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Originally Posted by toddpedlar  Quote:
Originally Posted by Gryphonette Quote:
Originally Posted by TimV That's the normal view of Reformed missionaries who have thought things out. There are practical decisions that come into play, and there's room for debate concerning some of those. The group I was with briefly in PNG never dreamed of breaking up families, but those men with more than one wife couldn't be Elders or Deacons, but in addition if a convert took an additional wife they would be censured by the church. To me that would be wrong because for something leading to excommunication you'd have to show something clearer than not living optimally.
And as an aside, CM has a good point about strife; co-wife fights are the worst. | If a polygamist family comes to faith in Christ, the door slams shut on additional wives being added, but the existing family should be respected. | I actually don't understand this at all.
Why the distinction "if a polygamist family comes to faith in Christ"?
If they aren't in Christ, you would allow the continued accumulation of wives - that I understand, since all you could really do is give pious advice.
However, if they are in Christ, and if, given your previous statement that polygamy is not a sin, why would the door necessarily slam shut? If it's only "unwise" but not sinful, why would the elders say, categorically, no? |
The mind of the Church has been, from the beginning, in favor of monogamy, and it's always been the standard for Christian marriage.
ISTM the Church has the right to set the standard, so long as it's not mandating that which is only permitted (for instance, making Christmas an
obligation).
One-man-one-woman marriage is the norm in Scripture; polygamy is just permitted. That which is Scripturally normative is surely the standard; that which is merely permitted can be legitimately forbidden.
And I suppose the opposite would be true, and the Church could reverse itself on what has in the past been forbidden, though it's Scripturally permissible.
I'd be adamantly against any Christian denomination or church swimming against the tide of tradition by allowing polygamy, however; not unless there was some cataclysmic event that makes human existence dependent upon it.
Which most assuredly isn't the case now.
Still, I'm mostly thinking out loud.
Always possible I'm all wet!
