Are you a digamist? If so, the monogamy-only folk have you by the short and curleys. No, I have not misspelled 'bigamist' (a man married to two wives, first level polygyny). A Digamist is a man who has been married to two women but not at the same time, the first either having died or been divorced from him.

There are many Churches will will not allow a man to serve as an Elder or a Deacon if he has married for the second time, even if he is not guilty of adultery by divorcing his first wife contrary to the Law of Yahweh. Their rationale is based on that well-known false translation of 1 Timothy 3:2, which reads in our Anglo-Saxon translations: "Now the overseer (pastor/presiding elder/bishop) must be...the husband of but one wife.. (1 Tim.3:2, NIV).

According to the Digamist School of Wrong Thinking, a widower may not remarry and serve as a Church leader, believing that Paul is saying that he must be committed to one woman for his whole life and no more. Remarriage shows weakness, they believe, and a poor example to the Church. You would think that they thought marriage was intrinsically sinful and that one marriage was quite enough to irrepairably lower a man's spirituality and morality. This school of theology is remarkably Catholic in its outlook.

But is Paul actually prohibiting digamy (being legally married twice)? There are no other scriptures that remotely suggest that remarriage is wrong but rather the very opposite - remarriage is most appropriate and not a sign of weakness (Romans 7). Furthermore, Paul uses exactly the same language in 1 Timothy 5:14 where he urges young widows to remarry. Would the apostle counsel them to remarry if it would make them uneligible for church support at a later time of need?

O the woes of mistranslated 1 Timothy 3:2! How many lonely widower-pastors and other Church leaders have been denied companionship and support in their ministry because of these Indo-European prudes who in truth were only one step away from castrating the Church altogether? Thank Elohim (God) for the unprejudiced truth! May we never be so falsely holy as to stop being what we were created for: marriage.

Author: SBSK