Most societies throughout history have allowed polygamy, and it’s almost always taken the form of one man marrying multiple wives. Christianity played a key role in ending this practice in the West, but attitudes didn’t change for religious reasons alone. There are also powerful practical reasons that limiting people to one spouse is beneficial to societies overall. In his keynote at our 2025 Reconcile & Reform Conference, Matthew Vines discussed the work of Harvard anthropologist Joseph Henrich

How a Bible Error Changed History and Turned Gays Into Pariahs