About This Story:
Pulaski County preacher Elwood Gallimore was arrested earlier in the year in Floyd County for polygamy after he took 16-year-old Sabrina Simpkins as his second wife. In June, all charges were dropped, including two counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor. Gallimore has appeared on the TV show “Hard Copy,” but has repeatedly turned down overtures from Geraldo Rivera. In late August, Roanoker photo-journalist Andres Alonso took his camera to visit Gallimore and his two wives at their home in Draper and in Gallimore’s church. Alonso’s goal: to hear from Gallimore the specifics of how he uses the Bible and other writings to justify polygamy.
“The Lord named all the animals before Eve was ever here,” Elwood Gallimore tells a congregation of about 100 adults and children inside the Bassett Forks Evangelistic Tabernacle. Off to the right of the preacher a fan hums quietly, but as he grips his microphone, beads of sweat form at his forehead.
“Yes, the Lord named all the animals before Eve was ever here. And so woman was not part of the original plan of God. She came later, from the rib of Adam. Am I right?
He turns pages in the Bible before him, turning to Genesis 3.
“The tree in Genesis 3 is the knowledge of good and evil, and Eve was cursed because she tasted of the tree. She was cursed in childbirth. Am I right?
“Before Ave fell there was no sex, no childbirth. And man was not to rule over her. They were co-equal, man and woman. But after Eve fell, sex was introduced. And woman was cursed in childbirth. And man was made to rule over her.
“That’s when polygamy was introduced. After the fall. Before that it was one man and one woman. One and One, co-equal. Woman threw the earth out of continuity. People won’t like this, but it’s true, it’s the word of God. She broke the covenant. She snuck across the border of God’s word, and then God made man to rule over her. God said man will be your ruler from here on out.”
The congregation murmurs assent here and there.
“Remember, she is not part of God’s original plan; she is a bi-product of man.
Every other female is in the original creation, but Eve is not. There is nothing so deceitful as a deceitful woman.”
He shifts, getting a better grip on his microphone.
“If woman stayed in the original condition, she wouldn’t have fallen. She caused it all. And after that fall, God needed a new covenant. It couldn’t be one and one no more. And she caused the world to be populated by sex, not by creation anymore.”
Gallimore warms to his task, moving in on his main point.
“It’s a rooster in yard full of hens, it’s a bull in a herd of cows, and it’s the same with man. It’s one and many. Now when we get over yonder – back to the original – there won’t be any sex, God will create all things again. That’s over yonder.”
He pauses, his point apparently made. Then he starts again, microphone at his face, his voice strong.
“Now these people who say I’m committing adultery, well the bible says a man cannot marry a woman who has been married before. If her husband dies, she cannot marry again. A woman cannot marry again and live God’s word. And if a man marries a divorced woman, he’s not living God’s word. It’s in Matthew 5, 31, and 32. Am I right?
“Jesus says a man who marries a divorced woman is an adulterer. These people who say I’m an adulterer, now they are-they are married to divorced women. And a woman is an adultress if she remarries. People don’t say till divorce do us part-they say till death do us part.
“Hallelujah”
“You show me in the Bible where it says a man cannot marry again. A man can marry again, just not to a divorced woman. She has to be a virgin.
“You show me in the Bible where it is wrong and I’ll follow that, but if not, let’s just quit talking about it. Am I right?
Originally published in the 1993 fall issue of The Roanoker
