Posted on 11/10/2025 11:53:22 PM PST by Morgana
Rich Tidwell is the pastor of Ormond Church, a small non-denominational gathering in Canton, MO, that was founded more than a decade ago.
According to his website, he is a husband, father, YouTube Apologist, polemicist, and is a “passionate follower of The Way.” Married to his wife Brandi more for more than 14 years, they have have seven children together, some adopted.
He believes “proper hermeneutics are derived from examining original languages, cultural context, and multi-verse coherence” and that “Crippled by fear and compromised by tradition, Rich is convinced the status-quo Church is due a second reformation.”
At first glance everything looks pretty normal, but a quick perusal of his Instagram account instantly raises eyebrows with this announcement from this past June, where Tidwell dropped this blockbuster.
So here’s the big announcement: my name is Rich Tidwell, I have two beautiful wives, and my second wife is expecting my 8th child! We’re thrilled for what the Lord has done for our family (see Luke 18:29-30)!
This announcement of having acquired a new wife was followed up with an article on his website on “Biblical Polygamy,” where he writes:
In 2019 I discovered the surprising fact that God not only never prohibited polygamy throughout the entire Biblical narrative (as He did with polyandry or homosexuality), He divinely ordained it in several cases including David (2 Sam 12:7-8), Jacob (Gen 30:18), and Joash (2 Chron 24:2-3), among others. In contrast with homosexuality–which is outright prohibited (Lev 18:22, Rom 1:26-27)—God lawfully regulated the practice of plural marriage (Ex 21:10, Deut 21:15-17, Lev 18:18).
Mark and avoid this church for sure.
It actually is allowed on biblical grounds. If you look at the new testament restrictions of one wife, they apply only to men who are in church leadership positions.
Most of the major OT patriarchs had multiple wives. They were never rebuked by God for that, it was not a problem or anything viewed as bad. In fact God even told David He would have given him more wives instead of having him have Uriah killed in battle and taking his wife.
The real question is, what sane man would marry one modern woman today, much less, several of them? Thats insane.
He should just move to Utah, where this has a long history.
Oh so, the other point I forgot is that this pastor is right that multiple wives is ok, but he’s wrong that he can do it, as a church leader. Just one wife max, for church leaders.
It is more than three, my man. There are children involved. How are they going to turn out? Considering the adults causal attitude toward sex and marriage. How many of the under age females has he been intimate or attempted to be intimate with?
At least he is outvoted every single time.
Everything about the OT is a narrative that we are to learn from. It rarely turned out well for the Patriarch in question when he choose to have more than one wife.
The lesson we are supposed to draw from are obedience to sexual boundaries, not take it as license.
As an interesting side note, when Nathan confronted David about his act of unfaithfulness, he pronounced his own sentence that four men should die.
David got to witness the death of his four sons.
It doesn’t matter if it did turn out well or not. It wasn’t sinful behavior in God’s eyes, given many of the men He chose had multiple wives. He never ever listed this as any issue Hehad with them.
Of course it made thingsmore complicated. That’s a captain obvious observation.
My point is it wasn’t sinful, it was allowed, and it helped women out who otherwise wouldn’t have been married and taken care of by a man who had resources to do so.
It would be insane for guys to do that now, even for one wife, given the sad state of modern women.
David didn’t say having multiple wives was his sin, it was him going after an already married woman and orchestrating her husbands death, that were the issues.
You misunderstand the OT on this point. God didn’t have to, with his lightning bolts and awesomeness, pronounce to the Israelites that polygamy was not part of His plan.
He let nature run its course and let them be punished for their actions by allowing them to reap their rewards. It was up to the Ancient Israelites to figure it out that it didn’t work.
biblical, but not legal.
If polygamy was a permissible activity, Jews would be doing it to this day. They figured it out. :)
That simply isn’t true. They haven’t even figured out Jesus is Lord/God.
I disagree. We aren’t going to get anywhere, lets call it a day.
Convenient that males who wrote the Bible gave themselves extra wives but no extra husband for the females..similar to Muslims and mormons...laws written by men for men.
So is child sacrifice and slavery. What a loon
Allowing something and sanctifying it are two different things. From the beginning, we have all come from two sets of monogamous couples, Adam and Eve, Noah and his wife, and by extension, his three sons, each with only one wife. No spares on the ark for any of them! Starting out the New Testament, Joseph only had one wife, Mary. Church elders were only supposed to have one wife. It seems pretty clear to me that polygamy was tolerated when the world had a tiny population, and that monogamy was practiced from the beginning. How can two people become one if there’s a third person involved? It simply makes no sense.
We can ask God about the whys and wherefores, but I am reminded that Jesus is the bridegroom coming for His bride, the church. Not churches, church, the one body of believers.
Yeah, well so is stoning to death for adultery, right pastor?
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