re new age, in which case the person you should love is yourself, everyone else really doesn’t matter!).
The problem for me arises in the religious/social context of this “choice”. If your religion tells women they are to be subservient to men, that women must obey men or go to hell, then how much consent is involved in plural marriage? (Notice also that plural marriage is not women with multiple husbands but only men with multiple wives.)
Many girls and boys are raised in closed religious communities to believe the above is inherent truth. They are not allowed access to even minimal education, let alone ideas that challenge the idea of women’s subservience to men. There is also the forced confinment of women and girls, along with the forced expulsion of young men who are seen as threats to the older men in charge.
Some belief systems “require” sex with a virgin to cure the man of aids. Many religions demand the virginity of women as a requisite of marriage. Where marriage is one of the best, or only options for survival, how does this translate into consent?
I am certain it never translates into consent for children, but I also think there are many cases where there is no real consent for adult women.
If children and adults are not given information that makes their religion transparant (ie: there are others ways of thinking about the world) and they are physically/psychologically being threatened then how is this choice?
I’m certain that consenting adults can choose non-abusive polyamourous relationships. I don’t think it can be a choice in religious circumstances where no questioning of that religion is allowed.