OK, back to the original topic of discussion...There are other reasons why I wouldn't want to surprise my wife with a new sister wife. We have already had the discussion on polygamy, and she has expressed her feelings, and she is dead set against it, at least from our last conversation about it. I believe it is the right thing to do, to remain only married to her, since we married under the premise of monogamy. If I do get a girlfriend, she will have to understand that until my wife comes around, we cannot be anything more than boyfriend/girlfriend. The "Law of Love" that we who are under the new covenant, are obliged to follow, dictates this. In addition, by marrying a woman without the legal sanction, we leave ourselves open to the charge by our fellow brothers and sisters, that we are engaging in fornication.
Having said all that, I have a further update on the progress I am making within the walls of my church. Yesterday, our pastor preached a message from I Samuel chapter 1. Well, you can guess how that message started out. It was the perfect opening for me to converse with fellow church members, including the aforementioned new worship pastor. You see, I am responsible for collecting all the orchestra folders left on the stands after the 11:00 service, and as I was bringing the last armful of folders back to the room where my wife was waiting to put them away, I had a chance to talk to him, about what the pastor had said in his message.
Here is a link to the live stream site for our church:
https://www.hpbc.org/livestream scroll down to hear past sermons. You can either enjoy the children singing with the adult choir, or you can skip ahead to 31 minutes into the live stream to hear the beginning of the message or 35 minutes, where he starts talking about polygamy. At that point, he mentions that Elkanah had two wives, and then proceeds to say, "May I just say 'there are a few examples of men with more than one wife, in the Bible, but there's no good examples.' " He then paused and you hear laughter from the congregation, before he proceeds to ask, "How many of you men would say 'One wife is plenty, Amen'?" I was not among the chorus of those who said "Amen". The pastor then laughed and reiterated his false statement, saying, "there are no good examples of having more than one wife at a time in the Bible, and this situation is no exception." You can see my trombone sticking up behind him, as I always put my trombone away after the message is over.
Towards the end of the message, my little boy had to go to the bathroom, which is typical for a kid his age, and I needed to as well, so I took him downstairs. He finished before I did, and went back to his seat on his own Well, there was a couple sitting in the lounge area back there, as well as a gentleman, who identified himself as J.P. I spoke to them about what the pastor said, and said pointed out that Moses had three wives. J.P. agreed with me, and he revealed that he has studied this argument, and has reached the same conclusion the rest of us have reached. I told him about biblicalfamilies.org. He said that h is not interested in having more than one wife, but he agreed that the pastor got it wrong. The couple that was sitting back there, had two children, and they were very interested in what I had to say. They also agreed that there is nothing wrong with polygamy, although they asked about what Paul had to say, and it had something to do with deacons, to which, I responded that this was directed to Titus and Timothy, and it was about selecting people for specific offices within the church. I also explained that the literal words used by Paul, were "one woman man", and that most likely, Paul wanted them to select men who did not frequent the temple shrine prostitutes. They nodded in agreement. I had to get back to my seat, but I felt pretty good about that exchange.
As I was making my way to the platform, I talked to someone I have gotten to know, as he and his lovely daughter are in the choir. I told him that the pastor was wrong, and proceeded to mention Moses and King Joash. That exchange did not go so well. He asked me if I wanted to start a compound and how many wives I had, a question which he should know the answer to. I proceeded to talk to the folks in the rhythm section (guitarist/drummer) and to the organist, who had just completed playing the closing tune, and they were interested and had no such objections, so one objection out of four or five, is not bad.
It was when I spoke with the new worship leader though, that I got the most push back. He inquired why I made such a fuss about it. It seems that speaking the truth on matters such as this, is not so important to him. We had a somewhat lengthy conversation, and I admit, I was being dodgy when he got personal on me, but I told him I didn't have time to explain it to him right then and there, because it would take too long for me to explain it to him, and that I had to put my trombone away, and so I arranged to meet with him for lunch. I told him that I would email him to set something up.
APB for anyone living in the Austin, Texas area (Chris, Lauren), or who might happen to be trucking through town. I intend to set something up around lunch time, at a restaurant near Parmer and I-35, as that is a halfway point between where I work, and the church. I will provide further details, once the plans are in place.
We agreed that this is a "tertiary issue", and it is not on the level of essentials of the faith, and I told him that we in the "Christian Polygamy movement", already understand that this is indeed the case, but there are concerns over the fact that they don't have a place to worship, as they find themselves expelled from many churches.
In our conversation, I asked him why he thought polygamy was wrong, and he said that it is adultery. I pointed out that he was using an English understanding of adultery, and pointed out how Scripture defines adultery. He said that it is promiscuity. Interestingly enough, I don't recall seeing the word "promiscuity" ever mentioned in the Scriptures. I told him that the charge of Promiscuity, is not true, as the only people a man is having sexual relations with, are his own wives. He said that it was a bad witness, to which I disagreed, saying that here in Austin, it is not really a bad witness. On further reflection, I should have pointed out, that claiming that polygamy is condemned in the Bible, when it is not, is dishonest, and that is a much worse witness, as the atheists already know that Scripture does not condemn polygamy. I'll be sure to mention that in our lunch meeting.
He said that I need to understand the Hebrew and the Greek, and I told him that I had already looked at this, and that I have studied this issue for the past two and a half years. The interesting thing about this, is that my wife overheard me talking with him, and this is the first time I have had this conversation where she joined in, and actually supported me in a dialog, and she did not express least bit of disappointment with me, for discussing this topic!
The worship pastor tried to pass off Pastor Bowman's remarks as if it was just a joke. He said that the pastor went on to make a joke about Peninah's name. Well, when you watch the video, instead of reiterating that Peninah means sandwich, as he had reiterated his false statement about polygamy, he quickly backtracks, saying "No, No No" a couple of times. I told the worship pastor that my concern, was that pastor Bowman did not intend his remarks about polygamy, to be understood as untrue, at all, and I told him I would watch the message online. Having done so, I can see that the pastor made two false statements, unless you consider 40 people to be "few", or even 16,000 virgins who were given to 12,000 fighting men, to be "few", or even fail to consider the math of the ratio of males to firstborn sons, numbered in Numbers 1 and 4.
Ordinarily, I would respond directly to the pastor when he makes such false statements, but this time, I will just work with the new worship leader. This man has a HUGE circle of influence. He knows worship leaders around the country, and I am talking about big names like Bradley Knight, and Roger Breland. This is big. This is really, really big. I am excited! I am VERY excited! This is HUGE!
