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Interview With Polygamist Winston Blackmore
CNN ^ | December 8, 2006 | Larry King Live

Posted on 12/13/2006 10:36:35 AM PST by Bushwacker777

"CALLER: Hello. Mr. Blackmore, do any of your wives work?

BLACKMORE: Just about all of them do.

KING: They all do?

BLACKMORE: Yes.

KING: And while they're working, who's watching the kids?

BLACKMORE: Well, they take -- they take turns. I mean, there's nurses; there's schoolteachers. There's some going to school to become, you know...

KING: Do you ever gather with all of them?

BLACKMORE: As often as we can.

KING: With all the wives?

BLACKMORE: Yes.

"

(Excerpt) Read more at transcripts.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: mormon; polygamy; romney
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To: taxcontrol
That is not biblical, chapter and verse please.....of where God "blesses" polygamy. Here is a few for you to chew on:

From the very beginning God created one woman for one man (see Genesis 1:27 2:21-25).

Deuteronomy 17:17 explicitly instructed the king not to “multiply wives.”

Moses’ law said, the king “shall not multiply horses to himself… Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold” (Deuteronomy 17:16-17).
41 posted on 12/13/2006 6:59:31 PM PST by ThisLittleLightofMine
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To: taxcontrol
And while the MEANING of the parable has nothing to do with a polygamist marriage, any person who has read the original Greek

Stop right there. I'll put my knowledge of the Koine up against yours anyday, so quit the grandstanding.

The parable contains no implication or hint of polygamy in any way, shape or form.

has studied the marriage customs of the 1st Century Jewish traditions

Where and under whom have you studied Jewish marriage customs of the Second Temple period?

Give me a quick explanation of the legal implications of the dziqa if you have.

Otherwise, give it up.

Ask yourself this. What would happen if the brother did not marry?

His sister-in-law would publicly denounce him, remove his footwear and spit at him.

Not exactly the most fearsome punishment in the law.

Study the texts for yourself, read the original Greek. Translate each word and explore the alternative meanings.

Yawn. Way ahead of you.

But thanks for the condescension.

BTW - the proper spelling of the word is "milquetoast."

42 posted on 12/13/2006 7:16:32 PM PST by wideawake ("The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten." - Calvin Coolidge)
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To: JRochelle

>>Abraham and Sarah didn't have any children.

Cue Jeopardy Music,

Answer: The mother of Isaac, First wife of Abraham Matriarch of all the tribes of Israel.
.
.
.
Question: Who is Sara in the bible?

>>Then Abraham marries Keturah-AFTER Sarah is dead.

Yep, and then had Concubines…

Gen 25:1 THEN again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.

Gen 1:5 And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.
Gen 1:6 But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.

>>Saying polygamy is biblical is true, doesn't mean it was sanctioned by God. Using that method of thinking slavery and stonings, etc. is biblical too.

God never said Slavers were good. Stonings, you mean in the Law of Moses?

Gods said these specific polygamists were good while they were married to more than one wife. For me that ends the discussion of whether or not it is a sin.

Legal? That’s a secular Issue, but nope.
Smart? (Not in my book)
Easy? (Not on your life)

You guys just don’t get it, polygamy is Biblical, not condemned in either the old or new testament, and is approved of (by God calling some of the most important patriarchs righteous while they were married to more than one woman). So it is not a sin.

Nice try.


43 posted on 12/13/2006 7:23:53 PM PST by DelphiUser ("You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think")
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To: Bushwacker777
Hey, you started another "Die, heretic!" thread! LOL!

Polygamous relationships only work if all of the women involved are bisexual. One man with 20 straight, frigid, brainwashed "wives" is just an abusive personality cult.

44 posted on 12/13/2006 7:30:15 PM PST by Mr. Jeeves ("When the government is invasive, the people are wanting." -- Tao Te Ching)
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To: taxcontrol
Your assertion that Jews had given up the practice of polygamy by the Second Temple is patently and provably false.

LOL! yet you adduce no evidence to prove it.

Jews were practicing polygamy well into the middle ages.

Some Jews who lived under Islamic rule readopted polygamy in the 800s - it was not a practice continued through the ages.

You need to go back and study the allowable reasons for divorce were under Jewish law.

LOL! The reasons for divorce in the Torah are completely vague. In practice the Jews could and did divorce their wives for any reason under the sun.

David's wives were given as a BLESSING FROM GOD.

No, they weren't.

Was Bathsheba truly a blessing from God? Was God pleased with that whole scenario?

No, in point of fact, 2 Sam 12:8 read truthfully in its context refutes your entire argument.

Nathan the prophet is berating David because God has allowed David - despite his sins - to enjoy so many privileges and amenities including his multiple wives.

