Then, of course, there was the LONG tradition of polygamy–look at the Bible, for instance. The story of Jacob who “fell in love” with Rachel but ended up marrying her older sister Leah,after having worked 7 years as “payment” to marry Rachel (then, after another 7 years, he finally got to marry Rachel but he did NOT divorce Leah). And, there’s the supreme barnyard rooster, Solomon–a man who had roughly 1000 wives AND concubines (not ONE wife and nearly 1000 concubines–MULTIPLE wives, in the hundreds at least, plus hundreds more concubines). And the concept of multiple marriages was prevalent in many societies (it still is, even today–Islamic custom allows a man to have up to 4 wives, provided he can care for and treat all his wives equally; naturally, this tends to limit the custom to the more well-off men).

And, there’s also a long tradition of adulterous marriages. Usually it’s the husband who engages in sexual relations with other partners (perhaps just one regular long-term partner, perhaps a number of different people over the course of the marriage), frequently with the tacit approval of the wife; especially among the upper classes, there was an understanding that as long as the “relationship” was kept reasonably discreet or did not cause undue embarassment for the wife, the husband was free to do as he wished. (And the French, of course, raised this to a veritable art form. During the 19th and well into the 20th century, it was considered de rigueur for a man, especially in an esteemed profession such as the law or banking or a successful merchant to have not only a wife but a mistress whom he “kept”; and it wasn’t completely unheard of for such a man to have a male lover rather than another woman–such men could view themselves as being “completely” faithful to their wives and it was often easier to go out in public with a man than to be seen with the “other woman.”)

But, if Mr Bauman wishes to persist in his silly idea, perhaps he can explain why he CHOSE to violate the bonds of his “religious” marriage by engaging in sexual activity with another person. I seriously doubt that anyone FORCED him to marry a woman so, by indulging in ANY extramarital relationships, he VIOLATED the very religious notions that he uses to delineate the idea of marriage. There’s a word for that: Hypocrisy. Reconcile that with your “conscience”–if you can.