Polygamy

It's been going on for centuries. It recent times in the west it has not had the legal stamp of the state, but there are still men in various places that keep more than one partner at home. Men with multiple wives have been part of every culture from the dawn of creation.

Much of the last 2000 years has been dominated by Christian doctrine and morality in regard to marriage. Orthodox Christianity - the mainline groups - will tell you that God had a plan and polygamy was not it. I agree with this, but history tells us another story. The reality is that even though God intended one man one woman marriages, people, even His own people Israel, did not abide by His wishes.

Many of God's intentions for humanity fell by the wayside when humanity chose their own will over God's will. Then when the curse was applied to humanity. Everything changed. Women were subordinated to men and men began treating them like property - a cow that can do laundry and have sex. In the Torah, we see women who could not bear children or did not bear sons offering their hand maids as surrogates. Other men just took more than one wife. One has to ask, would their have ever been an Israel if Jacob had been allowed only Rachel. She was not exactly a "fertile Myrtle" if you know what I mean. Even in the days of the Law, men took multiple wives. Moses himself had two...yes he did ...look again.

And then there is the whole leverite marriage thing in Deuteronomy. I think it's chapter 25:5-10. If your brother died without producing a son, you were supposed to marry his widow and produce an heir for his widow's future care and for the continuation of your brother's family. You could refuse this duty, but it was always at considerable embarrassment to your own family. If you refused, your widowed sister in law could take you before the judges. If, after that, you still refused, she would remove a sandal and throw it at you, spit in your face and call you and yours the family of the unsandaled because of your refusal. Public humiliation was a big deal in ancient times. Of course, if you had a hot sister in law, I suppose it would not have been so bad. The point here though is that even under God's law, there was in place a mechanism for polygamy.

When Jesus came, all this changed. Jesus demanded again what God had set forth in the beginning. One man one woman marriage - no divorce except in the case of adultery and maybe not then if the offending party can be forgiven. This has, since that time, been the Christian standard for marriage. There have been Christian sects like the Mormons in the US that have at one time or another embraced polygamy, but even the main line cult gave it up after much persecution by the orthodox Christian majority. 

But there is, and always has been, men that balked at the notion of monogamy. They would keep both wives and girlfriends in the same house. Today and in light of the recent SCOTUS decision, there are some that are coming forward to try to gain legitimacy for their girl friend(s) along with their current wife. There is such a case right now in Montana.

"A married Montana man has taken his wife and his girlfriend to the Yellowstone County Courthouse and told the clerk: Marry us – if the Supreme Court OK’d “gay” unions, then we should be allowed to join together in holy polygamy. “It’s about marriage equality,” said Nathan Collier, who filed for a marriage application to two women, Victoria and Christine, CBS News reported. “You can’t have this without polygamy.”
Victoria is currently his legal wife. Christine is his girlfriend.

County officials at first denied the application, but then backtracked and said they’d have to consult with attorneys."

So the future and the past are coming together in a most unusual way. One has to wonder where this will stop or if it will ever stop. Should you be able to marry a door knob? What about all the other knobs you handle every day? Won't that be a problem? A door knob harem might be the answer. In this age of egalitarianism anything can happen.

Lord, any time now. Please come back and stop this foolishness. We are bad decision makers. Guess you knew that though.