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You already knew the Bible can be used to justify anything, but here’s an example you don’t see every day: A pastor announced this week that he had two wives because the idea that you should be limited to just one is “unbiblical.”
Israel Ford, the founder/pastor/prophet of LifeWorks Church in Wickliffe, Ohio, said during a service that Pastor Lydia Ford wasn’t the only woman in his life. In fact, for the past three years, he had also been married to Shakayla Talley (Ford), and they were finally ready to go public about their arrangement.
I would like to introduce to the world, my second wife, Shakayla Ford!!!
As a nation we have been taught that a man should have one wife only. This is unbiblical. I encourage you to watch today’s sermon in its entirety (uploaded later this week). I understand that this is an unpopular truth that we have gotten away from and many Pastors will not preach. I have no plans to choose pleasing man over what God has revealed. People may not accept this and choose to disconnect, and that is ok! This life will be over soon and we can all laugh about it in Heaven.
Until then, God bless.
Very convenient to ascribe his desire to be with multiple women to the Bible. There was no mention of the verses that say a church leader should be “faithful to his wife,” singular. There was no mention of how this could all get very complicated very quickly. (TWO wives? In THIS economy?!) There was no mention of how Shakayla was a young adult when she first came into contact with the couple and seemed to go from a “spiritual daughter” to a “spiritual wife.”
Nevertheless, the audience applauded for the Holy Trinity.
(Ironically, in the video, there are TV screens behind them that read “Kingdom Marriage” and the image shows one man and one woman.)
In that video clip, Wife Lydia explains that they are all in a “polygynous” marriage (where a man has more than one wife) before introducing the congregation to someone they’re already familiar with: Her “sister in marriage,” Wife Shakayla.
“Cat’s out the bag. Elephant’s in the room,” she joked.
“I have not been slighted not one bit, and I have gained so much. I mean, I have gained so much, and I’ve learned so much from pastor. I mean, he’s poured so much into me, into our family, and we are a family. We don’t walk around like individuals fighting, beefing, but it is a family dynamic in the image of what God wants to put in the Earth,” [Wife Shakayla] insisted.
Shakayla added that there were already members of the congregation who knew about this arrangement. But she urged everyone else to be considerate because their church practiced openness and tolerance in the name of Jesus.
“There’s been people who’ve been kicked out of churches because they live this life and they don’t have anywhere to worship, they don’t have anywhere to be vulnerable, they don’t have anywhere to go and pray and talk to God because people will shun them … but God’s word is real. God’s word is true, we are a strong family,” Shakayla Ford said.
To be clear, she is, at most, a symbolic wife. Ohio law limits legal marriage to one person. They could always call this an open marriage or polyamory, but they’re trying to justify what they’re doing to a Christian audience—and pretend this isn’t merely sexual—by claiming it’s biblical.
In a follow-up interview, the threesome made clear the women are straight; they just love Israel so damn much. Israel also argued that more people should follow his lead, and that the Catholic Church is a perfect example of what happens when you don’t.
… There’s so many people who are living a polygamous life, but they’re just doing it the wrong way. And they’re doing it behind closed doors. Or they’re just watching porn. Or they’re going to… they’re doing it as a coward! And they don’t want to do it, like, you know, honorable.
And so I just know, I needed to step out because there’s so many men of God who… they’re making so many big mistakes because of, like, you said before, I believe that the the priests, you know, in the Catholic church, a lot of that stuff happened because they’re not allowed… to have a wife… And so they do other stuff, you know, to… satisfy it.
And so, I believe that when pastors and other men of God, when they know that this can be done—you can still serve the Lord, you can still love the Lord, speak in tongues, pray, do all of that—and then… you still can be holy. And I know people think, “Oh, it’s an abomination.”
It’s like, “Please show me one scripture where it says that.”
And so I thought I had to come out, and I had to share, because when the Lord tells me something, I move on what He says.
Apparently, the only way to avoid sexually abusing little children is to get yourself multiple wives to satisfy your urges. Who knew.
(And not surprisingly, commenters online pointed to multiple Bible verses condemning polygamy.)
But this story has gotten even more twisted than the headlines would suggest. That’s because even if this triad is comfortable going public about their arrangement, there are a number of family members who have concerns.
That includes the daughter of Lydia (Wife #1), who posted about how her mother became a different person—for the worse—after meeting Israel years ago. Kourtney Jones also alleged that, when she was 12, Israel “started to show sexual interest in me.”
It got worse. She was only 15, she said, “the first time he attempted to rape me… The abuse continued until I was 17.” Her mother didn’t believe her when she finally confessed what happened years later—in fact, she blamed her own daughter for coming on to him—and they haven’t spoken in six years.
The triad has not yet publicly commented on those allegations.
Nor did they mention the fact that, in 2018, Israel Ford struck his stepdaughter with a belt and was later charged with endangering children and committing domestic violence. Those convictions were upheld by a federal appeals court in 2020. He was sentenced to 120 days in jail, though it’s unclear how much time he actually served.
I don’t personally care about how these people live their lives when it comes to their marriage(s). But let’s not pretend it’s biblical. These people did what religious leaders always do when they want to do something the Bible clearly rejects: They just claimed there was religious justification for it. It’s the same reason prosperity gospel preachers can say God wants them to be rich. It’s the same reason white evangelical pastors use when they urge people to vote for wildly corrupt Republican candidates. They don't care about the Bible. They just want to use the Bible to defend things that are utterly indefensible.
When you say God Wants This, anyone who objects can be automatically discredited as a heretic.
But sometimes, people like Israel Ford can go too far. What they want everyone to accept is so far beyond the pale, even devout believers realize this is just a convenient twisting of Scripture. And maybe that’s what it takes to get them to realize the whole institution is a sham.
You can get the Bible to say just about anything you want it to say and therein lies the problem. Christianity is the most factionalized religion on the planet. Nothing else even comes close. Thousands of Christian denominations all claiming to be right and more often than not, condemning those they disagree with to eternal damnation.
You know, polyamory isn't necessarily a problem. No need to come up with religious justifications
𝐴𝑝𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑣𝑜𝑖𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑥𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓 𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑓𝑦 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑢𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑠. 𝑊ℎ𝑜 𝑘𝑛𝑒𝑤.
Oh yeah. It's because they're predators.