J: I think we are going to disagree on this. There are multiple points in the Old Testament were intimate love is shared equally by more than two people. I see love as the thrust of scripture. Throughout the scriptures, love being confined to a couple and only shared within that couple is not the normative construct. In the Old Testament, you have all of these plural relationships. In the New Testament, we are encouraged to not get married at all. Despite what evangelicals and fundamentalists would have us to believe, marriage and family is not the chief end of the scriptures at all.
J: There is no question that the way that polyamory was practiced in the Old Testament is problematic. When Jesus comes and shows us a new way of being, I have to wonder if that doesn’t open the world up to new and equal ways of sharing love. On some level, I think the disciples and Jesus were involved in some sort of polyamorous relationship. Love seemed to be pretty free flowing around Jesus.
J: Would you bring all three parents or four parents up during a baby dedication or any other special church service?
D: I have no desire to police the relationships of our people.
J: I am not interested in condemning love. If people have learned to love each other and not do violence to each other, I just want to let them be. I love my neighbor as my self by letting them be.
D: I don’t think that scripture gives a robust position on this topic.
J: I don’t think that scripture gives any position on this topic.
D: I don’t think there is enough evidence in scripture to outright condemn polyamory. I just don’t believe it is the ideal that scripture is pointing us towards.
J: What about celebrating it? How would you help them to feel a part of the community?
D: I would invite them into my home. I would treat them the same as I would a relationship made up of two people. I would respect whatever they wanted to be called. I would love them.
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