Great point from Gryphonette.

Besides polygamy as a means of caring for widows without competent offspring, it is also a solution for men whose wives are disabled (e.g. severe rheumatoid arthritis making any movement excruciating). If sola scriptura is at all meaningful, we should cease and desist from legislating against anything it condones. Admittedly monogamy is preferable, but polygamy is clearly o.k.

In my situation, a neighbor, a young, barren widow, will starve to death when we return to the states for good. No Christian man will marry her because she will not produce children to care for him in his old age and he only gets to choose one wife. She can become a second or third wife, but this would entail marrying an unbeliever since the church rejects polygamists. She has land but cannot work the land by herself. She cannot hire help and still have the land provide for her. She has a fine Christian neighbor who could take her as a second wife, work her land, and provide for both her and his first family but the church won't allow it. Her barreness would be a blessing to the marriage, since he has 8 children already and great difficulty in providing for them. The church cannot support her because most of the church members are themselves hungry most of the time.

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Mary Vanderkooi
Kale Heywott Church (KHC)
Soddo, Ethiopia