Christian Polygamy on the Web

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from Vegas.com, November 22, 2001. “Although polygamy is illegal in all 50 states, it’s practiced by an estimated 100,000 Americans, and is commonly associated with the Mormon Church, though church members are loathe to admit it.”  Says William Stoddard, local church spokesman, “Polygamy is absolutely prohibited and has been for over 100 years, but the internet has helped the practice expand.  Men and women in search of multiple marriage partners need look no further than such sites as truthbearer.org, threecoins.com, and befree.org., just to name a few.  The kicker, the ad placers aren’t Mormons and the sites don’t operate from Utah.  This ain’t your mother’s polygamy.”  Mark Henkle, founder of truthbearer.org, a pro-Christian polygamy website operated out of Maine, is a conservative Christian, who, after extensive Bible study, realized that the marriage lessons he’s learned are wrong.  Since Isaiah, Abraham, Moses and other figures had more than one wife, Henkle decided to follow in the mighty heroes’ footsteps.  Once he hit the internet, he found he wasn’t alone.  “We know that we have to bring this to others,” says Henkle, “It’s not the mainstream at this point that we put the words Christianity and polygamy together, which used to be an oxymoron, is testament to the growth that we’ve done.”  Henkle adds that Christian polygamy differs from Mormon polygamy.  “With Mormons,” he says, “the main purpose for polygamy is procreation.  They believe it’s their duty to give life to a multitude of children’s unborn souls.  With Christians, it’s about following Scripture.  There are places where God will call a family to one more wife,” Henkle says, “this is not about flesh, it’s not about a harem or women as possessions, this is marriage, it’s pro-marriage.”   

Tom:

Dave, we talked in our early segment about challenges to the Bible.Well, here’s a guy claiming to support all of this from the Scriptures.  Now, the Old Testament would certainly give him some ammunition, but the New Testament I think it comes up short, big time.

Dave:

Tom let’s look at it.Forget the Scriptures for a moment.Let’s just have some common sense.  Now, of course, Islam, you’re allowed to have four wives, any number of concubines, or mistresses or whatever, and you can divorce your wife just by saying three times, “I divorce you,” and get another one.  But, as far as Christianity is concerned we’re not talking Old Testament now, Jesus said in Matthew 16, “I will build my church.”  It sounds like something new is coming into place.  Paul says that an elder is to be the husband of one wife. Jesus talks about this.Adam did not have several wives, God gave him one.  It says it was so intended from the beginning.  Common sense would tell you that everybody couldn’t have two wives, much less three or four or five as some of these men do.  There aren’t that many to go around.  There is about an equal number of men and women in the general population, it continues that way unless, because of war.  In the Old Testament you might say there could be some justification because there was so much warfare and so many men were killed that there would have been women without husbands by the hundreds, maybe by the thousands.  On the other hand, the Bible does not condone polygamy even in the Old Testament.  It certainly doesn’t recommend that we follow Solomon, who had a thousand wives, plus others, or even David.  But we must go by what the New Testament says.  In fact, we are not under even the law of the Old Testament, but we have the New Law, the Law of Christ.  And we are to be the husband of one wife, that’s very clear in the scriptures and the New Testament.  So, this is not Christianity—this man has gone out on a limb that should be sawed off by common sense and by reference to the Word of God.

Tom:

Dave, I just had a thought as you were talking.  If this man is maintaining this view, based on his view of the Old Testament, I’m sure that’s where he gets many of his examples, what about Jews today?  You don’t find polygamy among the Jews; I can’t think of any example, you know, what it ever practiced after the dispersion and so on?

Dave:

I don’t think so, but even secular governments recognize this is not good; this is not the way that things ought to be.  First of all, there is not enough women to go around, secondly, it brings jealousy and it’s outlawed everywhere in the world except in Muslim countries, as far as I know, although there would be certain ones who would practice it in Africa in some tribes. So, I don’t think he has, certainly does not have the Word of God behind him, certainly not the New Testament, and he doesn’t have common sense.  It’s against the law in America to be a polygamist, so he is breaking the law but we are told to be subject to the powers that be and to obey the law.