The Rev. Pat Robertson can almost always be counted on to give us a humorous (if not completely incoherent) explanation of events and circumstances in the Bible. But, this discussion about polygamy is just - uh, I don't know - illogical and bewildering (cannot seem to come up with a more accurate word). Check it out.
From Right Wing Watch:
On “The 700 Club,” Pat Robertson fielded a question from a viewer who asked: “In the Old Testament men had many wives and it seems like it didn’t go against God. Where does it say in the Bible that man should have only one wife?”
Robertson responded that the viewer should consider moving to Utah or Saudi Arabia, and then insisted that the Bible condemns polygamy. However, he admitted that “somehow” many biblical figures, such as Solomon, were polygamists. Rather than explain the inconsistency, he joked that Solomon must have “taken a lot of vitamins, that poor old man,” and launched into a diatribe against gay rights.
I do believe that Solomon was criticized for going to the extreme with his obsession with women/polygamy. Perhaps some believed it approached idolatry. But, I don't believe that polygamy was ever called a sin.
Let's take King David as an example. He had numerous wives as well (although not nearly as many as Solomon). And, that doesn't even take into consideration his concubines or his affair with Jonathan (which you will never get a fundamentalist to admit there was even a remote possibility of). Not only was King David never condemned for having many wives, we also have this passage in I Kings to clarify things.
1 Kings 15:5
Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
So, this passage in the OT clearly states that the only thing that David ever did which displeased G-d was his adulterous affair with Uriah's wife, Bathsheba. Well, he also sent Uriah into battle knowing that he would be killed as well. But, there is not a word about his many wives and concubines or his affair with Jonathan in that passage.
I don't know if marriage equality will lead to the slippery slope of polygamy. But, if it does, it is difficult to see how the religious right could (accurately) claim that it is prohibited according to Holy Writ.