** FATHER FRANK’S RANTS Rant Number 746 26/10/17 POLYGAMY STORM

IS POLYGAMY BAD? MUSLIMS GET BASHED FOR IT BUT THE BIBLE DOES NOT FORBID IT.
------------------------------------------------------------
‘Storm over polygamy site for Muslims’, The Times screams. Silly hyperbole. The popular ‘Secondwife.com’ has unleashed no tornado. Maybe few puffs of secularist hot air. Though it has provided another stick to beat Muslims with. Years ago French Le Monde also foamed about plural beds. Immigrant youths lacking a father figure in the home are more prone to anti-social behaviour, it argued.

How bizarre. It is fatherless monogamous families that are Western society’s bane, if any. Do Gallic liberal media put monogamy on trial when investigating youth delinquency? As to multiple wives, consider the Mormons. Until 1890, when a persecuting US federal government bullied them into forsaking it, the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints did practice polygamy. Brigham Young, who succeeded Joseph Smith as leader of the Church, boasted 27 wives - though not all of them alive at the same time - and 56 children. But Brigham’s children never complained of the lack of a father figure. Nor does it appear that polygamy either alienated or caused social unrest amongst Mormon youngsters. On the contrary, LDS youths were and are known as models of conservative citizenship. Hard-working, industrious, honest, law-abiding and chaste. So much for plural marriage necessarily breeding hooligans.

Sociology apart, it’s curious the custom should provoke so much prejudice. There is no divine command against polygamy in the Bible. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and Solomon had more than one wife. True, Jesus in St Mark’s Gospel (10:8) lays down that a man and a woman in marriage ‘… shall become one flesh.’ But the thrust of the Lord’s words is directed against divorce, not polygamy. And ‘Man’ and ‘Woman’ are generic terms designating genders. Moreover, the ‘one flesh’ remark harks back to Genesis, the beginning of creation. Clearly, Hebrew writers never interpreted the passage to forbid plural marriage, or Scripture would have castigated the patriarchs for that. As to the New Covenant (I Timothy, 3:2), St Paul notably rules that, amongst a bishop’s qualities, he should be ‘the husband of one wife’. Dig that? Those mitred old goats! What didn’t they get up to! Admittedly, some criticism of polygamous practice is implied there.

Beyond St Paul stands the Messiah himself. Granted that the personal love life of the Lord must forever remain an enigma, all the evidence points to Christ being unmarried. Even Muslim tradition never mentions a Mrs Jesus of Nazareth. (An Anglican panjandrum once quipped that, if such a female ever existed, she would have kept an impossibly low profile.) In that respect, Christ resembles more Buddha than married Prophets like Moses or Muhammad. Accordingly, strict monogamy seems more becoming to followers of a religion founded by a holy celibate than polygamy. The Christian world used to acknowledge as much. Virginity, celibacy and chastity for centuries were its highest ideals. Haven’t noticed bourgeois, permissive papers like The Times and Le Monde praising those virtues lately.

Remarkably, a certain Shia Muslim’s quirky communication to me proffered an extra-reason for Christ’s unmarried status: ‘As you Christians hold that Issa son of Mary is the Son of God, I well understand it’s impossible he could have had a wife. Bad enough to have a son of God – imagine having to reckon with God’s grandchildren! That had to be prevented from happening, I do see it.’ Huh! Intriguing.

As Christianity arose out of Judaism, it’s significant that Jews took time to legislate on the matter. Ashkenazi rabbis did not officially rule out plural beds until about 900 AD. Sephardic Judaism, however, still leaves the possibility open, although 100 rabbis altogether are needed to allow a man to take a second wife. Hmmm… must be pretty rare, I guess.

But why beat about the bush? What liberals and feminists are gunning for are Muslims. Islamic plural beds make not-so-fecund Westerners jittery. Yet, Muslim teaching is complex. The Qur’an does indeed allow a believer as many as four wives (Surah An-Nisah, 3). A number restrictive, note, vis-à-vis the pagan customs of pre-Islamic Arabia, when a man could enjoy an unlimited harem. The Qur’an verse also hedges the permission about with qualifications. Should a man not be able to deal justly with plural wives, for example, because he lacks the means to support them, only one is lawful.

Relevant is also the Sunna, the personal custom and practice of the Prophet, one of the sources of Sharia law. Indeed, you would expect Muhammad to be a normative model for all Muslims. Interesting though that Ibn Tamiya, the famous medieval jurist regarded as a Wahhabi forerunner, was unmarried. And King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, a most pious monarch, had only one wife. African Islam… Can only get anecdotal about my friend Mouftah Baba-Ahamed, an excellent Nigerian. He has two spouses. Trust me: he is the best of fathers.

‘Frank, women view polygamy very differently from men’, a woman I loved once cautioned me. Fair point. They are bound to, I suppose. But surprises are always possible. In 1870 a US congressman had the brilliant idea of abolishing plural beds by granting the vote to women. He assumed that Mormon women would rise up by ballot against polygamy. But when the territorial legislature of Utah granted women the vote – they prompted voted as their husbands did. Funny, isn’t it?

Much to his aching regret, God has not given the priest a wife. Still, hope springs eternal…

Revd Frank Julian Gelli

------------------------------------------------------------

============================================================
** follow on Twitter (Twitter Account not yet Authorized)
| ** friend on Facebook (#)
| ** forward to a friend (http://us7.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3ae40cde0c299583529f1448a&id=b5289be0a8&e=5707b9e8db)

Copyright © Fr Frank Gelli
Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp
http://www.mailchimp.com/monkey-rewards/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=monkey_rewards&aid=3ae40cde0c299583529f1448a&afl=1
** unsubscribe from this list (https://simplesite.us7.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3ae40cde0c299583529f1448a&id=f9573901af&e=5707b9e8db&c=b5289be0a8)
| ** update subscription preferences (https://simplesite.us7.list-manage.com/profile?u=3ae40cde0c299583529f1448a&id=f9573901af&e=5707b9e8db)