I think polygamy is a a very interesting concept and my wife and I have discussed it quite a lot - knowing LDS history explains why we'd discuss it at all - but there is always a possibility that it would be brought back (and that would see many LDS disappearing I suspect!) It adds a certain timbre to the conversations when it may actually be a possibility in the future. I like the idea where the need exists but I don't see any need for it right now so it's a moot point for me. I would struggle to live it though.
IF God exists I also wonder whether these questions would really have any weight anyway since if you believe you are under a certain obligation to obey regardless of personal feelings assuming that God would know better.
Why did God allow concubines among the faithful?
by AK - Jeff 46 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Qcmbr
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AK - Jeff
No matter how much you explain around these kinds of activity, it still remains a tremendous incongruety if you want to hold forth the Bible and God's Chosen People as the standard of moral authority.
This is the place I am at currently with this. Example; when one of David's sons usurped the throne, he publicly raped David's concubines. Several questions arise;
- Why did the absolute king, who could have taken several wives, feel a need to take concubines in the first place? Was this not a demonstration of public acceptance of mistreatment and perhaps sexual slavery done in the palace itself?
- Why did the usurping son feel a desire to publickly humiliate these women? Was it not clearly an indication of the culture of this people to do such a degrading thing to them.
The hypocricy of the whole thing just sickens me [hence the start of the thread], and makes me wonder why we would want to hold up David and others, who for sheer power over the women-slaves he held, set such a miserable character example for the nation.
Jeff
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Gill
Qcmbr - There is never any NEED for sex slavery, only a DESIRE by disturbed, power hungry men!
Would you want your son to be a concubine?
Why would you allow your daughter to be a concubine?
If you can't answer these questions, why are you even entertaining the 'possibility' of there ever being a NEED for such a cruel and inhuman practice as sex slaver?
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Qcmbr
Hi Gill, no of course I wouldn't want my children to be 'sex slaves' but I don't see polygamy as being the same concept as concubines.
Isaiah 4
1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.
I read this scripture and it's adjoining verses as referring to a still future time and so if this prophecy is true then there will be a day when the above (whatever the above is) happens, there isn't any sexual slavery implied here. I don't think the concubinus of Rome (male sexual slavery) was ever part of Israelite culture.
Would I rather my daughter was married to a righteous man as part of a polygamous relationship or would I rather she died alone - well in the context of assuming God had re-instituted that practice AND that my daughter had found such a situation acceptable then why not. I don't arrange marriages nor do I see women as mere goods. I hope my daughters will be smart enough to make their own minds up on all matters - that's certainly what I try to instill in them. -
Gill
Qcmbr - I told you that it was possible to make the bible say anything you want it to say!
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Qcmbr
Gill - I agree - a salutary lesson to all who still accept the JW faith purely upon biblical interpretation.
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elatwra
Qcumbr
Regarding your theory of polygamy being acceptable only if the man has multiple wives but not if a woman has multiple husbands, I discovered something interesting the other day. Did you know that Joseph Smith married several women who were already married to other men? Without divorces taking place first. So apparently women marrying several men was ok in the early history of LDS.Also he told one of his elders that he considered giving his(Joseph's) wife to the elder but the angel stopped him(how very convenient). If the LDS God reinstated polygamy for women also how would you feel if you wife wanted to love and serve more husbands than one?