Posted on 05/13/2008 2:10:34 PM PDT by forkinsocket
Nigeria's Anglican leader has told the country's many Christian polygamists to give up their extra wives.
In a letter to the faithful, Archbishop Peter Akinola warned the issue could "make a mockery" of the church.
Until now, converts to Christianity have been allowed to keep their polygamous relationships.
Bishop Ali Buba Lamido told the BBC that it was difficult to convert polygamous Muslims to Christianity unless they could keep their wives.
Bishop Ali Buba of the Wusasa diocese in northern Kaduna State, said that as much as 10% of some congregations in the north can be in polygamous marriages.
Nigeria is deeply divided between the mostly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian and animist south.
The archbishop's letter comes ahead of the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops in July.
With 17.5 million members, the Nigerian Anglican Church is the second largest in the communion.
'Biblical truth'
"Those of us who are in the forefront of the prophetic call for a return to Biblical truth, cannot close our eyes to the increasingly blatant disregard for the teaching of the Bible on family life," wrote the archbishop.
"The observation will destroy our witness if not firmly addressed. We cannot claim to be a Bible-believing church and yet be selective in our obedience."
Bishop Lamido told the BBC News website that polygamous converts are prevented from taking leadership positions in the church until they accept monogamy.
If they do separate, the women usually give up their children to the care of their ex-husbands.
"These women remain in the church, and can marry again, but mostly they decide to remain single. It is often difficult for them to restart family life," he said.
Archbishop Akinola has led opposition by some European and American Anglicans to ordain gay priests.
The BBC's Andrew Walker in Abuja says the archbishop's letter may be an attempt to head off criticism about "unscriptural practices" in his own back yard.
If the Christian principle of monogamy continued to be ignored, "it will make a mockery of whatever else we stand for," the archbishop wrote.
So if a man has five or six wives, and all but one leaves her children with him, then he takes care of 30-odd children? What a mess!
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. This is something that missionaries over the centuries have encountered. The general rule followed was that ripping apart families and destroying lives in the name of Jesus was not the answer. The families who already were in culturally-accepted polygamous marriages when they became Christians were allowed to remain as a family, but those who were not in polygamous marriages were to now to follow the biblical norm of one spouse per person. In one generation the polygamous “problem” would be resolved.
I would'nt mind seeing that portion of the letter sent to many churches right here in the good 'ole US of A.
And there is the matter of being fair to the wives. By stating that a girl possibly forced into becoming a second wife is now illegitimate and loses her children because they join a more humane religion doesn’t aid in the argument.
what faith group are they speaking of - I know of no prots or Catholics who are polygamous
Next to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Akinola is surely the most powerful single Anglican bishop in the world. All the Anglicans/Episcopalians in the English speaking West: USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, and the UK could into one of his 11 provinces.... He has something like 17 Million Anglicans (who are overwealmingly orthodox/evangelical) under his care in Nigeria, in addition to overseeing the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) which constitutes over 20% of the ex-Episcopalians in Virginia...
Imagine too, trying to be the leader of a country's Christian church where HALF the population of the country are fundamentalist Moslems.
Anglicans make up the 3rd largest Church in the world.
Nigerian Anglican Church
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglicans
It seems that by definition they are Protestants.
You play, you pay
LOL
I agree with you - the situation appears to be a muslim carryover, rather than a position of the Church. I dont think anyone in thier right mind would call this situation condoned by the larger Church, rather it sounds as if there is difficulty at the local level....time for a housecleaning
Yes, monogamy is the Scriptural practice: Tim. 3:2,12; Titus 1:5-7; 1 Cor. 7:2; Matt. 19; Gen. 2:23-25; Deut. 17:17; Lev. 18:18. The Israelites viewed monogamy as the most acceptable form of marriage -- stated openly in Deut. 17:17 & Gen. 2:24 + implied by Hebrew laws in Ex. 20:17; 21:5; Lev. 18:8,16-20; 20:10; Num. 5:12; Deut. 5:21.
The practice of polygamy historically is rooted in the person of Lamech, the initial polygamist who was a violent Cainite. It was then practiced thru the pagan custom of ancient Mesopotamia.
“but it could certainly be argued that the Catholics are the ones that have drifted on these issues away from traditional beliefs, not us.”
I am sure there are many Catholics here on FR that will argue the inverse.
Thanks for your thoughts.
I guess my question is: Are these people considered True Christians or just half-way there with a few more things to clear up before they are saved?
Polygamy as a common practice in Africa goes way back before Islam.
that may or may not be....I am basing my comments on the information presented....and it appears that while your contention may be accurate - they arent “Christian” in any sense of the term as evidenced by the Denominations response.
Well, that's a good question.
But your question is predicated on what they do. (And I would say what makes a person an authentic Christian is what Christ has done and if that person has remained related to Him...John 17:3)
On matters pertaining to salvation, Jesus put the emphasis back in God's hands:
Then they asked him, "What must WE DO to DO the WORKS God requires?" Jesus answered, "The WORK OF GOD is this: to believe in the one he has sent." (John 6:28-29)
The cross and the belief in the Christ who died there is no "halfway" endeavor of man; it’s rather the all-the-way endeavor of Christ followed up by the Holy Ghost…the apostle Paul says that “no one” can truly claim Christ as Lord “except by the Holy Ghost.” (1 Cor. 12:3)
Therefore, both of these verses together conclusively tell us that belief is in the work of God inside of us that we receive (other verses say this is a “gift”). As with any gift we’ve rec’d, we either exercise it or put it aside in the closet, like a fruitcake.
To exercise that gift is to trust, believe, that God in Christ Jesus has saved you from your sin, death, and the power of the evil one. That trust transcends any “circumstance,” including polygamy. For these families, they need to now make the decision if they are going to trust him to show that in all things God works for the good of those who love him (Rom. 8:28).
I would imagine some will make the sacrifice--if their heavenly inheritance will weigh greater than any possible inheritance loss by the children: And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. (Matt. 19:29, KJV).
Again, an inheritance is nothing one “earns.” (He receives it by seeing a son to the father). When Paul spoke about this inheritance, he wrote: Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders. nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you WERE. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:9-11)
According to John 3:18, unbelievers aren’t condemned for their sin (otherwise we’d all be guilty with no hope). Unbelievers are condemned for their unbelief in Jesus. So folks are neither “halfway” to hell nor “halfway” to heaven. We all are guilty in our sin; we’re either declared acquitted by the substitute blood of Christ, or lost outside of Christ. The sexually immoral, the idolaters, the adulterers, etc. are already lost…we just don’t know which ones are “already lost” and which ones the Lord will transform & become part of the such were ”some of you” crowd in the Corinthian church.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. (Folks cite John 3:16 all the time, but fewer keep reading to verse 18)
I'm not sure that 'continues' is the right word. The current Pope is having to clean up a mess in that area that was created over many decades.
The problem is that there are still a ton of Muslims in Nigeria (and it doesn’t look like that will end anytime soon) which means that polygamy won’t simply “die out” in a generation or so as they will be getting polygamist converts for generations to come. Given this, I am not surprised that +Akinola is ending this particular application of economia.
Yes, it really is a mess, and Christians in that part of the world are enduring hardships (mostly at the hands of Muslims, and their heretical western brothers certainly aren’t helping matters by kowtowing to Islam) the likes of which most of us can hardly even imagine. Pray for this Godly bishop and his flock.
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