Drell’s Descants

No, the point is that there have been at least five posts so far that failed to recognize that the Bible does have something to say about polygamy, and it is negative. This is the same type of logic used in how we have gone about other issues in the church - divorce after remarriage, marital relations for clergy (like the serial monogamy issues we constantly glaze over), homosexuality, sex before marriage, you name it.

We just say nothing in the Bible prohibits this. We just ignore the inconvenient passages of the Bible.

Yes, polygamy is degrading for women and is not good for society. But, guess what, the Bible supports that position, and even iterates that it isn’t too good for the man, either.

Brad Drell
Lay, Western Louisiana

In light of the latest debacle on polygamy. No, there is nothing in the Bible that speaks against that…

They aren’t revising anything.  Not in any conventional sense of the word.

For years, it has been bandied about on this listserv and in the Anglican blogosphere by Episcopal liberals that Archbishop Peter Akinola was full of baloney because he took the stance he did on homosexuality but had glazed over the polygamy in his midst.  Both were as unbiblical as each other, and so on.

Additionally, I have personally pointed out that the acceptance of homosexuality in the church per se required that acceptance of polygamy (or polyarmory as we like to call it in our church)by the same theological logic.

Now, the list is complaining that Archbishop Akinola is banning polygamy.  Oh, and doesn’t see anything wrong with polygamy.  What happened to “holy pairs” and “upholding fidelity in relationships outside of marriage”?  Out the window.

Oh, My God.

I told you all that polyamory would be next.  And so the time has come.  I can’t wait to read the proposed blessing of the quad liturgy at GC2009.

Brad Drell
Lay, Western Louisiana

Oh, and just in case you really thought the Bible had nothing to say about polyamory/polygamy:

“Each man should have his own wife (singular word), and each woman her own husband (singular word). [I Corinthians 7:2]

“He must not take many wives” [Deut 17:17].

Moses’ law said, the king “shall not multiply horses to himself… Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold” (Deuteronomy 17:16-17).

If the Bible is so groovy about polygamy, how come:

Abraham’s household was fractured because of jealousy between Hagar and Sarah.
Jacob also endured spousal rivalry.
David’s adulterous tendencies was his downfall, as he approached Bathsheba.
Solomon’s many wives were a snare to him and drew him into idol worship:

1 Kings 11:1-11 reads as follows

1    King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s
daughter–Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.
2    They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites,
“You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn
your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to
them in love.
3    He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines,
AND HIS WIVES LED HIM ASTRAY.

There is not one passage in the Bible that blesses polygamy, while the problems are pointed out at length.

Not everything recorded in the Bible is approved by the Bible.