Ge 4:19 And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
Ge 16:2 and Sarai said to Abram, "Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my maid; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
Ge 16:3 So, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.
Ge 16:5 And Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my maid to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!"
Ge 28:9 Esau went to Ishmael and took to wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth.
Ge 30:3 Then [Rachel] said, "Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees, and even I may have children through her."
Ge 30:4 So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife; and Jacob went in to her.
Ge 30:9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
Ge 30:10 Then Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son.
De 21:15 If a man have two wives, one beloved and another hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated.....
Jud 8:30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives.
1Sa 1:2 And [Elkanah] had two wives: the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
2Sa 2:2 So David went up thither, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, Nabal's wife the Carmelite.
2Sa 5:13 And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron; and more sons and daughters were born to David. [Notice that David's primary wife was the widow of Uriah the Hittite, involved with the geneology of Jesus Christ!]
1Ki 11:3 [Solomon] had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. [Notice that there was only one primary wife of Solomon, involved with the geneology of Jesus Christ!]
1Ch 4:5 And Ashhur the father of Tekoa had two wives, Helah and Naarah.
1Ch 8:8 And Shaharaim had sons in the country of Moab after he had sent away Hushim and Baara his wives.
2Ch 11:21 Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and concubines (he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and had twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters)
2Ch 13:21 But Abijah grew mighty. And he took fourteen wives, and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
2Ch 24:3 And Jehoiada took for him two wives, and he begot sons and daughters.
Ec 2:8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines - man's delight.
Da 5:2 Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.

1Ti 3:2 Now a bishop must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, dignified, hospitable, an apt teacher,
1Ti 3:12 Let deacons be the husband of one wife, and let them manage their children and their households well;
Tit 1:6 [Appoint elders who are] blameless, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of being profligate or insubordinate.
[Notice that the above three verses restrict ONLY a bishop, deacon, and an elder to monogamy!]

At the time of this writing, there was recently a much-publicized newsflap about a religious camp of Mormon Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints in Texas associated with the word "Zion" (before McCain has announced his possible choice of Mormon Mitt Romney as his VP running mate for the November 2008 General National Election!).

The controversy-loving network media relentlessly identified the LDS [victims] of non-warranted law-enforcement invasion and intrusion as a "polygamous sect" (as if polygamy was illegal criminal activity) in which polygamous-parents offspring were involved. Typically characteristic of media-and-other satanic accusers were alleged instances here and there of forced sexual relations, abuse, incest, and rape.....all mixed in indiscriminately with polygamy as if it were instead bigamy on the part of some.

Pertaining to present-day legality and civil law, there is yet a differentiation between State-registered or non-State-certified, with or without paid or non-paid PROSTITUTION and [soliciting for prostitution] (described as fornicative or adulterous sexual connections with: exchange-massage masseuses, call-girl escorts, streetwalking hookers, etc.).....in stark contrast to Marriage-License-registered or instead non-Marriage-License-certified MARRIAGE!

Government agents and officers nowadays do not typically cite and arrest sexually-active-with-each-other heterosexual couples for "shacking up," "living together," or "cohabitating." Private, non-public, mutually-consentual, sexual relations with or without marriage are generally beyond the compelling interest and therefore practical jurisdiction of local cops, undercover police detectives, sheriffs, and vice-squad decoys.

Indeed, if a man's primary wife is willing to continue to be State-certified as married to a man without divorcing him, which man obtains and has sexual relations with an acquired common-law concubine (i.e. secondary-wife equivalent), the State has no grounds for charging the man with a crime of "bigamy" because:

The additional permanent-sex-partner concubine is not a non-[common-law]-married prostitute, harlot, fornicator, nor adulteress in relation to the man - and thus no arrests can be made according to any government statute (whether federal, state, county, nor local) on the grounds of [immoral] fornication, adultery, indecent conduct, lewd conduct, disorderly conduct, public nuisance, NOR bigamy!

