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FREEDOM OF RELIGION
Pesach isn't just an excuse for a big dinner party. Jews as a people
and as a religion have been oppressed throughout their history.
Other peoples have experienced similar situations centuries after
the events the Torah describes in the Book of Exodus.
In the early 1700s, England's Puritans sought freedom to practice
their religion, embarking upon the voyage to North America. Today
we call them the Pilgrims.
After undergoing a variety of hardships in the New World, the Pilgrims
finally achieved an abundant harvest. The meal they shared with
the Indians at their harvest celebration survives today as our U.S.
holiday of Thanksgiving, a latter-day echo of the seder feasts Jews
have held for centuries.
Paradoxically, the Puritans attempted to limit the freedom of their
own people and anyone who lived in the towns they founded and governed.
It was the Puritans who put the Scarlet Letter on any lady daring
to share the delights of the bedroom with another's husband--presumably
with or without his wife's sanction. You could also be put in the
stocks just for talking naughty!
Fortunately for us lifestyles pioneers, the Puritan influence has
dimmed and faded in present times. We have far more freedom today
than we've had at almost any other time in recent history! We can
offer up hearty thanks to our Creator (at Passover and throughout
the year) while continuing to battle the many unfair restrictions
remaining in law and custom. We can do it—TOGETHER.
ROBERT RIMMER
March 14, 1917 to August 1st, 2001
Robert Rimmer passed on in the summer of 2001. His books on the
concept of being able to love and be committed to more than one
special person, particularly of couples forming this kind of liason,
have been an inspiration to a majority of those who have formed
local poly clubs as well as nation wide poly organizations. I They
have certainly inspired me personally and kept me going when educating
people about this life style and taking the risk of appearing controversial
in the public eye has seemed perhaps more hassle and danger than
it is worth. At times like that, rereading Proposition 31 has been
a real comfort. I'm glad I let Bob Rimmer know how much that meant
to me while he was alive.
Back in the early 70s, a convention based on the writings of Robert
Rimmer was held. This gathering and Rimmer's contribution of his
mailing list, lead Hyim Levy and Pat La Follet to form (with the
help of wives Joyce and Anne) a group called Family Synergy. Though
Live the Dream is a more science fiction oriented spinoff of Family
Synergy, we also honor Rimmer as one of our inspirations. He was
a life member of both these organizations and many others.
Rimmer, a resident of Boston, has spoken at the Eastern Loving
More Conferences. In his 80s, he spoke to a Live the Dream meeting
here in LA via speaker phone. He answered questions and told us
about his new book Dreamer of Dreams which featured a new religion
based on polyamory and the celebration of human sexuality. This
church had much in common with Church of All Worlds (Stranger in
a Strange Land) and supports the Goddess belief that "All acts
of Love and Pleasure are my rituals." It has, however, the
unique Rimmerian stamp of combining business with pleasure as these
churches/franchises offer sex education movies, live entertainment,
interpersonal communications workshops, etc. Its protagonists include
a husband and wife team of attorneys who nearly get divorced on
opposite sides of this issue. They wind up defending in court, together,
the poly lifestyle and the right of an organization espousing it
to call itself a Church in the USA. This appears to have been Rimmer's
last work before he died.
Other unpublished books are mentioned in Dreamer of Dreams which
may be available through his WEBSITE. Captain Nemo Kidnaps Ayn Rand
is among them.
Though for many years Rimmer claimed that he had not been personally
involved in this lifestyle, he admitted finally (after the death
of his co husband) that he was in a four-way nonresidential group
marriage in which the other man had career concerns which kept them
all in the closet.
Does a lifestyle of multiply committed relationships work? Will
it damage a marriage? Robert Rimmer's wedding day was 8/2/41. The
marriage ended sixty years later with his death. He is survived
by six children and four grandchildren. Many of Rimmers books had
a theme of couple meets couple, they fall in love and get married.
His courting and joined couples usually included diversity—as
did his own group. Jewish and Christian, ACADEMICIANS and businessmen,
housewives and career women, rich and poor, etc. His characters
delighted in (and grew from) each other's differences in culture
and outlook.
One of Rimmer's more science fiction oriented books was Love Me
Tomorrow which featured a future society (reached by its heroine
through frozen sleep) in which big business Republicans and free
love types battle it out in America's political arena. This features
a multigenerational group marriage, which (nearly) winds up in the
White House!
The website devoted to Rimmer's work is www.harrad.com. Many of
Rimmer's books are also available through amazon.com.
Be it said of him
HE MADE A DIFFERENCE
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