The acceptance of polygamy and the slippery slope

For decades, conservative Christians have been warning about our nation’s slide down the proverbial slippery slope, only to be rebuffed for crying wolf. “There is no slippery slope!” we have been told repeatedly.

That’s why, for quite a few years now, I have documented just how real (and slippery!) that slope is.

For example, in my February 2020 article titled, “As We Mindlessly Careen Our Way Down the Slippery Slope,” I wrote:

“Is anyone surprised that HGTV recently featured its first ‘throuple,’ in this case, a man and two women? But what else should we expect? This is the inevitable direction of our society’s slippery slide down. The avalanche goes downward, not upward.”

I noted that, “The episode was titled, ‘Three’s Not a Crowd in Colorado Springs.’ And it featured one line in which one of the two women, named Lori, commented, ‘This is a couple’s kitchen, not a throuple’s kitchen.’”

And so, I continued, “Polyamory is now as American as apple pie.

“Of course, for years we were mocked for predicting this very thing.

“For years we were vilified for saying that the redefining of marriage to include homosexual unions would soon lead to more radical redefinitions.

“For years we were criticized for pointing to the presence of polyamorous groups marching in gay pride events. ‘We’re next,’ they confidently proclaimed.

“Now ‘throuples’ are being mainstreamed too. But why not?”

This is one of many examples I could cite from my own writings, let alone from the writings and talks of others. The examples really are legion.

What prompts me to write yet another article on the subject (which, if desired, I could do virtually every week of the year) is something I spotted while annotating a forthcoming book, further confirming my suspicions.

In my 2015 book Outlasting the Gay Revolution, I noted that, “Recent polls have even revealed that, little by little, the stigma associated with polygamy is decreasing in America, primarily due to media influence.”

Specifically, I pointed to a 2014 Gallup report that indicated, “Americans’ views on the morality of many of these issues have undergone significant changes over time. For example, acceptance of gay and lesbian relations has swelled from 38% in 2002 to majority support since 2010. Fifty-three percent of Americans in 2001 and 2002 said sex between an unmarried man and woman was morally acceptable, but this year it is among the most widely accepted issues, at 66%. Similarly, fewer than half of Americans in 2002 considered having a baby outside of wedlock morally acceptable, but in the past two years, acceptance has been at or near 60%.”

As for acceptance of polygamy, the study reported that, “Five percent of Americans viewed polygamy as morally acceptable in 2006, but that is now [meaning in 2014] at 14%.”

So, in just 8 years, acceptance of polygamy almost tripled, most obviously because of TV shows like Big Love and My Five Wives, leading millions of Americans to say, “So, what’s so bad about polygamy?”

What struck me this week was a Gallup report from 2020 indicating that acceptance of polygamy had reached 20% — meaning, one in 5 Americans. Back in 2006, that number was one in 20 Americans. That’s quite a jump!

Commenting on this on the Gallup website, Frank Newport wrote in June 2020, “what fascinates me as much as anything else is the trend on polygamy. When Gallup first included polygamy on the list in 2003, 7% of Americans said it was morally acceptable, and that fell to 5% in 2006. But over the past decade, this percentage has gradually increased – moving into double digits in 2011, reaching 16% in 2015, and this year, at 20%, the highest in our history. In short, there has been a fourfold increase in the American public’s acceptance of polygamy in about a decade and a half.”

As of 2022 and 2023, the number had risen even further, to 23%, meaning almost one in four Americans felt that polygamy was morally acceptable. But there is no slippery slope. Of course!

I could cite many more examples, but at this point: 1. It would be redundant. 2. It would make this article into a small book. 3. You don’t need me to cite polls and statistics; all you need to see is the societal embrace of Drag Queens reading to toddlers. That alone proves the point.

The good news is that, as many of us also predicted, the radical left has overplayed its hand and a moral, cultural pushback is at hand.

The bad news is that it’s a lot harder to climb up a mountain than to slide down it.

On the other hand, with God’s help, all things are possible.

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