This passage in no way endorses or blesses polygamy - do you really think that Nathan came to bless David and his deeds in the name of the Lord?

Or did he rather rebuke him and curse him?

45 posted on 12/13/2006 7:33:05 PM PST by wideawake ("The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten." - Calvin Coolidge)
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To: DelphiUser
Those men sinned too; hence the sacrifices.

To claim God sanctioned polygamy is crazy.

The ten commandments state clearly that adultery is a sin.
So having concubines was o.k.?
What is the purpose of the commandment against adultery if it was o.k. to have so many wives and concubines?
46 posted on 12/13/2006 8:18:17 PM PST by JRochelle (Duncan Hunter 2008!)
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To: taxcontrol

I'll pray for you.


47 posted on 12/13/2006 10:00:39 PM PST by Albion Wilde (...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. -2 Cor 3:17)
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To: DelphiUser

I'll pray for you, too. Be blessed.


48 posted on 12/13/2006 10:03:02 PM PST by Albion Wilde (...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. -2 Cor 3:17)
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To: JRochelle

>>Those men sinned too; hence the sacrifices.

Man O man, so Abraham is now a “Sinner” to you? (If you mean that in the “all have sinned” context, point taken, if you mean he was committing a sin (being married to two wives) while God was blessing him, we disagree.)

>>To claim God sanctioned polygamy is crazy.

No, it’s correct. Abraham was married to two women while being blessed,

Second Samuel Chapter 12
7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
8 And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.

Then I am crazy.

>>The ten commandments state clearly that adultery is a sin.
Polygamy - (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Polygamy)
Adultery - (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/adultery)
Polygamy is not Adultery.

“Words mean things.” – Rush Limbaugh

>> So having concubines was o.k.?
IF ok means lawful, then Yes they had no law against it.
If you mean moral, then yes for some of the men who practiced this were highly blessed of the lord.

Try this on for size. God commanded Adam to multiply and replenish the earth. That command has never been repealed that I know of. Those who are more righteous keep the commandments to a higher standard, so they multiply more.

(Just for the record, I am not, nor have I ever been in favor of polygamy, but the statements here require that I state the truth that polygamy is biblical, and that “Logic” supports it, not the “polygamy is not Biblical” view.)

>> What is the purpose of the commandment against adultery if it was o.k. to have so many wives and concubines?

The purpose of the commandment against Adultery was to keep people from having sex outside of a marriage. (I mean really, you didn’t get that?)

Polygamy is a Marriage, just like the first marriage, only you have more than one wife.

Polyandry is a marriage, just like the first marriage only you have more than one husband.

Anti Adultery commandments are a prohibition against Sex outside of a legal union. What is a legal union has changed and now polygamy is illegal. There was no such provision in the Law of Moses, or before.


49 posted on 12/13/2006 10:19:29 PM PST by DelphiUser ("You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think")
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To: Albion Wilde

>>I'll pray for you, too. Be blessed.

I never turn down a sincere offer for someone to pray for me.

Please also Mention to the Lord that I have a son who needs his help (I have been praying for him for 10 years, and he is making great strides, he is autistic.)

May God watch over you.


50 posted on 12/13/2006 10:22:53 PM PST by DelphiUser ("You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think")
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To: DelphiUser
So Abraham was committing adultery whenever he slept with his concubines.

A concubine is not a wife. That would be adultery.

Hagar was no blessing to Abraham. She was given to him by Sarah because Sarah thought she was too old to have a child. She doubted God. The Arabs are the punishment for that sin. No blessing there.

And frankly I don't put much stock into what Nathan said. Anyone can say anything and claim it came from God.
51 posted on 12/14/2006 5:56:12 AM PST by JRochelle (Duncan Hunter 2008!)
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To: DelphiUser; JRochelle
DU, Abraham's polygamy is an extremely poor case study if you are arguing for divine approval of polygamy.

God gave Abraham assurance that he would have many descendants.

Yet Abraham and Sarah did not have faith in this assurance and the taking of Hagar as a concubine was an act of doubt in God's providence.

The issue of the concubinage with Hagar was a curse to Abraham, Ishmael and his descendants were persecutors of his true heirs and are to this very day.

Scripture shows that Abraham's polygamy was an utter and enduring disaster.

52 posted on 12/14/2006 6:54:04 AM PST by wideawake ("The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten." - Calvin Coolidge)
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To: JRochelle
And frankly I don't put much stock into what Nathan said.

You ought to. His words are part of the Scripture and his prophecy was the prophecy of God.

However, his words are far from an endorsement of polygamy.

