Dr. Mike Gatogo Mwangi, one of my Facebook friends, has reignited a public debate over polygamy and polygamous marriages.

I'd like to rein in this debate from a nonpartisan standpoint, based on tradition, culture, and religion.

First and foremost. What exactly is a wife? In relation to her Spouse, a wife is a married woman. Connotations for wife include spouse, companion, partner, bride, other half, better half, and so on. According to this understanding, a woman is only classified as a wife, mate, bride, better half, partner, and other half IN Connection TO HER SPOUSE. When a woman married to a guy does not relate to him in the way that he is defined, the identification of a wife becomes uncertain. This term makes no mention of dowry, wedding, children, or property.

Marriages are partnerships between agreed parties that are recognized by communities and cultures if and only if the partners obey the norms, laws, and requirements established by and observed by members of those communities or societies.

As a result, any and all women who engage to a man as spouses, mates, brides, partners, or halves can also become wives provided the spouse fulfills the unique and specified traditional, societal, or religious criteria for acknowledgment in the culture or community in which they reside. Fulfilling these prerequisites is what separates wives from all other women who have a relationship with a man in the manner stated.  

The phrase SPOUSE (sex Partner in the hOUSE) has a sexual meaning that applies to both men and women, and its relevance cannot be overstated. Spouse is only inferred when an intimate sexual relationship is engaged in. That is why our husbands are not our work partners, classmates, colleagues, acquaintances, other brides, or relatives as half brothers and half sisters.

Polygamy occurs when a guy marries more than one woman in accordance with the conditions established in the culture of the WOMAN. Men marry women as their wives once the woman's family approves the man's requirements as fitting in their tradition. There are three types of weddings: conventional customary marriages, religious marriages, and statutory marriages.

While most African, Jewish, and other traditions and civilizations acknowledge and allow polygamy, bigamy, in which one woman marries and becomes a husband to more than one man at the same time, is disdained and denounced in all cultures. Bigamy is also referred to as prostitution (where there is proof of money or other advantages or payback to the woman once sex is entrenched, or sex is a contractual activity for partial or full gain to one partner). Where there is no indication of gain, adultery and adultery are founded.

Most African leaders, chiefs, monarchs, presidents, and Jewish rulers were polygamous, yet they received no conventional, cultural, or religious criticism.

Many wives, children, and vast property were regarded evidence of affluence and leadership ability in African polygamy. Polygamous men were well-respected members of society. They are still revered in many rituals and civilizations. Swaziland's King Mswati, former South African President Jacob Zuma, and numerous Kenyan and African communities are examples.

In Jewish culture, all Kings and Men of God had spouses as well as other women with whom they had offspring. King David, the son of Jesse, annointed by God to be king, helped by God to kill Goliath, the gigantic Phillistine, praised God and danced to Him until his clothes tore, had many wives, had a child with Uria's wife, and had a young beautiful virgin girl brought to him in his old age to warm him in his final days. God did not condemn David or the girl who gladly and obediently lay with David without knowing whether the king would have sex with her or not. King David's son from Bethsheba, as well as his heir,

King Solomon, who sought God for knowledge and received wisdom, wealth, and all other things in advance, married seven hundred women and had children with three hundred others. King Solomon's polygamous and amorous temperament was not condemned by God or Man.

Jews used to stone prostitutes and unfaithful women to death because of their historic antipathy for women. In one instance, a group of Jewish men carrying stones led an adulterous woman before Jesus Christ and stated, " "Aster, this lady was arrested for adultery (having sex with a guy who is not her husband or married to her)* Our tradition calls for her to be stoned to death! What are your thoughts, master?"

Jesus bent his face, wrote on the ground, then looked up to the men and said:

 "Let any of you who has no sin cast the first stone!"

With their faces cast down, the men , starting with the elders, dropped their stones and left the woman with Jesus. None dared hurl a stone at her.

 Then Jesus asked the woman:

' Is any of those who condemned you here?'

 The woman looked around and said:

"No! No one?"

Jesus, the master told the adulterous woman: " Neither DO I CONDEMN YOU!! Go, and sin no more ".

Rather than condemning adultery or the adulterous lady, Jesus challenged us to SIN NO MORE through her.

What would have occurred if the lady had not been apprehended and brought to Jesus for His opinion? What occurred, and what happens to all the other individuals who have sinned and continue to sin but have not been taken before Jesus for His opinion!?

They were and continue to be condemned by sinful men, but Jesus, the teacher upon whose teachings Christian faith is founded, would not condemn them!

Biased The Christian condemnation of polygamy, prostitution, and adultery is founded on the teachings of Apostel Paul, who entered the Christian ministry thousands of years after Jesus, the master, teacher, son of God, and Lord himself, presented his view.

Those who adopt selective christianity doctrines from Apostle Paul solemnize weddings between divorced partners when their former spouses are still living, despite the fact that Paul stated that no divorced Christian should enter into holy matrimony while their husbands are still alive. In their twisted evangelism, the term death is changed with the word divorce in the marital vow 'till death do us part' because it sounds more appealing to their followers than "no more marriage unless he or she is dead”.

Whose teachings should Christian faithfuls follow, between the Lord Himself and worldly individuals who, like Paul the apostel, adhere to the title 'Men of God'?

Let those without sin hurl the first stone at me.

* My interpretation and inference.

Sincerely, Peter N.Ndichu.