Christian Polygamy

A while back we had a brief blog post on one of our sites (I cannot recall which) concerning Oprah’s broadcast about polygamy. A main feature of this broadcast was an investigative reporter by the name of Lisa Ling. Well, it seems as though this particular episode has been re-broadcast, because many people are showing up on our sites who are looking for more information.

If you know anything about us, or have read any of the materials on our sites, you know that we do not watch television, and haven’t done so in several years, so we have no information about Oprah, Lisa Ling, or their perspectives on plural marriage in the United States…we can only assume it’s not much different from the majority viewpoint.

However, since people are coming to the site seeking information, we would to say a few words, since we have your attention

First, stop watching television. The reasons are numerous, and well documented, and require no elaboration from us…either you will read this little tidbit of advice and heed it, or you will not. We hope that you do. For us, there is not enough time in the day to waste on garbage like the Oprah Winfrey Show, and would hope that you discover some better ways to utilize the gift of time that God has given you here, such as working together in a family business, reading aloud, long walks, or rolling around on the floor tickling the little ones.

Secondly, the world is filled with false teachers and false prophets (profits), and it is our position that Oprah Winfrey is one of them. She leads people astray in all directions (away from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob),  with New Age mumbo jumbo, and has for years. Ummm, stay away from such people.

Thanks for listening

A lot of verses in the bible talk about marriage (Heb 13:4, Psa 128:3, Pro 5:15-23, 1 Co 7:2-3), and they are very wonderful verses, stressing the beauty and responsibility of a lifelong commitment made before God and the beauty of people caring for each other in a godly fashion. God protects marriage indeed, it is a godly bond that secures the dominion covenant.

But the conclusion that theses quoted verses prove polygamy to be sinful, adulterous and whoremongery is wrong - here, presuppositions shape theology, and not the other way around. Polygamy, according to the presupposition, is not marriage, so the verses about marriage cannot apply to one man and many wives, but have to apply to one man one wife only. This presupposition is not a biblical, but a romantic concept.

Polygamy, viewed from a biblical perspective, is simply “marriage”. If you look up the word “marriage” and its verb in the Old and New Testament, you will find that the word is related to:

• a contract - “to marry: to give yourself in marriage, to take a wife, to get married” (H2992, G1060),
• a possession - “to possess, to rule over” (H1166),
• conjugal rights, literally, the flesh (H5772b), and
• a ceremony (G1062).

Nowhere is there mentioning of “star-crossed lovers”, a “soul mate”, or the “prince on the white horse”, so to read romantic notions of marriage, to read exclusivity between one man and one women into biblical marriage is to insert a secular, romanticized concept into the bible that is simply not there.

We have a dream of what our Christian plural marriage family will look like, and if you are potentially interested in joining us as a sisterwife, here is what would await you, what you would be a vital, active participant in.

We dream of a big family, up to seven wives and our husband, and a whole lot of children, as many as God might grant us. We hope that our Christian polygamous family will be multi-generational soon, either with old or left-alone parents of the sisterwives to join us, or when our children are old enough and take over what will be prepared for them, so that there can be progress both in Kingdom Building and in the raising of a God fearing, patriarchal, independent, self-sufficient, big polygamous family that

“shall speak with the enemy in the gate” (Ps 127:5).

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Recent articles and discussions about Christian polygamists in the news and the blogosphere have prompted me to finish the article that is in progress concerning the motivations for Christian polygamy.  It should be posted after the Sabbath.  This particular site is only a few weeks old, so please consider visiting our other sites which are listed in Joshuah’s House Network.

I have been actively involved in the christian plural marriage “movement” for a number of years now…since around 1998. I have heard the same arguments over and over again, and have been successful in defending the concept (it’s marriage!) from a scriptural perspective, without exception. It is this pool of experience that I draw from, and share with you the following.

One of the most interesting comments that has been made- and it has been made by numerous individuals, both male and female- is that while they come to realize that polygamy is not, contrary to popular opinion, condemned by the bible, and that at times it may even be commanded (think levirate marriage) they still insist that it’s “not for me.”

I would agree completely, that it is not something that just anyone should undertake, but the next part that inevitably follows is something to the effect that “I can’t understand why anyone would want more than one wife”, and is often accompanied by something akin to “I can’t even handle the one wife I already have!” This comes from the males of course.

I too have wondered why it is that some men (and women!) seem so hell bent on having a plurality of wives. I have a few ideas, but the most salient idea is as simple as…yep, you guessed it: Sex.

Often times, when you stumble across a christian family that is looking for a plural wife, what you find is a couple who is looking to add another wife to the family in order to increase the “love” for all parties involved. This is done under the banner of a rather liberal variant of christianity. They engage in intense bible studies that, interestingly enough, convince them that their initial impulses are actually biblically valid, that lesbianism is in fact not even treated within the pages of scripture, and  ultimately come to the conclusion that it is entirely acceptable for a christian family.

Afterwards this spiritual bolstering is complete, they end up searching high and low for any female who is willing to accept a plural marriage arrangement, and will, more often than not, compromise in any number of ways in order to make the situation work. And why not compromise? They have compromised already. Who knows, perhaps they will even begin a “ministry” to bisexual women, in order to help them in some fashion. Well, this motivation for plural marriage quite obviously includes bisexuality, and is forbidden in Yahweh’s law. You don’t need to look very hard in scripture to find prohibition against such iniquity, if you’re interested in knowing.

I say this with a certain degree of hesitation, because it is the #1 reason I hear from just about every opponent of plural marriage, (that it’s all about sex!) and although I resist the notion that it is true in every case, I think that, to a large degree, it is an accurate statement. How sad.

Another reason that tends to motivate couples to seek another wife is of an economic nature. They are looking for another income, a built-in babysitter, or perhaps another pair of hands to help chop the wood, plow the field, or milk the cows. Honestly, it has been my experience that these couples are lead by a man who has suffered some form of injury, and is either unable to work at all, or has significantly diminished income potential.  Hmmmmm…

Well, these are not good reasons in my opinion to engage in plural marriage.

So there you have it, in a nutshell: Sex and Money. Imagine that! These two things cause more trouble in a common marriage than anything else, and can only be compounded to disastrous levels within a plural arrangement that has, as its primary motivating force, sex or money.

Really, I wanted to get around to discussing our motivations for polygamy, but am running out of time, so I ask you to come back tomorrow for part II, which I will entitle “Kingdom Building.”

christian polygamy, plural marriage, polygyny

To live a godly life, it is of utmost importance to be removed from today’s society as far as possible (Rev 18:4-5), and to raise our children in God’s way so that they do not have to turn 35 before they realize which choices would have been right, which way they should have taken from the beginning to avoid defiling themselves with uncleanliness, immorality and fornication. (Pro 22:6; Gal 5:19-21) This removed lifestyle is much easier to put into practice as a group of adults than as a couple, for it needs many hands to build the family’s house and premises, to grow all the family’s food, to sew all the family’s clothes, to homeschool all the children, to provide for the old as well as for the young, in short, to build a Christian, godly home.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” (Pro 29:18)

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christian polygamy, plural marriage, polygyny