[Magdalen] Bp. Wright OKs same sex weddings

[Sally Davies]

I was also wondering whether the very fact that whoever wrote the Epistle
had to specify that a church Elder should be "the husband of one wife",
meant that polygamy still occurred in that situation.

As far as I know, the Romans were not polygamous but they were polyamorous,
openly in the case of males and secretly (more or less) in the case of
females. Talking about patricians here, not Plebieans...

Here in Africa, of course, polygamy is still a key issue (our President has
four wives). It is considered a sign of wealth in traditional African
culture, though in his case it's a sign of yet another way to plunder the
public purse.

On the subject of odd church history, this tradition led to one of the most
peculiar schisms in Anglicanism, between Bishop Grey and Bishop Colenso.
Colenso, Bishop of Natal, declined to break up polygamous African homes. He
would have forbidden unmarried converts to become polygamists but believed
it was wrong to disrupt a system on which many helpless people depended
(women and children).

The Colenso church became what is, today "The Church of England IN South
Africa", which is Low church, Evangelical and "dispensationalist" i.e.
anti-Charismatic. The Grey church became the Church of the Province of
Southern Africa, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. So what was once
radical became conservative, and vice versa...

Not sure about the (pagan) Greeks of Biblical times - were they officially
polygamous?

Sally D

On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <
oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:

> The notion that the Bible does not condone marriage other than one man one
> woman is not supportable. One can't make an argument from silence and there
> are numerous situations in which polygamy is just reported
> matter-of-factly. Similarly sexual activity is reported without the hint of
> any sort of judgment. In the course of reading the Hebrew Bible, it became
> pretty clear to me, based on the text, that for Israelites, sex for
> recreation was both utterly unremarkable, and "better than sliced bread"
> (which had not been invented yet, but anyhoo...)
>
> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
> *“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
> except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy
>
> On Mon, Jun 29, 2015 at 8:02 PM, ME Michaud <michaudme at gmail.com
> <javascript:;>> wrote:
>
> > I always like to say that the Biblical model of marriage is
> >
> > one man
> > two or more wives
> > six or more concubines and enslaved women
> > and forty children,
> > half of whom are plotting to kill you,
> >
> > Good times!
> > -M
> >
> >
>
>