Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 19, 1993 TAG: 9301190176
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
EXPERTS ON BIBLE SAY 1 WIFE'S THE LIMIT
A HENRY COUNTY MINISTER advocating polygamy for his congregation is bucking centuries of religious practice.
When the subject of polygamy comes up over coffee or beer, it's usually in the context of a joke.
But when Elwood Gallimore decided the Bible still sanctions the practice and took a second wife, many people - including law-enforcement officers - didn't find it very funny.
Although one may occasionally read about an individual defending polygamy, the practice is rare in the United States, said Timothy Webber, an expert in American church history at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
The Gallimore case sounds "quite unusual . . . far-fetched," Webber said after hearing about it Monday.
Such practices tend to happen in congregations headed by "a charismatic leader who is making up his own rules," Webber said. Those leaders usually "take on a prophetic mantle to justify their untraditional behavior."
Gallimore heads the Evangelistic Tabernacle congregation in Henry County and has acknowledged taking a 16-year-old Floyd County girl as his second wife. There was no legal or religious ceremony, just a verbal acknowledgment from both partners that they wanted to be married.
Consequently, they are married "in God's eyes," Gallimore said.
Earlier this month, law-enforcement officers seized 426 videotapes from a house on the church grounds, looking for evidence that Gallimore had performed marriages without a license. Gallimore said the videotapes are nothing more than recordings of his sermons.
The Floyd County prosecutor has said he will decide by today whether to press charges against Gallimore.
Gallimore, 44, has been married to another woman for 26 years and has a 25-year-old son. One other member of his congregation also has two wives, he said.
Gallimore claims to follow the teachings of William Marrion Branham of Indiana.
Before he died in 1965, Branham preached a sermon called "Marriage and Divorce." He soon regretted it.
"He said they thoroughly misunderstood the message," said the Rev. Willard Collins, a friend of Branham's and now the minister at Branham Tabernacle in Jeffersonville, Ind. "He said if he had it to do over, he would not have preached it publicly."
In the 1965 sermon, Branham mentioned the same ancient Hebrew kings, David and Solomon, that Gallimore mentions to justify polygamy. David is reported to have had 500 wives and Solomon 1,000 wives and concubines.
"That's true, that Scripture," Collins said. "That's what Brother Branham was expounding on, but he said, `That's not for today.'"
Collins was distraught to hear that Gallimore was preaching polygamy and claiming to follow Branham's teachings.
Multiple marriages were sanctioned in ancient Judaism for two primary reasons, said Rabbi Frank Muller of Roanoke's Temple Emanuel congregation. One was biological: to enable the Hebrews to produce as many children as possible. The other was social: married women were protected and provided for by their husbands.
The practice was accepted by both biblical and, later, rabbinic laws until the 12th century, he said, although monogamy generally has been the norm.
The practice of polygamy had virtually died out among Jews by the time of Jesus, said Roanoke College religion professor C. Freeman Sleeper.
Although some New Testament Scriptures - which advocate that "bishops" and "elders" be the "husband of one wife" - may obliquely acknowledge the existence of polygamy, none endorse it, Sleeper said.
Polygamy is allowed in Islam, but the number of wives is limited to four and monogamy is the norm today.
In the United States, the "only place where significant numbers of people practice polygamy is in Utah," seminary professor Webber said, where some traditionalist Mormon men continue to take more than one wife.
Polygamy was widely practiced among Mormons in the denomination's early history but was outlawed just before the Utah territory was granted statehood. Modern Mormons who continue the practice are usually excommunicated.
Some 19th century groups also practiced communal marriages in the expectation that the end of the world was near and that "new marriage patterns would apply" in the hereafter, Webber said.
"American religion is quite tolerant" except when forms of marriage or sexual mores are concerned, Webber said.
Many religious groups in the United States are grappling with issues of clergy sexual abuse, in which pastors are alleged to have misused their influence to obtain sexual favors from parishioners - usually women who are in counseling of some kind.
The situation in the Henry County church is different, he said, because the girl involved, her parents and the congregation all seem to have given their consent to the arrangement.
Collins, the minister in Jeffersonville, Ind., said there is no way to control other churches that say they follow Branham but twist his teachings.
"I assume a lot of them do differ in many ways," he said, "but this guy just went out on a limb."
Staff writer Lon Wagner contributed to this story.