Polyamory and Christianity

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Interesting that none of the others got stoned either, despite their also being seemingly guilty of sin. Also interesting that Leviticus only mentions other men's wives and virgins. I wonder if they were allowed to sleep with divorced women and prostitutes, of which I have heard there were many. No, there were probably expected to marry the women they slept with and not divorce them without good cause.
 
Phew this seems to finally be clearing for me. Thanks to everyone who has posted something. It does help me to have the biblical stuff interpreted in such sensible ways. Serialmonogamist your little post seemed to hit just the right note at just the right time. Then I went to an AA meeting last night - step 6 Being willing to have God remove all our character defects. It seems the more I go into the 12 step programme the more it opens up. I thought this step was primarily about prayer but it's about being aware of my defects and then changing my thinking.

I said my difficulties could have been about ego and I think they are. I think pride is my greatest character defect and my ego will find any way it can to feed it. Having a partner who also loves someone else attacks my pride at a very deep level.

I don't go to church very often because it can set me off into floods of tears. I've always found it really puzzling that there are all these happy, joyful people around me singing about the wonders of the Lord and I seem get such a different experience of it. A hard work experience. It makes me feel like I must be one of the worst of the worst. Maybe that's why AA works for me, no happy clappers just people who realise they have issues and are willing to look at the really hard things about themselves.
You condemn yourself unfairly. The mere fact that you are so concerned about being a good person testifies to your goodness. Blasphemy of the holy spirit was the only true sin, according to Jesus, if that means anything to you. To me it means that people who are sincerely in pursuit of goodness are forgivable where anything else is concerned. It took me a long time to realize that the reason people are singing and praising the Lord in church is because they are just enjoying the feeling that they are loved and forgiven. Some (maybe many) are on an ego trip of being "holier than thou" but many accept that they are sinners and are just happy to be forgiven and moving in the direction of love and forgiveness. AA is also good. In my experience, there is good to find in many different ideologies. None is perfect because they're all created by imperfect humans, but that doesn't mean you can't take the good and attempt to discern what is bad and leave that behind.
 
Oneida Communal Thinking had it mostly correct. You can not love one person more than another and be more intimate, if you are out to perfect agape....Universal Love for everyone. So why are so called "Christ like ones" , not more into perfecting love which encompasses sexuality. When the Spirit lines up sex can not be better. Lining up the Spirit is the hard part! When sexuality and spirituality are lived as ONE, ecotopia will surely be the result! We are a commune in NH. attempting to do just that. We are a long way from perfection. We do take the early Book of Acts seriously. pneuma
 
Interesting that none of the others got stoned either, despite their also being seemingly guilty of sin. Also interesting that Leviticus only mentions other men's wives and virgins. I wonder if they were allowed to sleep with divorced women and prostitutes, of which I have heard there were many. No, there were probably expected to marry the women they slept with and not divorce them without good cause.

Actually, men weren't required to marry the women they screwed. Hence, concubines... OK? Kept around for sex and not much more...

And screw a divorced or widowed woman, "or" a prostitute? In ancient Israel/Judah, a divorced woman had no power or economic stability. So, a divorced woman would often turn to prostitution to put food on the table for herself and her children. (In this post I will not address holy women, qudesha, aka temple prostitutes, representatives of Asherah.) A widow was required to marry her dead husband's brother, and have more children for the lineage.
 
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