"Public should not exercise authority over any marriage", says Nathan Warner in a recent article. Is it that simple? Should marriage really be a private matter, on which the State has no control? A few years ago, the Economist published an article dealing with polygamy practiced by Mormon fundamentalists. Often compared to the struggle for gay marriage, as it fights for the legalization of a different kind of union, the Mormon culture seems to be hard to accept in the US. How can one explain this delicate debate? To answer this problem, it seems relevant to present the moral issue being debated in the article, and then to articulate both Universalist and Multi-culturalist points of view regarding the practice being discussed, and eventually to explain which position seems to have gained the upper hand in practice.
[...] Mormon fundamentalists wish to see polygamy legalized will not be fulfilled soon, and one can then say that the dominant religion and political conception of the marriage have gained the upper hand on a more "minority-tolerant" one. Conclusion In a nuthsell, one can state that this moral struggle is representative of the broader dichotomy between universalist theories, which in a word believe that some moral values are fairer than others, and that the State must intervening to translate them into explicit laws, and the multicultural view, which implies that all social and cultural choices are equal and acceptable, and that the State should not determine which norms or value is best. Political and religious [...]
[...] Analysis of a moral struggle "Public should not exercise authority over any marriage", says Nathan Warner in a recent article. Is it that simple? Should marriage really be a private matter, on which the State has no regard? A few years ago, the Economist published an article[1] dealing with polygamy, claimed by Mormon fundamentalists. Often compared to the struggle for gay marriage, as it fights for the legalization of a different kind of union, the Mormon revendications seem to be hard to accept in the US. [...]
[...] Furthermore, not only can one say that no moral value is better than any other, but also that the government has no right of inspection on people's private life, as they cannot determine a universal norm (in this case, regarding adult unions). Yet, as open-minded and modern this conception is, one can refer to the difficult application of this theory, as politics cannot be separated from social practices. III Which position seems to have gained the upper hand ? There is thus an inherent tension between the wish of respecting cultural pluralism and the expression of a moral preference. [...]
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