I think, after my last post on Monogamy, it's important to add that there are Christian kinksters who practice polygamy.
I wouldn't say most of them, but some do.
I think monogamy is the best reflection of the relationship between Christ and the Church that marriages are supposed to emulate based on Ephesians 5:21-28. But I can also distinguish between anti-biblical (goes against explicit Biblical teachings) and extra-biblical (is not specifically mentioned in the Bible).
I wouldn't say most of them, but some do.
I think monogamy is the best reflection of the relationship between Christ and the Church that marriages are supposed to emulate based on Ephesians 5:21-28. But I can also distinguish between anti-biblical (goes against explicit Biblical teachings) and extra-biblical (is not specifically mentioned in the Bible).
If you want to know what God thinks about gay sex (which is not the same as struggling with same-sex attraction) or premarital sex, it's in the Bible. There's no way to avoid that. But if you're wondering what He says about abortion or polygamy, it's not specifically mentioned. We must rely on the Bible's treatment of similar topics and how God wants us to live our lives in general to find the best path in those instances.
Personally, I think there's a strong Biblical case for monogamy. Not only does it better reflect the Church's metaphorical marriage to Christ, but it was God's original plan and ideal. He warns against it for leaders of Israel in the Old Testament and leaders of the newly emerging church in the New Testament. The first recorded polygamist was not a follower of God's will and it was not a story meant to be emulated or mimicked. Most stories of polygamy, including David, Solomon, Abraham, and Jacob, told a tale of woe and strife caused by multiple wives.
But God never expressly forbid it. He allowed it for many kings and leaders, so long as the relationship was validated by marriage and not just an excuse for premarital sex with random women.
Hence, I know some kinksters who practice polygamy. Their faith seems sincere, even if I don't agree that multiple partners is the best way to reflect God's will in our lives.
I asked my Dom what he thought about polygamy. We both have degrees in religion from a secular university, so I trusted his expertise. He told me, "I think God allowed it. I don't necessarily think it's the best way."
I am inclined to agree.
I am inclined to agree.
1 comment:
Thank you for this interesting blog on a controversial issue.
I personally think that the precise norms (behaviorual prescriptions) of biblical stories are less crucial than the values they seek to convey.
These histories help us understand these values and how they may mean something in human lives by outlining how they played a role in specific historical contexts. It is to us to apply the same values to our lives, with due account of ther specific contexts in which be live.
Paul, for instance, warned against volatile sexual relationships on basis of what he saw in Corinth, where the priestesses of the Greek God of Love were prostitutes that made money out of a dubious mix of religion and the state of sailormen that got on land. Viewing this from the value of respect for human soul and body, and wishing to give a generic norm, he proposed the norm of marital sex only. Similarly, Old Testament leaders had institutional structures that accommodated poly-life with due respect. Thus there a norm against it was not necessary.
In the contemporary societies, polygamous relationships are hardly institutionally and culturally embedded and hence difficult to live in a way compatible with biblical values - if only for lack of examples, or for the responses such a relationship may provoke from outsiders. But one may find a solution that nevertheless works, and which one may properly account for to others and the Other.
I think, by the way, it is proper to understand all biblical norms in this way, including these about homosexuality. What happened in Sodom between men may have been assessed as wring for the same thing as the (heterosexual) practices in Corinth were deemed wrong. It is the value behind the norm, more than the norm, that we should learn about - and that we should then bring to ouir own lives.
Sorry for the long comment.
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