Sunday, July 25, 2010
Where are the women with a positive take on Biblical Patriarchy?
Here is a letter Tom received and his answer.
Tom Shipley,
I read your book, Man and Woman in Biblical Law, and enjoyed it. The biblical case for polygamy seems to be unassailable and I cannot argue with it. However, I do wonder about one thing. The mainstream views polygamy as extremely dehumanizing and barbaric, and the most perfect logical reasoning in the world will not get this notion out of people's heads, especially women's. You can find many books written by women who have lived in polygamy, hated it, and are now telling the world about how awful it is. I know that when you examine these cases closely (almost all Mormon), their misery is actually due to factors other than polygamy itself. But polygamy gets the blame. If polygamy is so great, why can I never find any books or articles, written by women, which speak favorably of it. With a lot of people, especially women, this sort of "emotional" reasoning would go a lot farther than rational biblical arguments to remove anti-polygamy prejudice. Maybe this ought not be the case with Christians who hold the Bible as the word of God, but it is in fact the case.
So if you can point me to any books or articles written by women who speak favorably of polygamy, please do this. I would love to here from you. Until I see this, I will continue to view polygamy as, if not sinful, at least inferior to monogamy.
Thanks,
Mike
Hello, Mike:
Thank you for your comments.
Alas! What you say is true. The "mainstream" (i.e., Humanists and Statists, Statist Humanists, and compromised Christian Statists and Christian socialists) despises polygamy, especially biblical polygamy, because it, unlike anything else, repudiates their worldview. It goes right to the heart of their religious presuppositions. Those who are of the secular Socialist faith will NEVER approve of polygamy until they are converted to faith in Jesus Christ (who is the Living Torah) and in the totality of His inspired Word. In the meantime they will cleave in idolatrous love to their surrogate husband, the secular socialist State.
I have little concern over this or with Mormons. "The Lord will judge them who are without."
My primary intended target audience is (or are) biblically literate Evangelicals who take the Word of God seriously. They are compromised by and with the world system and don't know it. But as long as they truly believe the Scriptures are the Word of God, there is hope for them. What is needed is for the truth to simply get a real hearing. Consider this: for all practical purposes, the case I am making has NEVER had a real hearing before the true Church. This is, in part, due to the fact that the case for polygyny has never had a true SYSTEMATIC defense of its precepts before. About the best case made prior to me was Martin Madan's "Thelyphthora," published, if memory serevs me, in 1781.
What I have done that no one else has ever done before (to my knowledge), including Madan, is to put forward a CREATIONAL pro-polygyny apology. This is POWERFUL. Up until now, the anti-patriarchal and monogamy-only proponents have enjoyed a FALSE MONOPOLY, claiming the exclusive defense of their thesis supposedly based upon the creation narrative of Genesis. I have exposed the fallacy of their doctrine. A creational defense was implicit in Augustine's statements upon the subject but never made explicit. And Augustine, like practically all of the early Church fathers, was deeply compromised with Manichaeanism and the philosophical asecticism engrained in Greek and Roman outlook. With the advent of my book, the debate on this subject can never be the same again.
In other words, do not look backwards. Look forward. History is linear, not circular, and progresses in one direction. Seeds sown in the present bear fruit in the future. The impact of the argument I have made will be felt and it will not be easily resisted. My case is simple and straightforward and easily grasped by the average person: Creation=patriarchy=polygyny.
Secondly, my defense of the patriarchy/polygyny thesis is SYSTEMATIC and complete. This is also powerful because it demonstrates that the thesis is not a "rabbit trail" out on a tangent somewhere. It is INTEGRAL to God's Law, His ethical system. It is, in fact, central.
Third, I have demonstrated that this doctrine advances, rather than repudiates, the CONSISTENCY of Scripture. You will have noted that a prominent and recurring criticism I have made of the opposing viewpoints is that they all rely heavily upon the supposition of "conflicts" in Scripture, of "inconsistencies," of "antinomies," of "concessions to sin." I have maintained (with specific exegesis) the complete and total HARMONY and consistency of Scripture. This also is very powerful. If one position fundamentally requires conflicts and inconsistencies in Scripture to validate its thesis, and the other fundamentally requires harmony and consistency, then which thesis has the most going for it from the point of view of one who believes the Bible to be the Word of God? The answer is clear.
In terms of historical progression, my book and the movement it is a part of is the vanguard of the cutting edge. This movement has just begun. And it is a patriarchal movement. Do not seek the leadership of women or their validation. It is we men of God who must take the lead, not the women. Everything else will follow in its appointed time.
I don't know where you found my book, but you might be interested to know that I have just released the final version in the last couple weeks or less. I have placed the book with Lulu Press. I now have an ISBN number; the book will now be listed in Books in Print; will now have exposure on and be available through Amazon, and now accessible to all Christian booksellers. If you believe that the case I have made is truly unassailable, would you be so kind as to point others to it? What this case needs at this time is exposure.
God bless you.
Tom Shipley
Page 1 of 1 pages