Basically, Nathan says that God is saying: "Look David, I gave you all kinds of things - authority, kingship, victories, lands, wives, anything you could have wanted. But you killed loyal Uriah and took his wife for yourself. You've gone too far and I'm punishing you. I'm going to kill your son."

This is hardly a pro-polygamy peptalk. It does no reference plygamy in any positive way.

53 posted on 12/14/2006 6:58:20 AM PST by wideawake ("The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten." - Calvin Coolidge)
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To: wideawake
As for proof I thought the subject so well established that you would be able to do your own research. Since you did not, I will provide a starting point.

While there is no evidence of a polyandrous state in primitive Jewish society, polygamy seems to have been a well-established institution, dating from the most ancient times and extending to modern days. The Law indeed regulated and limited this usage; and the prophets and the scribes looked upon it with disfavor. Still all had to recognize its existence, and not until late was it completely abolished. At no time, however, was it practiced so much among the Israelites as among other nations; and the tendency in Jewish social life was always toward MONOGAMY.

The Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. "Polygamy," Vol. X, pages 120-122 available at http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=425&letter=P&search=polygamy

Further evidence can be found in Some Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews (particularly those from Yemen and Iran, where polygamy is a social norm) who discontinued polygamy much more recently, and the State of Israel had to make provisions for polygamous families immigrating after its 1948 creation, though new polygamous marriages are forbidden in Israel. Once again showing that polygamy was common enough to need to be addressed in law in the modern world.

At issue is not that polygamy is the norm ... rather the question as original posed, is it a Christian (and through subsequent debate, Jewish) practice. Jews have been and continue to practice polygamy. No it is not common, no it is not custom, but non the less, it is practiced.

No scripture ever states that having more than one wife is a sin. It falls into that area of actions that make it difficult to keep ones hart on God. Like the story of the rich man who asked Jesus what must he do to have riches in heaven. When Jesus told him to sell everything and follow him, he was showing that the man's hart was not on God but rather his wealth. Likewise, a polygamist is choosing a much harder road to follow. But it is not impossible for a wealthy man to be saved just more difficult.

As for the divorce issue, you are correct, the Talmud allows for divorce for just about any reason and thus, many Jews throughout history have practiced "serial polygamy" - Divorcing one woman to marry another. I postulate that the permissive divorce law created and currently supports this state of serial polygamy and is still practiced in the Jewish (and Christian) community today.

The passage reads:
Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.'

The following points are made in the passage:
1) The Lord God is making the following statement
2) God anointed David King of Israel
3) God then recites his blessings
- delivery from the hands of Saul
- gave him his masters house
- gave him his masters wives into his arms (sexual relations)
- gave him the house of Judea and Israel
4) God then says that had this not been enough, he would have given him even more
5) Then God asks why David turned away from God and did evil
- killing Uriah and taking his wife
- the evil God chastens David with is NOT POLYGAMY
- the evil God accuses is murder, lust, greed, marrying a Hittite (against Jewish law), and perhaps worse, despising God
54 posted on 12/14/2006 7:23:59 AM PST by taxcontrol
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To: Albion Wilde

Thank you, and I will pray for you as well.


55 posted on 12/14/2006 7:24:44 AM PST by taxcontrol
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To: JRochelle

>>So Abraham was committing adultery whenever he slept with his concubines.

No, a Concubine had the status of a wife, just not the right to inherit.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Concubine)

The meaning of the word concubine has changed over the centuries, back then it had this meaning:

2. In certain societies, such as imperial China, a woman contracted to a man as a secondary wife, often having few legal rights and low social status.

See the word wife in there? I do.

>> A concubine is not a wife. That would be adultery.

See above, you are incorrectly applying the word from today’s use to scriptures written in another era. When the word meant something else. Abraham was not an adulterer.

>> Hagar was no blessing to Abraham.

I disagree.

>> The Arabs are the punishment for that sin.

Got Scripture?

No?

Got Speculation = Got Nothing.

>> And frankly I don't put much stock into what Nathan said.

2 Sam 12: 1 AND the LORD sent Nathan unto David….

Um he was a prophet… Why do you read the Bible? Do you realize that it was written by these guys who were prophets?

>> Anyone can say anything and claim it came from God.

Um, yes, there are even people who think they are God, those whose writings are accepted cannon of Christian churches more than 2000 years later, however are a much smaller group.

As for me, I’m gonna go with the bible on this one, wait! That’s what this whole discussion is about! You are saying the bible does not support Polygamy, by ignoring parts of the bible and saying “And frankly I don't put much stock into what” you might as well end with “the bible says” here.

>> Anyone can say anything and claim it came from God.

Get thee behind me Satan! There is just so many ways I could play with this statement, but most involve me claiming to have revelation from God and my pursuit of humor breaks off where I would have to gross the line of Blasphemy.


