{"id":234,"date":"2006-03-29T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-03-29T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2006\/03\/practical-polygamy-on-boston-l.html"},"modified":"2006-03-29T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-03-29T12:00:00","slug":"practical-polygamy-on-boston-l","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/03\/practical-polygamy-on-boston-l.html","title":{"rendered":"Practical Polygamy on “Boston Legal”"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

ABC\u2019s “Boston Legal<\/a>” regularly raises ethical and moral questions, and this week\u2019s topic was polygamy. Two sharp and attractive clients babysit each other\u2019s kids and share groceries, lawn equipment… and Ray Anderson. \u201cWe\u2019ve done nothing wrong, there is no victim here,\u201d said Mrs. Anderson #1. \u201cIn this chaotic world we live in, where there is no stability, we have found a way to raise a family in a cooperative and loving way,\u201d said Mrs. Anderson #2.<\/p>\n

Denise, the Boston Legal attorney whose own escapades have included affairs with a dying man and a pretend policeman, reminds them of this current fact: \u201cGuys, the law on polygamy has been settled for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs. Anderson #2: \u201cSo, it\u2019s time for a change.\u201d
Mrs. Anderson #1: \u201cWe are very commited to this.\u201d
Mr. Anderson (with a smile): \u201cI know I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

As their case moves to the witness stand, the two Mrs. Andersons explain how their mutual efforts help to raise great kids, work in successful careers, sustain a happy household, and keep \u201ctheir\u201d man happy. They win over the judge, who is obviously jealous of their peace and happiness, as well as their attorney, who argues the logic of changing polygamy laws that were written during a “different economic construct”–when women didn\u2019t work or vote.<\/p>\n

Denise then argues (overstates?) that with current divorce rates at 43% and with 60% of men and 40% of women having extra-marital affiars, many people are practicing sexual polygamy, just not institutionalizing it. The show\u2019s case for a new normative behavior is countered only at its end by a rather simple-minded (and suddenly old-fashion-sounding) attorney, who makes his case not along moral lines, but economic ones, citing tax-deductions and health insurance among the problematic issues were polygamy to be legalized.<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s relevance may seem laughable to some, but it shouldn’t be, considering the advances in the homosexual agenda, which is practiced by a much smaller percentage of people than those practicing heterosexual promiscuity. What made the Boston Legal episode powerful was the comparison: Sexual \u201cpolygamy\u201d is practiced to some degree in our current society, though not accepted socially, legally, or institutionally, which sounds a lot like how homosexuality has been practiced over the recent decades.<\/p>\n

Boston Legal again brought a comedic flare to a current issue, turning a farcical topic into a challenge for the spiritual person who should be sure of his or her convictions and the foundations upon which they\u2019re based.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABC\u2019s “Boston Legal” regularly raises ethical and moral questions, and this week\u2019s topic was polygamy. Two sharp and attractive clients babysit each other\u2019s kids and share groceries, lawn equipment… and Ray Anderson. \u201cWe\u2019ve done nothing wrong, there is no victim here,\u201d said Mrs. Anderson #1. \u201cIn this chaotic world we live in, where there is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":279,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nPractical Polygamy on "Boston Legal"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/03\/practical-polygamy-on-boston-l.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Practical Polygamy on "Boston Legal"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ABC\u2019s “Boston Legal” regularly raises ethical and moral questions, and this week\u2019s topic was polygamy. Two sharp and attractive clients babysit each other\u2019s kids and share groceries, lawn equipment… and Ray Anderson. \u201cWe\u2019ve done nothing wrong, there is no victim here,\u201d said Mrs. Anderson #1. \u201cIn this chaotic world we live in, where there is…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/03\/practical-polygamy-on-boston-l.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-03-29T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"doug howe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Practical Polygamy on \"Boston Legal\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/03\/practical-polygamy-on-boston-l.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Practical Polygamy on \"Boston Legal\"","og_description":"ABC\u2019s “Boston Legal” regularly raises ethical and moral questions, and this week\u2019s topic was polygamy. Two sharp and attractive clients babysit each other\u2019s kids and share groceries, lawn equipment… and Ray Anderson. \u201cWe\u2019ve done nothing wrong, there is no victim here,\u201d said Mrs. Anderson #1. \u201cIn this chaotic world we live in, where there is…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/03\/practical-polygamy-on-boston-l.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2006-03-29T12:00:00+00:00","author":"doug howe","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/03\/practical-polygamy-on-boston-l.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/03\/practical-polygamy-on-boston-l.html","name":"Practical Polygamy on \"Boston Legal\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-03-29T12:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2006-03-29T12:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/7f40ad3b1e245773d95e1b54c1fc2517"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/03\/practical-polygamy-on-boston-l.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/03\/practical-polygamy-on-boston-l.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/03\/practical-polygamy-on-boston-l.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Practical Polygamy on “Boston Legal”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/7f40ad3b1e245773d95e1b54c1fc2517","name":"doug howe","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"doug howe"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/doug-howe"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/279"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}