Does that image bother you? Then you need to read on.
At our house we’ve just watched The Jesus Music, a documentary on Contemporary Christian Music over the years. I actually watched it twice, once with my family, once with my 89-year-old parents. It was meaningful to me for a number of reasons, primarily because of the impact the music has had in my life over the decades. I also saw most of the pre-2000 musicians covered in person at some point, including the father of Christian rock Larry Norman on at least 9 different occasions over 25 years, Amy Grant at age 17 (at Jesus ’78), and Keith Green (very impactful). My sister attended Explo ’72, the most visible event of the Jesus Movement - I was too young.
But watching it the 2nd time another parallel with my life struck me. In the early years, the musicians bringing this foreign music were often NOT welcome in the church - it didn’t matter that it was all about Jesus, it was the devil’s music, and you simply couldn’t dress or grow your hair like a hippie and be considered a Christian. They were even actively preached against, causing some of them to be seriously hurt or walk away. Larry often addressed it directly in his lyrics, most notably with “Why should Devil have all the good music”.
Eventually, the tide shifted to acceptance - thanks to support from Calvary Chapel and Billy Graham - and God proved again that He can use anything he wants to reach people. I don’t care what music you like - I’m still partial to the Hymns I grew up singing, in a church that really knew how to sing them. He is bigger than your (and my) preferences and prejudices, and He will use what He wants, for what ever purpose He wants - and you won’t be a part of most of it, and the sooner you make your peace with that, the better your fellowship will be with those He is doing a different work with. Don’t judge another man’s servant - Roman’s 14:4 (or his music!). It’s better to withhold judgement, then to risk attacking something God may be using, that you can’t possibly understand at this point in your walk/life. ‘Woe to those who call evil good and good evil’ - Isaiah 5:20
Guess where I’m going yet?
I was in the ‘church’ my entire life. Still am in the Church (the body of Christ), no man can take that from me. But when a 2nd wife joined my family 25 years ago, my welcome in the ‘church’ ended abruptly. A week of meetings with pastors, a resignation letter to ease their suffering (really), and a church Tuesday night ‘family meeting’ that we were not invited to, to let our friends know that we were ‘following a different doctrine’. I was so naive at the time, kind of like the hippies with their Jesus Rock, perhaps. I knew what I had found was good, and it didn’t matter if you had a seminary degree and I didn’t - you aren’t the gatekeeper to my God and how he can use me, not since the Veil was torn! Can I get an ‘Amen’!?
So we still aren’t welcome in ‘church’ 25 years later - oh, we know how to attend and not stress anyone out, and I can meet with a pastor and perhaps find some sympathetic secret common ground, but at this point there’s been no Calvary Chapel or Billy Graham to stick their neck out and say ‘these polygamists believe the Gospel, and they don’t go against the Word, just our Western culture, and they ought to be accepted as the brothers and sisters they are’. I know, we haven’t hit anything like critical mass to cause it have to be addressed publicly by the church yet, and the first public responses will be very negative. I doubt we’ll see it my lifetime, but who knows? I’m sure in 1970 most wouldn’t have believed that Rock would be in the church either. Maybe someday other people will make "KEEP CALM: God Gave Plural Marriage to Us" memes. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter when or if it happens - we need to rely on Him, find our own place in His Body, and do His bidding, and the rest is up to Him.
But we do need to make sure the fruit in our lives bears scrutiny. I’m convinced that God will not bring plural marriage into a larger view if families participating are largely in chaos. We claim (well, at least I do) that the reason for plural marriage is to show the family as a central building block of the Church, providing for those who would go without Godly headship, and fathers, otherwise. Let us live like we mean that - and remember that it is only God who can judge us, and tremble in that knowledge.
Nathan Bender
BiblicalFamilies.org, Director