The additional permanent-sex-partner common-law concubine is common-law married to the man and thus his own personal secondary common-law WIFE considered a concubine. WIVES - whether State-certified as married with State Marriage Licenses.....OR NOT with State Marriage Licenses - are obviously not fornicating nor adulterous prostituties, masseuse harlots, call-girl-escort whores, etc. because they have a declared-to-government government-documented.......or instead NOT-declared-to-government NON-government document.......[heterosexual] marriage with the man in question!

Not that there cannot be facetious and false accusations of demonic slander - ultimately resulting in the false accusers having their baseless cases thrown out of court and deemed frivolous lawsuits by a righteous judge - with the false accusers themselves being successfully sued for substantial monetary settlements!

We all know the seductive effect a partially-unclothed or non-clothed young woman has on a sexually-sensitive man from David's reaction to bathing Bathsheba:

2Sa 11:2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.

And occurrences of erotically coming together before mutually signing non-State-registered common-law-marriage declarations:

Ex 22:16 "If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall give the marriage present for her, and make her his wife.
De 22:28 "If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found,
De 22:29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her; he may not put her away all his days.

For example, contemplate the following false charges of sexual harassment, fornication, illegal-polygamy bigamy (compared to legal polygamy), abuse, and assault:

1. Married Dick asks non-married Jane to go out to a movie with him, tells her he will pay her movie ticket and a soda at DQ afterwards......and is arrested for sexual harassment and soliciting for prostitution.
2. Widower John changes his infant daughter's diapers.....and is arrested for engaging in child-porn sexual abuse.
3. A midwife delivers a baby girl.....and is cited for engaging in California-Supreme-Court-same-gender-marriage-allowed homosexual lesbianism.
4. A married male piano teacher does a duet seated on the same piano bench with his at-pubescence/sexually-awakening female student......and is charged with child molestation and rape.
5. A married businessman pays for his non-married female secretary's lunch.....and is arrested for bigamy.

Wild illustrations? Bizarre and non-realistic examples and evaluations? Let's make up more intimate example:

A very-young, partially-dressed-immodestly female neighbor asks an elderly, erotically-hungry, already-married male into her apartment and he complies, after which they read the Bible together to make sure they are both "on the same page" spiritually, after which she temporarily goes away and quickly comes back modestly attired, upon which he asks her to fill out a Concubine-Agreement Declaration Form, which she does, after which he signs a Husband-of-Concubine Declaration Form, which he does.....then they soon completely denude each other, do copulative coitus, and she consequentially gets pregnant. No Notary Public saw nor signed either of their private-marriage contract forms, and there was no wedlock (meaning no wedding ceremony and no outside-witness locking). Was such a self-camcordable-for-private-family-album event wicked and unlawful sexual harassment, involuntary assault, forced fornication, lustful immorality, illegal prostitution, cruel and inhuman abuse.....or instead godly and Biblically-justifiable true-love marriage?

Are cases of artificial insemination or surrogate mothering rightfully considered "fornication, immorality, prostitution, harlotry, or adultery?"

"Yesterday, Jesus was arrested and whisked away in chains to be whipped bloody at the jealous-jews roman police station for loitering [while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane]; presumably mailing [to funeral survivors] peace-disturbing, harassing, non-lethal hate-mail letters objecting to interracial dating; trespassing on jewish/roman park property without an assembly permit; indecent and disorderly conduct for allowing Himself to be momentarily cheek-kissed by admiring-thief Judas; and assult with a deadly weapon for not stopping the non-expected sudden and angry reaction of passerby Peter lopping off the ear of a security guard's slave.

Chalk it all up as another Waco-type travesty against humane rationality and justice, physically and psychologically injuring now-parentless children needlessly bereft of parents who simply obeyed and conformed to the obviously-God-allowed precedent of Scipturally-kosher harem polygamy founded upon previously-mentioned, rock-solid, Biblical-history grounds.