56 posted on 12/14/2006 8:07:00 AM PST by DelphiUser ("You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think")
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To: wideawake

>>DU, Abraham's polygamy is an extremely poor case study if you are arguing for divine approval of polygamy.

OK, then logically disprove it.
Also disprove Jacob’s
Also disprove David’s (before Bathsheba)
I’ve got more, just not as famous.

>>God gave Abraham assurance that he would have many descendants.

Yes he did, and it was because Abraham was very righteous, not because he was going to become an adulterer.

>>Yet Abraham and Sarah did not have faith in this assurance and the taking of
>>Hagar as a concubine was an act of doubt in God's providence.

Got Scripture?

No?

Got Speculation = Got Nothing.

>>The issue of the concubinage with Hagar was a curse to Abraham,
>>Ishmael and his descendants were persecutors of his true heirs and
>>are to this very day.

Persecution is not a curse, quite often it keeps the persecuted on the path God intends for them.

>>Scripture shows that Abraham's polygamy was an utter and enduring disaster.

We seem to have problem here with the confusion of Opinion (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/opinion) and Fact (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Fact). Many on this forum continually state their opinion as fact. I understand this proclivity as the Media today does this all the time. However, it does not become us, and it does not make for polite and rational discussions (however it can be fun to attack with logic, and I am having fun on this thread!)


57 posted on 12/14/2006 8:33:27 AM PST by DelphiUser ("You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think")
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To: DelphiUser
I have.

You have to prove your implied thesis: that everything God permits is what He desires most for His children.

That is disproven, since Jesus instructs us that His Father permitted divorce under the law of Moses because of man's weakness.

Is the capacity to divorce a blessing that God desires and encourages?

No.

It is a concession He had made to man's sin-flawed nature.

Abraham took a concubine because he was impatient with God's promise of descendants.

Jacob took concubines because he was immorally deceived into marrying his first wife and the rest because of infertility.

David took multiple wives ebcause Saul had multiple wives, and given the nature of Saul's ascendancy in Israel, repudiation of any of Saul's wives would be a repudiation of the alliances forged through those marriages that kept Israel a unified nation.

BTW, there is no Scriptural evidence that Bathsheba was a Hittite. She had a Hebrew name and so did her father. And of course, David's own great-grandmother was a non-Israelite Moabite married to an Israelite - and that Moabite-marrying Israelite was indeed blessed by being made the forefather of the King of Israel and of the Messiah.

Got Scripture?

It has been cited. Isaac the heir was born to Sarah as God promised. There was no need to look beyond Sarah for the son of the promise, but Abraham did anyway.

You say he did so because of some special blessing to be found in polygamy.

there is no Scriptural evidence for this.

What we do see here is what we see here continually throughout Scripture: God being exceedingly good, and ungrateful men not appreciating their blessings but reaching for more.

Persecution is not a curse

LOL! What a bizarre statement.

We seem to have problem here with the confusion of Opinion (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/opinion) and Fact (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Fact). Many on this forum continually state their opinion as fact. I understand this proclivity as the Media today does this all the time. However, it does not become us, and it does not make for polite and rational discussions (however it can be fun to attack with logic, and I am having fun on this thread!)

Congratulations on the most condescendingly egomaniacal paragraph i've read on FR in some time.

58 posted on 12/14/2006 10:47:11 AM PST by wideawake ("The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten." - Calvin Coolidge)
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To: Bushwacker777
"...if a man has 4 wives maybe he and two of the wives work outside the home and two could take care of all the children."

Hell, I can't handle the ONE that I have. Why in the heck would anybody (in their right mind, of course) want 3 more?!!!

BTW, I'm pretty certain she feels the same about me. ;-)

59 posted on 12/14/2006 10:53:12 AM PST by Hatteras
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To: taxcontrol
"Late" - not until after the Second Temple period.

As I said in my post, the practice of polygamy which had been abandoned for centuries was revived in the Islamic period as a way of fitting in.

No scripture ever states that having more than one wife is a sin.

It's clear that polygamy - like divorce - was a concession made to man's weakness in the preMessianic period, not a sin but not a laudable practice either.

Not only does Jesus describe marriage as being between a man and a woman, but he sets aside divorce as a no-longer-acceptable concession to man's weakness.

The New Testament, whenever it discusses marriage, assumes monogamy as the underlying standard.

Christians have never practiced polygamy and never accepted it as permissible.

For a Christian to permit it or engage in it would be a complete repudiation of the highest historical standards of Christian behavior as practiced from the apostolic age down to this.

60 posted on 12/14/2006 10:56:31 AM PST by wideawake ("The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten." - Calvin Coolidge)
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