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.
Read more at WORLD Opinions
St. Jude's Anglican Church
We are a parish of the Reformed Episcopal Church. We have been worshiping together in the greater Richmond area for over a decade. We’d love to have you join us for Christian worship in the rich Anglican tradition.
