America spent the last decade insisting that redefining marriage to include same-sex couples would never open the door to anything else. Opponents were dismissed as hysterical, warned that slippery slopes weren’t real. But marriage did not stop evolving at “two people.” A new frontier is forming — not directly from the LGBTQ movement, but from two radically different cultural currents now converging on the same legal question.
On one side is a revival of biblical polygyny, championed by figures such as Missouri pastor Rich Tidwell and author and cultural commentator Rob Kowalski. On the other is Gen Z’s normalization of polyamory, open relationships, and multi-partner domestic partnerships.
The two movements share almost no cultural DNA. But they share one legal pressure point: America’s 19th-century bigamy and polygamy laws, and the longstanding assumption that marriage must involve only two adults. Beneath both movements lies an even deeper force — the West’s accelerating demographic decline.
While traditionalists clutch their pearls and the manosphere warms up the popcorn, a deeper collision is forming beneath the noise. The revival of biblical polygyny and Gen Z’s rapidly growing embrace of polyamory are both pressing against marriage laws written in the 1800s. If both sides push at once, the legal structure that has confined marriage to two consenting adults may not remain intact.
While the more left-leaning, secular phenomena of polyamory, ethical non-monogamy, polycules, open relationships, and “situationships” abound, the unexpected conversation around Biblical polygyny or plural marriage has been largely undiscussed by mainstream or conservative media, beyond critique.
A Theological Revival Few Expected to Resurface
When Pastor Rich Tidwell revealed publicly that he had taken a second wife, he ignited a wave of criticism across conservative media — from denunciations on major podcasts to watchdog articles in evangelical circles. Unlike past controversies that fizzled quickly, Tidwell responded not with rhetoric but with Scripture.
In an interview with Matt Holloway, Tidwell said his position emerged from a broader attempt to reconcile modern Christian practice with biblical sexual ethics.
For Tidwell, the issue begins with jurisdiction. “Marriage is between the individuals and God rather than the individuals and Caesar,” Tidwell told Holloway. “I spiritually do not feel compelled to get a license — even if I was monogamous.”
Tidwell frames marriage as a covenantal act outside the state’s authority, drawing on Old Testament law and early church practice. He said that when he began reexamining Scripture, plural marriage was not the starting point.