Well, the people warning that the normalization of same-sex marriage would create a slippery slope toward legitimizing many other behaviors that destroy traditional marriage have been proven correct once again. This article points out that academics are now openly defending polyamory (group marriage). I would encourage everybody interested in the future of marriage to read it (for the conservative-averse, forget for a second the source and read the article and judge it on its merits alone).
The arguments used to defend polyamory are, not surprisingly to me, exactly the same that are used to justify SSM: some people can only be happy in open relationships, it is “unfair” to confine the definition of marriage to just two people, etc, etc. You could almost accuse the writer of being a conservative plant trying to undermine SSM if not for the fact that the article is printed in an academic journal and the writer really believes what she says.
From the LDS perspective, it is inevitable that the old canards about polygamy will come out in the years ahead as polyamory debates make their way into public discourse. 10 years ago, it would have been unimaginable that SSM would be acceptable and defended as “the only fair solution” by most elites. 10 years from now, the same things are almost certain to be said about polyamory. And as these discussions take place, prepare for intense studies of 19th century polygamy in Utah. I won’t get into the differences between the two here, but it’s certain to be an issue under discussion in the years ahead.
There are certain moral and ethical lines that should not be crossed. We have crossed one as a society by normalizing SSM and getting away from the God-given definition of marriage. The slope is very slippery indeed.