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October 20, 2005

One faith, one baptism.... two wives...? (Part 1)

The pastor wouldn't baptise Yusuf. What should I do now?

To be fair, pastor Suley wanted to baptise Yusuf, but his denomination in Burkina Faso wouldn't baptise polygamists. They insisted that only the first wife was truly the man's wife, and that he should get rid of any subsequent ones.

No-one questioned the reality of Yusuf's faith. He used to be a religious teacher in Islam, and could actually read and understand the Quran in Arabic. He had seen how highly the Quran spoke of Isa al-Masih, ibn Mariyama - Jesus the Messiah, son of Mary, and had discussed with teachers of the "Jesus way" over a period of time. Finally, he came to pray and receive forgiveness in the name of this same Jesus the first Fulani Christian in his village.

I say finally, but that was the start of a long period of discipleship. He testified that straight away he saw changes in his life - he no longer got angry the way he used to, and his character changed as he became a calmer man. But he also had a lifetime's worldview, teaching, and practices to sift through, to see what from his previous life he should retain, and what should change. Since there was no church in his village, could he continue to pray at the mosque, but in the name of Jesus? Could he fast with everyone else during the month of Ramadan? And what about Tabaski, when the Muslims killed sheep in memory of Abraham offering up his son, who was saved by the sheep provided by God? Could he kill a sheep too, in thanks for that event's prophetic fulfilment in Christ's death? Islam and the Quran, he said, had helped him develop a love of God, and had led him towards Christ - what should he think of that now?

So many questions.

He was unfazed by being the only follower of Jesus in his village. He was the head of his household, and a hard worker, whose fields generally gave a good harvest, so he was not dependant on anyone. He read the Bible on his own, switching between Fulfulde and Arabic to check more accurately the meaning. Not everyone understood why he had decided to follow this way, and there were some who ridiculed him. But he was patient and calm, and answered when people asked him. And little by little he tried to explain the Jesus way to his two wives.

Funnily enough, he hadn't even intended to take two wives. He loved his first wife, Hawa, and they had moved some years before to another village to be near a charismatic Islamic teacher who had started a new sect. Yusuf had got disillusioned and had returned home, but Hawa had decided to stay. So, when Yusuf arrived back home, he took another wife, Salimata. Then Hawa came back too. He loved them both, and did his best to treat them both the same, even buying them the same sets of clothes.

When he could, he would walk into the nearest town on Sunday to go to church. Whenever he came, pastor Suley would try and find someone to translate everything into Fulfulde for him. And whenever he could, Suley would get his 50cc moped and head out across the fields and dunes to visit Yusuf. They had no language in common, but they developed a friendship. As Yusuf grew in faith and read his Bible, he started to ask about getting baptised. That's when Suley came to see me to explain that his leaders wouldn't allow him to baptise Yusuf unless he got rid of Salimata. What should we do?

Interestingly, the Bible doesn't actually make such a big deal of polygamy. Yes, it is clear that "one man, one wife" is God's plan for marriage from the beginning, and is the reflection of the relationship between Christ and his one bride, the church. This is the solid foundation for society, and in fact, most polygamous marriages I know have endless problems of arguments, favouritism, and manipulation.

And so, a qualification of eldership is that they have only one wife, unpholding and modelling this good basis of society. And yet, the very fact that that is a qualification for eldership indicates that there must have been other Christians in the 1st century church with more than one wife. They are nowhere told to get rid of any of their wives - they are simply disqualified from eldership. On the other hand, divorce is clearly frowned upon, and to get rid of a wife would have been to bring shame upon her, and maybe to leave her destitute.

Pastor Suley agreed with me that it wouldn't be right to tell Yusuf to send Salimata away. But he also didn't feel it was right to go against his leaders by baptising Yusuf. What then should he do...?

To be continued....

Tags: burkina faso africa polygamy burkina fulani church baptism mission

Posted by Keith at October 20, 2005 07:50 AM