ONE MAN, MULTIPLE WOMEN

In recent years, it is almost becoming an advocacy by some Christian married men, to argue that there is nothing wrong with marrying more than one wife. Their reasons span from the fact that some Patriarchs of the Christian faith like Abraham, Jacob, David, and the like, married more than one woman, and the fact that our forefathers had a more peaceful and stable polygamous marriage and, yet never experienced the kind of tumultuous marriage some Christian men who are unionized with one wife are experiencing. I have had the privilege of listening to some of these views carefully and then asking some follow-up questions just to get into the heart of this newfound theological view on several occasions. Do you know what I am finding out? I am sure your guess is as good as mine. You see the truth is that the scripture can be used by anybody to justify their actions without properly giving recourse to precepts that are consistent with the Character of God.

I remember a recent conversation I had with one of these men, and I recollect him saying to me emphatically, “Because the bible did not say that thou shall not marry more than one wife, he doesn’t see anything wrong with having multiple women as wives”. He went on to expand his view by positing that the twelve tribes of Israel came from polygamous homes, by referencing that Jacob married Leah and Rachael according to Genesis 29. Again, I can also vividly remember some months back, during a rendezvous I had with an old friend and classmate of mine who is a deacon of a Pentecostal Church here in Ghana. I recall how he was passionately pointing out to me that he doesn’t see anything wrong with polygamy because most of our ancestors had peaceful marriages even though they had multiple wives, he buttressed his view by also alluding to the fact that Abraham, Jacob, Solomon, etc. in the bible married more than one woman and God was cool with it. This emerging view then spools my mind back to some years ago when I used to have theological conversations with a Pastor and a theological student in one of the good theological schools here in Accra Ghana. Rewinding these conversations in the light of this emerging strange view on marriage, coupled with the current state of this Pastor, is giving me a clearer picture of probably the motives of the proponents of this doctrine on marriage. I will be specific about the position of this Pastor in my next edition, catch you then.

Will be continued in my next edition