Polygamy!

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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SPEAKER_2 (0:30)

Some people think nature is like this, but actually it's like this. That's why Columbia engineers everything we make for anything nature can throw at you. Columbia engineered for whatever.

Dan McClellan (0:46)

Thus you should say to them, my little finger is thicker than my father's loins.

Dan Beecher (0:51)

I'm going to assume that means what I think it means.

Dan McClellan (0:54)

It does. He's holding up his pinky and going, this is bigger than my dad's Johnson.

Hey everybody, I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (1:08)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (1:10)

And you're listening to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion, and we combat that pernicious spread of misinformation about the same. How are things today, Dan?

Dan Beecher (1:23)

Things are good. Things are good. Yeah, we've got a fascinating one.

This, I'm looking forward to this because the comments are about to get unhinged up in her.

Dan McClellan (1:37)

Yeah.

Dan Beecher (1:38)

If you don't watch our show on YouTube, which is totally great, most of the people who partake of our wares don't. You might want to head over there and just see what the people are saying, because people might get riled up, because we're going to talk polygamy and Dan's a Mormon, so ipso facto problems or something, historically speaking.

Dan McClellan (2:06)

Yes.

Dan Beecher (2:07)

And so, yeah, we're going to talk about that in the first half of the show. And then in the second half of the show, we're going to get to one of one of the great practitioners of polygamy.

Dan McClellan (2:19)

Probably one of the most famous, yeah.

Dan Beecher (2:21)

Yeah. We're going to do some Solomon stuff.

We're not going to talk about his polygamy in the second half. We might talk about it in the first half, probably.

Dan McClellan (2:32)

Probably will.

Dan Beecher (2:34)

Yeah, we're going to talk about the end of his reign and the beginning of his son and all kinds of other historical stuff surrounding that, or ahistorical or whatever. So that'll be, it'll actually be a lot of fun and it's very interesting. But first, let's dive in with taking issue.

And the issue we're taking, as we said, is polygamy, but more specifically, I think, polygyny. Because polygamy is, as the Google has told me, is the practice of marriage with either multiple men, multiple husbands or multiple wives. And I don't think that that first thing is what the Bible has anything to say on.

Dan McClellan (3:24)

It's new, not so much new. So yeah, we're talking about polygyny or plural marriage is another more English term. I don't know, but it's also unclear, but generally is referring to a man taking multiple wives. And this is in the news right now, because well, as of recording anyway. Who knows what the new cycle will be like.

Dan Beecher (3:50)

We may have been scooped by a couple of weeks on this. That's okay.

Dan McClellan (3:56)

There's a pastor in Missouri, named Rich Tidwell, who posted back in June on his blog, about basically coming out as polygamist. He has two wives and eight children between the two of them. Some of them have been adopted. But this, for whatever reason, people have only become aware of it recently, the beginning of November.

Dan Beecher (4:23)

Somebody went, oh, wait a minute, wait, what?

Dan McClellan (4:27)

And so it has caused a bit of a firestorm on social media, as evangelicals are swooping in to condemn this pastor, who posted a biblical defense of polygamy on his blog. And I want to talk about the argument that he makes, and then talk about whether or not I think it's supported by the data. Okay. But yeah, and certainly, you know, hijinks will ensue. There's plenty of opportunity for all kinds of comedy and other things.

Dan Beecher (5:04)

I'm just going to put a marker down now. Me being the ignorant guy on the podcast, I am definitely putting a marker down for the Bible supports polygamy quite a bit.