The husband of one wife

“And Lamech said unto his wives, ‘Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.’”

This is how the Bible introduces its first recorded polygamist. Lamech, seven generations from Cain, reveals not only a murderous violence but also a redefining of matrimony. In the Garden, Adam was introduced to his one and only Eve, bone of his bone and flesh of flesh. Lamech, like other polygamists, thought he had a better idea than God’s original plan.

And the trend continues downward from there. Throughout the narrative of the Old Testament, polygynous (which is to say, multiple-wife) marriages are marked by an exceedingly high level of dysfunction, jealousy, and intrigue. No one looks at the families of Abraham, Jacob, Esau, Gideon, Elkanah, David, or Solomon and thinks, “Ah—domestic bliss!” Indeed, the record of their soap-operatic lives serves as a stern warning, even while encouraging us that God does indeed work through sinful people in messed up situations.

The Mosaic Law governed situations of polygamy, as it did with divorce, “because of the hardness of your hearts,” in the words of our Lord. The Church in the New Covenant rightly takes her cues from St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:2: “Nevertheless to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.” Historically, the Church has emphasized the singular here—marriages are exclusively monogamous. But polygamy was not unheard of in the ancient world—Paul, inspired by the Holy Ghost, made sure to inform Titus and Timothy that men should be the husband of one wife.

Typically, when she makes contact with polygamous cultures on the mission field, the Church has instructed converted polygamous husbands to take care of all of their wives and children, often with a command that the husband cohabitate exclusively with his first wife, i.e. the wife of his youth. Christians have seen any historic occasion when the Church has buckled before cultural or political pressure to depart from this pattern—such as in the case of Philip of Hesse or even the multiple divorces of Henry VIII—as shamefully permissive or cowardly.

So committed is the Church to monogamy that championing polygamy is frequently an identifier of heretical cults. Innovative and charismatic gurus, from John of Leiden to Joseph Smith, have frequently advocated for polygamous marriages. We can now add some weird theological Twitter bros to the mix, some of whom claim to be pastors.

Now, there have been “pro-poly” pastors on the fringes for a while now, but they’ve mostly inhabited the religious left. After all, according to many leftists today, marriage doesn’t mean much of anything—it is infinitely malleable as a human institution. Oddly, the most successful recent corrosion of marriage has been the legal invention of “same-sex” marriage. But progressives have historically advocated for lax divorce laws, and articles highlighting polygamous arrangements aren’t hard to find.

But now we’re seeing a handful of voices advocate for a “right-coded” patriarchal form of polygamy, even marshaling the Bible in order to defend their aberrant novelty. A lot of their rhetorical moves are familiar to anyone who has had to tackle cults, high control religious groups, or heretical personalities. They are sophists, adept at twisting words and phrases to mean what they don’t, particularly when it comes to the Scriptures. They cast aspersions upon the Church’s tradition—one polygamist pastor noted he was a seventh-day Sabbatarian. And they are bravely speaking the truth while the rest of the Body of Christ has fallen into worldly compromise and man-made traditionalism.

They try to bait faithful churches with antics, even while betraying a religious ignorance, such as writing to the “presbytery” of elders at an Anglican parish and publishing the results on a blog post. For those who don’t know, Anglicans are episcopalian and aren’t governed by presbyteries, and we typically call presbyters by the historic contraction “priest” not the modern translation “elder.” Mr. Bigamist Pastor is not a scholar.

I don’t foresee a huge movement to accept these aberrations within evangelical circles, but such incidents are evidence of something important: cultural decline, which begets weird activity like championing polygamy. We forget that “weird” depends upon “normal,” and “normal” is determined by norms—norms that have been under assault and weakened for decades.

Holding the madness at bay are authorities, civil and ecclesiastical. Anti-bigamy laws are still on the books; faithful denominations, canons, and faith statements remain clear (even though profoundly foolish Christians are abandoning or undermining these forms of authority and guidance). We already know that magistrates and jurists are wobbly and weak on matrimony. Are pastors ready to admonish erroneous teachers and dismantle their pernicious doctrines? The arguments are out there on the internet, and they tickle the ears of worldly men and women, particularly the lustful.

May Christ’s Church stand steadfast and resolute for monogamous marriage.