A city in Massachusetts legalized polyamory, a domestic partnership that allows three or more individuals. This is the second municipality to do such a thing in America.
Reason wrote that the city of Cambridge approved an ordinance on Monday, amending an existing rule that says a domestic partnership is defined with only one partner.
With the new statute, the city now defines a domestic partnership as an "entity formed by two or more" unrelated individuals. It will have to file a registration declaring that the individuals in the said partnership are "in a relationship of mutual support, caring and commitment" and intend to stay in such relationship, are not engage in another domestic partnership and regard themselves as a family.
The new ordinance also does not require the individuals to be living together, as well as proving their familial relationship.
Polyamory Legal Advocacy Coalition (PLAC) promotes polyamorous partnerships to be legally recognized, as well as other forms of "non-nuclear families."
Diana Adams of Chosen Family Law Center said that the ordinance will protect non-nuclear families from stigma and discrimination.
"The lack of legal protection makes non-nuclear families especially vulnerable to stigma and discrimination in employment, health care, housing, and social life. I have represented hundreds of clients who have been discriminated against because they're polyamorous, whether that meant being unable to visit their life partner in the hospital, losing child custody in court battles, or losing their job. Legal recognition of these families reduces social stigma and provides families with the stability we all deserve," Adams said.
The City Council of Somerville legalized polyamorous partnerships in June last year. But Adams said that Somerville's statute stipulates provisions that are hard to put into practice, whereas the new Cambridge ordinance was drafted by PLAC's legal expert team and thus will "have much greater practical impact."
Polyamory defies the biblical standard, since God created only one woman, Eve, to be Adam's partner. It will also contradict New Testament's description for an ideal specification of a deacon or elder to be "the husband of one wife," stated in 1 Timothy 3.
As a blogger puts it, there is no love in polyamory and is incompatible with the biblical definition of marital love. Love in marriage is pure, committed, faithful and jealous.
"Just as God is jealous for the worship that only He is worthy of (Exodus 20:5), so should spouses be jealous of the love that should only be given to them. Advocates of polyamory warn against the tendency towards jealousy," the blogger added.
Christianity.com also stated that a relationship with multiple partners is not right before God, citing Exodus 20:14. The article added that Israel's practice of having several partners was picked up from its pagan neighbors.
Another sign of God's opposition to this kind of partnership is the Bible's illustrations of individuals ending in chaos due to committing in such, like Solomon. The third king of Israel took a thousand wives that led him into idolatry and caused him to be unfaithful to the Lord.
