Has TLC gone too far?

Take a look at this picture. Could be a normal wedding. Maybe bride and groom in the center and bridesmaids or friends or sisters surrounding...NO!!!!          

          TLC has gone too far this time! I, like much of America, have been sucked into the TLC family reality shows at one time or another. It started with "Jon and Kate...", the Duggars, "Little People, Big World" followed by "Little Couple: Just Married" and I think there are a couple of new ones with many, many children that I can't bring myself to watch. Last night, flipping channels, I stumbled upon the new TLC addition to family reality entertainment.

                                                            SISTER WIVES!!!!

Yes, that's wives plural. A reality show about a Mormon polygamous marriage! Three wives, a fiancee, one husband and 13 children...I'm 'gobsmacked' (to use a little Shopaholic lingo). My mouth is still hanging open.  Take a look here  for video clips, pictures and full bios of the crazy people involved in this nightmare. TLC has reached a new level of weirdness. All the wives are insecure and jealous about relationships with the husband, Kody, who looks like a surfer dude. While we were staring open-mouthed at the TV, I asked 'How can they buy into this type of lifestyle?' W said, 'I can see why he's going for it, but how he talked these women into it I'll never understand.' At first I agreed, then asked 'Wait just a minute, with what part of this can you sympathize?!' Luckily we can joke about this kind of thing, but these poor people are living it.

I've done a little reading on the Mormon philosophy/theology behind polygamous marriage, and it seems to be related to achieving a higher status in the afterlife based on number of offspring. Brigham Young, a forefather of Mormonism, had 56 wives and 56 children with 19 of these wives. Joseph Smith had many wives and also 'experimented with polyandry' (marrying women who were already married to someone else!!!!). Most Mormons today believe that a faithful, lifelong, monogamous marriage is enough to be exalted in the afterlife, but that in Heaven there will be polygamy. Look here for a history of Mormon polygamy.

Anyway, I think this TLC circus will probably be a hit. I can't imagine any more drama than a man with three wives (one pregnant) with a girlfriend/fiancee and many, many children...at least TLC's keeping it consistent.