[jonathan.plumb]

Let's start with a brief (very brief) history of where monogamy comes from. I heard several rumors so I decided to research this topic myself. In a nutshell, monogamy was introduced by the Romans in a misbelief about why Catholic Priests were unable to be married. The Romans, several years after the Catholics instituded their policy for Priests to be unmarried, believed that the reason this was instituted was so that Priests could be "Married to God." At that point in time, it became popular belief that in order to be the most righteous, you could not have a spouse and that sexual relations was might as well be a sin. Somehow in all that mess, a law was instituded that basically said that IF you decide to get married, it can only be to increase the power of Rome, and even then you can only have 1 wife. And so Monogamy was born. However, the REAL reason that Priests were not allowed to be married was because there was a fluke of priests that were trying to give part of the church to their sons as an inheritance, which of course the church forbade, and caused all sorts of problems.... The doctrine of monogamy was carried over when Rome fell into all those parts of the world, and since the original settlers of America were from that part of the world, many of their core laws came with them.

I don't remember EXACTLY off the top of my head, but there's something like 150+ recognized cultures in the world, and only 13 of them (give or take a couple) practice Monogamy. It is actually a very small belief system.

Now we know that almost all of the Biblical prophets and many of our LDS prophets had more than one wife up until the 1900s when the US instituted stricter laws against it, and to conform with the laws (so we wouldn't get driven out of the promised land), we received revelation to stop practicing plural marriage.

However, as far as I've found, plural marriage is STILL a celestial law, although it is temorarily not being practiced (just like drinking wine, the law of consecration, etc .... we're just not "ready" for them at this time).

Now that all my mumbo jumbo is done, let me move on:

Because of US laws, many people who are married who "look on" another woman get a feeling of guilt because often it can lead to illegal practices which obviously we don't support. HOWEVER, is there any actual "sin" or what-not related to desiring to have more than one wife?

Just to clarify, I love my wife more than anything on this planet, and I would never want to substitute her or get rid of her or anything like that. She is a perfect angel in my eyes. However, I still find beauty in ALL women (regardless of race, weight, etc), and maybe I'm just trying to justify my "looking on other women," but I've researched it, and prayed about it, and find no fault. But others try to make me feel guilty, that is why I pose the topic to you guys.

Your thoughts?