I'm so over Christians such as Rick Warren being so smug about their historical "knowledge" of marriage. In defending his opposition to gay marriage, he added this (from Wayne Besen): "I'm opposed to having one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage."
Personally, I don't care if you have multiple wives or husbands. My beef is his ignorance of the Bible's relative silence on polygamy. Christians like Warren aren't giving you the entire story. His recent interview with NBC's Ann Curry was full of historical ignorance (watch here, about 1 minute into the video).
There are instances of polygamy in the Bible--and God is either silent on the issue or oddly complicit in the unions. But today's Christians act just horrified over such an arrangement and yet Jehovah himself seemed not to mind so much. He was so nonchalant, in fact, that the very founders of Israel were polygamists! More on that in a sec.
Sure, in the New Testament there's something about holy men of God having one wife. Fine. But what happened? Did God change his mind. Isn't sin ALWAYS sin? Does God make exceptions, and isn't that a slippery slope? I thought God never changed and moral truths were absolute!
So, on polygamy and even--gasp!--incest, riddle me this:
If God did create Adam and Eve, then their sons and daughters had sex with each other, plain and simple. And for whatever reason, God offers no comment. If you have some righteous explanation for why this was ok, I'd like to hear it.
And how were these folks married? Were there priests or justices of the peace? By what law were they married? There is a strange mention of a "Land of Nod" where Adam's son Cain apparently went to live and found a wife! Ok, who was she? I mean, if Adam and Eve were the only people, she still had to be a daughter of Adam and Cain's sister. Unless, of course, there were other people around--but then that screws the whole Christian story of Adam and Eve siring the entire human race.
Just a few chapters later in Genesis 4, Cain's descendant Lamech is the first recorded man to take 2 wives--and God offers no comment! Nothing. No retribution, no preaching, nothing.
Two chapters afterwards, there's the strange passage about the "Nephilim" (whatever they are) and the "sons of God" having sex with "the daughters of men." Some say these were angels or demons--seriously. But regardless of what you believe or whether this even happened--God says nothing. In fact, what is said is that these offspring were "heroes and men of reknown." Impressive. Sounds like God blessed them, right?
Then we have Noah's grandchildren, after the flood receeded. Since everyone died in the flood, Those grandchildren (cousins) were having sex with each other! So God essentially created a situation where first cousins had no choice but to have sex with each other. I guess God was ok with it. And who married them? Noah? God? According to the Bible, there wasn't any synagogue, church, or justice of the peace. Was it legal in the "state of Noah?"
A bit later we have Abraham, patriarch of Israel (and some say, Islam). His grandson Jacob sired the 12 tribes of Israel. Jacob also had 2 wives, Leah and Rebekah--and God said nothing! In fact, both families were ecstatic about it because they were all related! It's a polygamy family party!
But that's not all. At various times, neither wife could get pregnant, so they would give Jacob their female servants to sleep with, since it seems those children were considered children of the master. Nice. Which means that 6 tribes of the "holy" nation of Israel were sired by bastard children. And God? No comment!
Hmmm, I think following such wanton people of questionable morals wouldn't be the "Christian" thing to do--don't you?
Marriage is and always has been redefined by various people. Which is fine. Each culture sets its own rules. But Christians are full of hypocrisy, and they defend positions that their own God seems not all that worried about.
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