For the first two decades of our marriage we were all exclusively Europeans. In the third decade we have 'trans-continentalised' and now have wives from three continents so our experience of cultures in a polygamous context has diversified and reblended. But even before this we already knew America and Americans very well thanks to much ministerial work there. I myself have visited the States three times. But most of my American contact has undoubtedly been on the Internet where Americans very much dominate the landscape.
And Americans dominate the Evangelical and Messianic Christian patriatrchal polygyny movement today as well. However, it should be remembered that just as Christianity began in the Old World and spread abroad, so too did Christian/Messianic polygyny. This is not to say that one or the other is superior, since we are all working together cooperateively to get this message abroad - with the exception of one or two who wish to have a type of papal hegemony over the Movement - but to point out the greatest experience in this lifestyle is to be found here in Europe. As mentioned in other articles on this site, polygamists were active and actually built a polygamous city in Germany (Münster) before America even existed! But because of tradition, we have also been the most hampered here in Europe, which is why this doctrine and practice has spread much faster in the New World. Our claim - if such need even be made - is to maturity in experience and being the pathfinders.
Europe, like the USA and Canada, has the same type of denominational divides, the main difference being the presence of State Churches who dominate the religious landscape. Another difference is in those who practice polygyny - in the USA, the majority are fundamentalist Mormons whereas in Europe they are usually Moslem emmigrés from Asia and Africa. Though nobody knows exactly how many polygamists there are, I would hazzard a guess that there are as many as 300,000 (35,000 fundamentalist Mormon) now in North America and some 700,000 (almost all Moslem) in Europe. The vast majority of polygamists live, as we know, in Asia and Africa. The number of Christians living polygamy is still very small in Europe and America. The Asian and African polygamist Christians/Messianics far outstrip us.
What are the differences between European and American polygynists practically? Probably very little depending on what denominational background you come out of. The main differences are in culture. Europe, you must remember, is made of many different nations with different outlooks in spite of the fact that we have become very Americanised in the last half century. There are still big differences between Western and Eastern Europe though the gap is narrowing.
Europe has generally experienced far more family decay than the United States and may partly account, because of its family-centredness, for polygyny's greater popularity in the USA. On the other hand, there are major differences in the aproach to the family in northern compared with southern Europe and eastern Europe. The south is more conservative, family life is stronger, and old traditions (like monogamy-only) die harder. In some ways it is regrettable that polygyny has only been able to flourish in the wake of the moral disintegration of Protestant north Europe and the USA for where it could be most successful in terms of family cohesion is the south and east. But it may very well be that for the present polygyny is needed more in Northern Europe and America precisely because the family needs saving there more than it does in the South.
As the Global Village becomes more established during the 21st century so the North-South differences will probably become more eroded. One thing that does concern me about the West is the absence of the kind of moral discipline which is the ace card of Asia. If we are to see polygyny flourish in the world then there needs to be a marriage of Asian discipline with Western love. This is something Yahweh revealed to me many, many years ago.
One country where I predict a sudden growth of polygyny in the future is the United Kingdom of Great Britain. This is not because of any spiritual merit on behalf of the British people but the very opposite. Britain has witnessed such moral decay and destruction of the family in the last decade that it far outstripped all my worst expectations and predictions. Two decades ago I was saying that the UK was 10 years behind the USA in violence and the malaise of immorality but today there can be no doubt that the UK has overtaken the USA completely. Now you're safer in the USA. With perhaps the greatest per capita underclass in the West, particularly as mass immigration drowns a country already short of living space, the UK will need polygyny like no other European nation. Though I am less than happy about the reasons for this necessity, I believe it is all a part of divine providence to ensure that Ephraim returns to his Hebrew roots. The institution of Christian polygyny is, I have absolutely no doubt, a part of the divine plan. As head of the tribal confederacy of Northern Israel, Ephraim must take the lead in the reinstitution of this principle which she has forgotten now for nearly 3,000 years.
I expect to see the introduction of polygyny in a major way in other North European countries in what remains of this century before the Second Coming, mostly in the the UK (Ephraim), Netherlands (Zebulun), Denmark (Dan), Norway (Benjamin), Sweden (Napthali), Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and northern Germany (East Manasseh), with Switzerland and other areas possibly seeing a rise too. We have a prophecy that part of northern France will see this also.
It will be interesting to see how Christian/Messianic polygyny develops in Europe and North America, respectively, over the next decade. I suspect developments will run very much in parallel with little difference between them and with polygyny-accepting churches and messianic assemblies springing up as they are now already beginning to do. I doubt polygyny will ever be accepted by the main protestant denominations but that we will see increasing numbers of independent churches/assemblies embracing the principle, networking and forming associations for moral support. We will see.
Author: SBSK
