Attorney: If Pursued, Legalization of Polygamy in Canada Could Seep Into U.S.
by Allie Martin
January 19, 2006
(AgapePress) - - An attorney with a prominent pro-family ministry says results of a government-backed study in Canada shows that nation has lost its moral compass.
Recently a new study for Canada's Federal Justice Department said that nation should eliminate its law banning polygamy. The paper was written by three law professors, and argues that the criminal code banning marriages involving three or more persons serves no purpose and is rarely prosecuted. The chief author also states that polygamy should not be criminalized because Canada does not criminalize adultery.
Brian Fahling is senior trial attorney for the Center for Law & Policy, the legal arm of the American Family Association. Fahling asserts that Canada opened the door for such decisions when it legalized homosexual "marriage."
"When you begin with homosexual marriage as your starting point, in terms of that descent down the slippery slope, ... I don't think that there is anything that is not viable in Canada now in terms of how they want to define marriage," Fahling says.
The attorney says that, in fact, he is of the opinion that homosexual marriage is the "bottom of that slippery slope." That being the case, he says, "there are no fence posts around the abyss."
Fahling also warns of the effects elimination of polygamy laws in Canada could have on its neighbor to the south. "Moral depravity tends to seep into the crevices of culture," he observes. "That seeping is going to happen in this nation [Canada], and it's going to filter down [from there] and from the European nations as Americans want to assert their [so-called] 'autonomy' more and more."
The attorney contends if Canada legalizes polygamy, activists will eventually encourage the U.S. government to do the same. "I don't think we can afford to sit down here [in the United States] and say, 'Oh, that's Canada, not us.'"
The $150,000 polygamy project was funded by Canada's Federal Justice Department and by Status of Women Canada, an agency of the federal government that promotes "gender equality."
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
