More backwards vindication for poly families from conservatives.

In my last post, I mentioned that N.T. Wright dismissed same-sex marriage by appealing to polyamory: "There is polyandry as well as polygamy in some societies in some parts of history, but it’s always been male plus female."

Apparently, this argument may be kind of A Thing. Edward Raby, a Michigan pastor who describes himself as a "Christian Conservative Libertarian," has an essay chastising another conservative for ranting about polyamory as a sexual sin:

If you are going to call something sinful it better be clearly defined that way by the Bible itself.  To lump Polyamory and Polygamy in the same ‘sinful’ pile is not supported Biblically...polygamy is not only never condemned by the Bible it is practiced by some of the Bible’s more glamorized heroes from Abraham and Jacob to David and Solomon.  When Jesus talks about marriage and harkens us back to Adam and Eve it should be pointed out that the issue is divorce, he actually does not dismiss polygamy with his words or say it is wrong. He simply is saying there is a higher way that should be strived for...The list...of sexual sins is only valid if the Bible lists them all as sexual sins – adultery, fornication, homosexuality and bestiality are listed in the Bible...Make a note.  Polyamory is not listed and you need to point out that the reason that parts of this are sinful are the homosexual elements.

Basically, as long as someone has only heterosexual partners and marries all of them, there's no Biblical barrier to having two partners or a dozen, according to Raby. Anyone who argues otherwise is "loaded with emotion, lacking in Biblical understanding and quite frankly self-righteous."

I'm honestly not sure what's going on here. Are there conservatives who have decided the slippery slope argument obviously isn't working, so they'll just push gay couples down to the bottom of the hill, even if it makes mult-adult families look better in the process? Have they decided the culture wars are essentially lost, so they better stop antagonizing us wayward indulgers and reclaim separation of church and state as a tactical defense? Or is this actually representative of a kind of intellectual honesty working its way through, here and there?

Whatever it is, it's a positive development. Not the homophobia part--that's still vile. But it always was. It's not like conservative re-evaluation or resignation with regards to poly families can make homophobia worse.