Is is any wonder certain subversively-and-significantly anti-marriage high-gasoline-prices-besieged americans are in bondage to Saudi and other fundamentalist islamic-muslim OPEC-oil-provider sheiks and their modestly-dressed-in-summertime-when-in-public-view harems?

UPDATE:

Texas overstepped its authority when it removed some of about 460 children from a polygamist compound last month, a state appeals court ruled on Thursday.

The ruling is the latest twist in an unfolding saga that has riveted Texas with lurid tales of adolescent brides, teen pregnancies and a secretive religious sect following its faith in a dusty corner of the state.

Texas Child Protective Services and heavily armed police units last month raided the isolated compound in west Texas and removed the children in response to allegations of abuse.

But the appeals court said that the state had not proven that the children were in immediate physical danger, and therefore were improperly separated from their parents.

"The department ... failed to establish that the need for protection of the children was urgent and required immediate removal of the children," the court said.

While the opinion covers the children of only 48 mothers, a lawyer told reporters that the ruling will likely apply to all of the children, most of whom are in foster homes across the state.

Essentially this decision from the Third Court of Appeals said that Child Protective Services had absolutely no evidence that would justify them going in there and removing these children from this household.

The appeals court opinion gives a lower court, which initially approved the state's actions, 10 days to act.

FLDS men typically marry one legal wife while those who follow are "spiritual wives." This makes those women single in the eyes of the state which can entitle them and their children to various welfare benefits.

FLDS communities usually keep to themselves and lead austere lifestyles. The girls and women wear 19th century-style pioneer dresses and are taught from an early age to obey men.

A Texas appeals court said Thursday that Child Protection Agency invaders with law-enforcement intruders had no right to seize more than 440 children in a raid on the splinter group's compound last month.

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the state failed to show the youngsters were in any immediate danger, the only grounds in Texas law for taking children from their parents without court action.

It was not clear when the children now scattered in foster homes across the state might be returned to their parents. The ruling gave a lower-court judge 10 days to release the youngsters from custody.

The decision in one of the biggest child-custody cases in U.S. history was a humiliating defeat for the state "Child Protective Services" agency. It was hailed as vindication by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who claimed they were being persecuted for their religious beliefs.

"It's a great day for Texas justice. This was the right decision," said a Legal Aid attorney for some of the parents, joined by several smiling mothers who declined to comment at a news conference outside the courthouse.

LDS elder Willie Jessop said the parents were elated, but added: "There will be no celebrations until some little children are getting hugs from their parents." He said his faith in the legal system will be restored "when I see the schoolyard full of children."

Every child at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado was taken into custody more than six weeks ago after someone called a hot line claiming to be a pregnant, abused teenage wife. The girl has not been found and authorities are investigating whether the calls were a hoax.

But the appeals court said the state acted too hastily in sweeping up all the children and taking them away on an emergency basis without going to court first.

"....there is no evidence that this danger is 'immediate' or 'urgent'," the court said.

"Evidence that children......may someday have their physical health and safety threatened is not evidence that the danger is imminent enough to warrant invoking the extreme measure of immediate removal."

The court said the state failed to show evidence of sexual or physical abuse against the......children. Half the youngsters taken from the ranch were 5 or younger. Only a few dozen are teenage girls.

The court also said the state was wrong to consider the entire ranch as a single household and to seize all the children on the grounds that some parents in the home might be abusers.

The decision technically applies to only 38 of the roughly 200 parents who challenged the seizure. But Balovich said she expected attorneys for all the other parents to seek to join the ruling.

Balovich said the court "has stood up for the legal rights of these families and given these mothers hope that their families will be brought back together."

The custody case has been chaotic from the beginning. During the first round of hearings, held two weeks after the April 3 raid, hundreds of lawyers crammed into a courtroom and nearby auditorium, queuing up to voice objections or ask questions on behalf of the mothers who were there in their trademark prairie dresses and braided hair.

CPS has failed to establish the identities of the children and sort out their tangled family relationships. The youngsters are in foster homes all over the sprawling state, with some brothers or sisters separated by as much as 600 miles.