Polyamory Is Not “Next;” It’s Here Now, In the Churches

Polyamory Is Not “Next,” It’s Here Now, In the Churches

This blog post is a follow up to an earlier on where I asked the Texas Baptist minister who wrote a column for the Baptist News about “embracing the slippery slope.” I won’t repeat that blog post here. I will only say that I asked him where the slippery slope ends. Many churches have become “welcoming and affirming” with regard to gay marriage if not extra-marital gay sex.

I need to say here again that I am NOT addressing the practice of gay sex or gay marriage or even polyamory outside of Christian churches; I’m only addressing a question about how far churches will go in departing from traditional moral norms.

I asked what “welcoming and affirming” churches will do when polyamorous people want to be accepted within the churches. One responder here said that he is “anti-mononormative.” That means he opposes keeping monogamous, heterosexual sex and marriage as the norm even within Christian churches. Other responders rejected or ignored my question, brushing it off as unlikely ever to be an issue.

Here I want to suggest that you all look at three web sites: “Southern Baptist Preacher Affirms Polyamory (Interview with Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood)”; “Lutheran ‘Love’: ELCA Bishop Leila Ortiz Praises Polyamory;” and “United Methodist Queer Clergy: Gospel Can Affirm Polyamory.” These illustrate my point, that polyamory isn’t “the possible next thing” but already here, accepted by some in American Christian churches.

Again I ask what progressive churches will do when an openly and proud polyamorous person or family comes into the church seeking acceptance. It is bound to happen in many especially progressive Protestant churches.

One responder here argued that “love” cannot be healthy between more than two persons. Polyamorous people will strongly disagree; they do strongly disagree—as do some church leaders.

I predict that the “slippery slope” mentioned by the Texas Baptist minister who wrote the opinion column for the Baptist Press will not end where he leaves it. It may for some progressive churches, for a time, but as the culture comes to accept polyamory as normal, they will struggle to exclude it from their ranks and ultimately be unsuccessful.

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